BOOK YOUR PRIVATE BLOOD TESTING

Private Blood Testing at your convenience At Essex Private Doctors

Private Blood Testing at your convenience At Essex Private Doctors

Are you struggling with your health
or are not feeling your best? Maybe you’ve been feeling tired all the time, or are concerned you might have a thyroid problem or anaemia? Private blood testing can swiftly help identify what’s going on in your health.

Blood Tests

Blood testing can be a valuable way to gain insight into your health. We do not offer stand-alone testing, but instead, in combination with a thorough consultation. This will enable the correct testing to be selected, and then a plan of action made, based upon the results.

As well as blood tests, we also provide urine and faeces tests, swabs and smear testing.

Consultations are relaxed, strictly confidential and discreet.  Samples and swabs are sent immediately to our central London laboratory and results are available rapidly.

We also offer full sexual health screening services.

Are you struggling with feeling tired all the time?

We’re all used to feeling fatigued from time to time, after travelling on a long journey, a particularly stressful week at work, or if we’ve stayed up too late and have young children who get up early.

For some people, however, the tiredness can be persistent throughout the day, and it can really begin to hold them back.

If this is you, we can help. Book a consultation with one of our expert GPs, who can take you through an in-depth look at your health, carry out a thorough examination, and when required, blood tests.

Our test results are rapidly turned around, and then your Doctor will liaise with you about the results, what they mean, and any further action that may need to be taken.

If necessary, appropriate onward referral to specialist care can be arranged, or we can write to your NHS GP with recommendations about your care.

Looking for comprehensive, in-depth assessment of your health? Why not consider having a ‘health MOT’, with our Well Woman or Well Man health checks?

Sometimes there is a medical explanation for your tiredness, such as:

Anaemia is a deficiency in red blood cells. Sometimes it’s caused by blood loss (e.g. through heavy periods), it may be due to chronic disease (such as rheumatoid arthritis), and sometimes there may be insufficient iron in a person’s diet.  This can lead to fatigue, breathlessness, dizziness, lightheadedness, and difficulty concentrating.

Having an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) can lead to fatigue, as can having an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism).

Kidneys remove waste, toxins and excessive fluid from our blood, and they also make the hormone erythropoietin, which stimulates the production of new blood cells. Fatigue is an early warning sign of kidney disease, and it may be accompanied by puffy feet and ankles, as well as breathlessness and muscle cramps.  Blood tests can swiftly check to see if you are suffering from a kidney problem, or the anaemia it may be secondarily causing.

Fatigue is a major symptom for people suffering from liver disease, and it can significantly impact on their quality of life. Appetite loss, fluid retention, itchiness and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes) are also signs of chronic liver disease.

Undiagnosed and poorly controlled diabetes can lead to severe tiredness, but some medications used to treat type 2 diabetes (such as Metformin) can reduce Vitamin B12 levels, leading to fatigue.

Sleep apnoea is a condition that causes you to stop breathing or temporarily hold your breath whilst you are sleeping. It’s either caused by the airway being temporarily blocked, or, when the brain isn’t sending the correct signals to control your breathing. It’s more common in people who are overweight, people who have congestive heart failure, and who use opioid medications. Sleep apnoea can present as feeling exhausted after a full night’s sleep, loud snoring, brain fog, breath-holding or irregular breathing at night, and headache upon waking.

During periods of sleep apnoea, oxygen levels drop, and eventually, the low levels stimulate breathing again. Over a long period of time, this can take a toll on the body by worsening high blood pressure and increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. It can also increase your risk of developing diabetes, as well as kidney and liver disease.

Heart failure is a failure of heart to be sufficient capable of meeting the body’s circulatory demands. Breathlessness (especially at night when lying down), and shortness of breath very common in cardiac failure, and it can make exercise feel utterly exhausting.

One of the key reasons menopause can feel so fatiguing is the effect of changing hormonal levels, which can cause the brain to be wakeful at all hours of the night, and hot flushes, which can disrupt sleep.

Depression will frequently cause a phenomenon of early morning wakefulness. Around three quarters of people who are experiencing depression will also experience sleep difficulties.

It can be very difficult to switch off if you have anxiety, and the problem can be compounded by the anxiety of fearing not being able to get enough sleep.

Our lifestyle also plays a big role in how energised we feel.

Being ‘tired all the time’ isn’t normal, and yet many people dismiss it as being just a case of ‘getting older’. Sometimes there may be an underlying medical problem (such as an under-active thyroid, or diabetes) that’s causing the fatigue, but lifestyle also plays a big role.

Drinking too much alcohol in an evening may make you sufficiently tired that you will fall asleep, but then it may lead to wakefulness later into the night.

On the flip side, too much caffeine can lead to feeling both tired and wired.

Exercise is incredibly important to our wellbeing and our recovery, and it positively impacts how we sleep. Contrary to common expectations, exercise is energising if you’re feeling tired, not energy-draining, so get moving – even if you don’t initially feel like it.

Not getting enough good quality sleep leads to fatigue, and many of us fail to achieve enough regular, good-quality sleep. We know from studies that adults need at least 7 hours good-quality sleep, and there is much we can go to ensure a good night’s rest.

Our lifestyle also plays a big role in our energised we feel.

Being significantly under or over-weight will impact our energy levels.

Drinking too much alcohol in an evening may make you sufficiently tired that you will fall asleep, but then it may lead to wakefulness later into the night.

Too much caffeine can lead to feeling both tired and wired.

Exercise is incredibly important in wellbeing and our recovery, and it positively impacts how we sleep.

Not getting enough good quality sleep leads to fatigue, and many of us fail to achieve enough regular, good-quality sleep.  We know from studies that adults need at least 7 hours  good-quality sleep, and there is much we can go to ensure a good night’s rest.

Waking up tired?

If you’re feeling tired all the time, our experienced GPs can help get to the root cause. Poor sleep is often a factor, and sleep ‘hygiene’ is all about setting yourself up for a great night’s sleep, so you can awaken feeling refreshed.

  • Prioritise sleep. Try to have a consistent waking up time, regardless of whether it’s a weekday or the weekend. If you want to rise at 6am, then be in bed by 10pm.

  • Have a night routine, which could mean switching off electronic devices (such as smart phones) an hour before bed-time, having a warm bath, putting on your pyjamas, and dimming the lights.

  • Make sure the bedroom is cool and dark, and use a black out blind if necessary.

  • Try a meditation or mindfulness routine to get you in the right mindset for sleeping, and if you’re struggling to sleep after 20 minutes of being in bed, get up and do something else (such as reading in low light), and then have another go at returning to bed.

  • Getting early morning daylight exposure will assist your natural circadian rhythm, and avoid eating late at night, or caffeine after lunchtime.

If you’ve been feeling tired all the time for more than a couple of weeks, book a consultation with one of our expert GPs.

Examples of blood testing we may recommend during a consultation include:

  • Full blood count
  • Kidney function
  • Liver function
  • Cholesterol
  • Glucose and HbA1c
  • Calcium and Vitamin D
  • Vitamin B12
  • Folate and ferritin
  • Thyroid function
  • Menopause
  • PSA
  • Lp-PLA2 (PLAC) Test
  • Hepatitis B
  • Hepatitis C
  • Chicken pox immunity test
  • Measles, Mumps and Rubella immunity tests
  • Allergy tests