How A Simple Blood Test Provides

Important Information

When your car isn’t running well, you bring it to the mechanic.

And you don’t say, “Just look at the rear tire.”

You want them to open the hood of the car and do a full diagnostic workup to find out what’s wrong.

Well, the same approach applies to your health after breast cancer.

We need to understand how your body has responded to medical treatments as well as the holistic protocols you’re using to reduce risk of recurrence.

And that’s why testing is so important!

One of the difficulties you may run into with your oncologist is when you request more testing to understand what’s really going on in your body. 

Here’s the thing…

When your doctor routinely runs your CBC (Complete Blood Count) panel as part of your visit, there is extra information in it that you can use to your advantage. 

One number to be particularly mindful of is the Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), which tells you about inflammation in your body.

You can always find your Neutrophil and Lymphocyte numbers in your CBC. 

The key here is to find their ratio – what kind of balance they reflect.

Sometimes, the “NLR” number is included in the CBC report.

But you can’t always count on that.

So if you’re curious about how to find your NLR number, here’s what you can do:

Take your Neutrophil number and divide it by your Lymphocyte number.

This will give you your “ratio”.

A value between 1 - 2 is considered “normal”.

Values higher than 3.0 and below 0.7 in adults are worthy of investigation. 

Anything above 3.0 is a red flag. 

You want to track all your numbers consistently. 

These numbers will tell you how your body is doing over time.

And if they change dramatically between reports…

You know there’s a problem to investigate. 

That’s when you can insist that your oncologist orders more tests to discover what’s happening in your body. 

This is empowerment.