What Does Borderline Mean in a Blood Test? All You Need to Know

Have you ever checked your blood test report and found a highlighted word 'Borderline' with the result? You're probably confused about whether you should be worried about it or if it's normal.

A blood test report generally has three categories: normal, abnormal, or borderline, indicating how your body is functioning. A slightly out of range result is not exactly 'normal or abnormal', rather at a cut-off point, i,e, not in the danger zone but needs attention.

In this blog, we'll explore what borderline means in a blood test and what steps you should take next to be in a 'Normal' range.

What Does Borderline Mean in a Blood Test in Medical Terms?

In Medical terms, each marker in a blood test, such as cholesterol, blood sugar, and iron, has a particular reference range. A value slightly above or below this range is considered a borderline limit. It can not be fully categorised as ‘abnormal’, but it indicates that you must be concerned about your health and need regular monitoring to prevent its severity.

What Steps Should be taken if the Reports show borderline Results?

Viewing the word borderline on your blood test report can be disturbing, but it's important to reach the root cause calmly and practically. In fact, this border range is not a confirmed diagnosis, but an early sign that something is going wrong inside your body that needs quick attention.  Here’s what you should do if your test report indicates a threshold phase:

Talk to Your Healthcare Provider

The first crucial step to take after getting your lab results is consulting your healthcare provider. Self-interpretation is sometimes misleading. Speak to your doctor and ask what you should do next to prevent any health issues. He will consider your medical history, symptoms, lifestyle, and might suggest further health screening to understand whether the values on the edge of the normal range are significant or a temporary fluctuation.

Review Your Lifestyle

Sometimes, your lifestyle may have a short-term impact on your labs. Therefore, it's necessary to review your current lifestyle to identify if there is a triggering factor causing disturbed values. In such a case, modifying your daily routine or quitting the triggers may reverse the borderline reports. These factors may be:

• Certain medicines or supplements
• Dehydration
• Smoking or Alcohol intake
• Infection

Consider Retesting

Following some lifestyle modifications, borderline results sometimes resolve on their own. However, your doctor may recommend retesting after a few weeks or months to check if the marker returns to normal. Regular monitoring helps reverse the health concerns.

Make Lifestyle Modifications

Taking small, targeted steps towards lifestyle changes can have a large impact on improving health. Especially, if your results relate to cholesterol, blood sugar, or liver function, you can improve them by changing your daily habits, such as:

• Eating a health, well-balanced diet
• Maintaining a healthy weight
• Controlling sugar intake
• Reducing oily and processed foods
• Performing daily activities, such as walking and exercise.

Further Investigation Through Health Screening

If your doctor suspects that the slightly out-of-range results are indicating an early stage of a health condition, he might order additional tests or health screening. Most commonly, he may request imaging, comprehensive blood panels, or some specialised profiles for detailed insights.

Keep a Record 

Monitoring your health and keeping a record can help you and your doctor detect patterns, trends, or changes your body is experiencing over time. Therefore, keep a proper record of every test or scan and share it with your doctor as your medical history.

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What Does a Borderline Liver Blood Test Mean?

The borderline blood test results for the liver indicate that certain liver enzymes and proteins are outside the normal range, but not at a danger level. Changing your daily habits, restricting oily, sugary, or processed foods, avoiding alcohol, and doing regular walks can bring the levels to the ideal range.

Order a Liver Function Test Online

Should I be worried about borderline test results?

A blood test result near the threshold level doesn’t confirm a serious health problem; rather simply indicates that the results are slightly outside the normal range. Often, it may not need immediate treatment, but it demands regular monitoring and precautions.

Moreover, some temporary factors may disturb the normal levels slightly above or below the reference range. In this case, your doctor may suggest some lifestyle adjustments to bring the levels back into the healthy range and prevent serious issues from developing. 

So, don’t panic! Just be calm and follow your healthcare advisor’s instructions.

How to Improve Borderline Blood Test Results? Practical Tips to Reverse Blood Test Results

Blood test results close to the cut-off range can have enough margin to revert to normal with regular health monitoring and care. However, some serious health conditions may require medication and an intensive follow-up to reverse the changes. Here are some important tips you must follow to manage your well-being and live a healthy life:

• Avoid a sedentary lifestyle. Stay physically active with walking and moderate exercise. Add cycling, swimming, or yoga to your routine.
• Maintaining an ideal weight, even a small reduction in body fat, can help keep cholesterol, sugar, and blood pressure in an ideal range.
• Stay hydrated by drinking at least 8-10 glasses of water.
• Limit alcohol consumption and quick smoking to protect your liver health and keep triglycerides in check.
• Manage stress with meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises. 
• Get at least 7-8 hours of quality sleep to help your body repair and regulate important metabolic processes.
• Follow any medical advice and take medicine and supplements if recommended.
• Schedule further investigation and follow-up blood tests to track your health status.

Should I Repeat a Blood Test if Results are Not in the Normal Range?

With the growing global hematology testing market, at around 4.5 billion US dollars in 2018 to reach around 8.2 billion by 2029, it is clear that blood testing is becoming a vital part of preventive healthcare. One reason is the repeated testing to ensure accuracy.

Sometimes, a temporary factor, such as an unhealthy diet, dehydration, or an ongoing infection, may give a wrong result. Repeating a blood test after a few weeks or months helps your doctor to identify if the borderline range is a progression towards a serious health issue or a short-term health issue.

Also Read: Blood Testing Cost UK

Conclusion

A borderline blood test report doesn’t need to be a panic, but it demands attention. Take it as an opportunity to manage your health condition and be proactive with regular health checks. If you’re unsure which checks you need, explore our full blood test list and find the relevant tests based on your health condition.