Welcome to another episode of the Diabetes Digital Podcast presented by Food Heaven.

In today's episode, we're going to talk about labs. And we know that for many of you,

labs can feel so overwhelming. And especially for those who do have a chronic condition,

like diabetes or even people with pre-diabetes, labs can bring up a lot of fear,

shame, and pressure. And in our episode today, we really just want to help you be able to

read your labs without spiraling and also give you some tips for how to manage certain labs

like cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose, and if there's anything you should be asking your

provider for. So our goal today is really to help you understand what labs are commonly checked,

especially for people with diabetes, pre-diabetes, hyperlipidemia, which is high cholesterol.

And also, we are going to explain what exactly the labs are, what the ideal values are.

And hopefully you can take in this information and it'll make you feel more grounded and not spiral into, you know,

trying to make a million changes at once that are not sustainable.

Yes, I am so happy that we're talking about this because labs give you a very accurate

picture of your current health.

Of course, there's so many other things that we can look at as well, but there's nothing

like some good old lab work to really quantify what is happening in your body. In the medical system,

oftentimes weight is what's prioritized. And that's why I love using labs as an indicator

because it's way more accurate in terms of giving you a picture of what's going on with your

health than the number on the scale. Lab work can predict your risk for

certain conditions. It might tell you where your body might benefit from more support.

It can also be used to guide conversations with different specialists and providers. When we get

lab work, we use that to tailor the recommendations that we provide for nutrition. And for our patients, we actually order labs because I know sometimes people go into the doctor, and there's a lot of pushback. This is something that Jess and I have both experienced where we go to the doctor. Like, we're going to go over some labs today, and you might go to your doctor and say, hey, spoke to my dietitian and they recommended these labs and they might be like, oh, well, you don't need it.

...