Dr.NutriCornell said:PSA: get baseline labs BEFORE starting baseline bloodwork therapy.
That is right, and it stops being right at the edges. The general case is well behaved; the interesting cases in this thread are all at the boundary where the general case breaks.
lisa_labSD said:One addition: if the lab changes analytical platform between your draws, the comparison breaks and nobody tells you.
That reframing is the part I needed. Sending this to two other people who asked me the same thing last week.
Dr.NutriCornell said:PSA: get baseline labs BEFORE starting baseline bloodwork therapy.
Filing a mild objection. Mild because I might be wrong; an objection because nobody has addressed the case that does not fit. I think the framing smuggles in the conclusion. Ask it the other way round and the obvious answer reverses, which usually means the question is doing the work.
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Shop Reference StandardsOne concrete data point for the thread. For anyone reading later: the numbers in this thread are worth checking against a primary source before you act on them, including mine. Half the figures circulating in this community trace back to a secondary summary that dropped a qualifier.