Blood chemistry tests can reveal a wealth of information about overall health and nutritional imbalances, but a common complaint today is how expensive blood testing can be if insurance doesn’t pay for it. It’s not uncommon to hear about the most basic blood tests costing more than $300.

To receive significant discounts with blood testing, we utilize the services of Professional Co-op, a company that has contracted with Lab Corp to offer the best prices available for all your blood testing needs. Listed below are some of blood panels that we frequently recommend through Professional Co-op:

Mini-Chem

The Mini-Chem panel is an incredible value for a basic “check up”. It includes assessment of liver and kidney function, immune system health, and red blood cell production. The panel includes the CBC/Differential and platelet count, iron, comprehensive metabolic panel, plus a lipid (cholesterol) panel.

Opti-Chem

The Opti-Chem panel contains all of the Mini-Chem blood tests plus a complete thyroid panel, magnesium test, and urinalysis. This is the panel we most commonly recommend for new patients.

Opti-Cardio

The Opti-Cardio panel contains all of the blood tests from the Opti-Chem panel plus these additional tests for measuring important cardiovascular disease risk factors:

  • HS C-reactive protein: measures cardiovascular inflammation
  • Homocysteine: measures an important risk factor for heart attack and stroke
  • Fibrinogen: measures a risk factor for blood clots
  • Vitamin D: low levels of vitamin D are associated with increased risks for cardiovascular disease.

VAP Panel

This test is a comprehensive evaluation of cholesterol that goes much deeper than the standard cholesterol blood tests of total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides. The VAP panel measures the particle size of your cholesterol. The size of the cholesterol particles in your blood may often be a more important cardiovascular risk factor than the cholesterol numbers themselves.

Small LDL cholesterol particles for example, tend to be more of a culprit for blood vessel damage than large LDL cholesterol particles.

Click here to read more about the VAP Test or give us a call at (954) 796-2611.