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“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”— Attributed to Hippocrates🌿“Leave your drugs in the chemist's pot if you can heal the patient with food.”— Attributed to Hippocrates🌿“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”— Thomas A. Edison🌿“No illness which can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means.”— Maimonides (commonly attributed)🌿“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use; when diet is correct, medicine is of no need.”— Ayurvedic proverb🌿“Medicine and food share a common origin.”— Traditional Chinese medicine saying🌿“Food is medicine is not only an idea whose time has come; it is absolutely essential.”— Dr Dariush Mozaffarian🌿“Nature is the true healer. The physician is only nature's assistant.”— Attributed to Hippocrates🌿“All that man needs for health and healing has been provided in nature; the challenge of science is to find it.”— Attributed to Paracelsus🌿“Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.”— Leonardo da Vinci🌿“The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”— Attributed to Voltaire🌿“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”— Benjamin Franklin🌿“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise — not too little and not too much — we would have found the safest way to health.”— Attributed to Hippocrates🌿“Eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise.”— Hippocrates, On Regimen🌿“Health is created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life.”— WHO Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion🌿“The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”— Sir William Osler🌿“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being — not merely the absence of disease.”— WHO Constitution🌿“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”— Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin🌿“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”— Michael Pollan🌿“Do not eat anything your great-grandmother would not recognise as food.”— Michael Pollan🌿“Diet-related diseases produce crushing health and economic burdens.”— Dr Dariush Mozaffarian🌿“One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.”— Sir William Osler🌿“Good food is a right, not a privilege.”— Alice Waters🌿“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”— Attributed to Hippocrates🌿“Leave your drugs in the chemist's pot if you can heal the patient with food.”— Attributed to Hippocrates🌿“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”— Thomas A. Edison🌿“No illness which can be treated by diet should be treated by any other means.”— Maimonides (commonly attributed)🌿“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use; when diet is correct, medicine is of no need.”— Ayurvedic proverb🌿“Medicine and food share a common origin.”— Traditional Chinese medicine saying🌿“Food is medicine is not only an idea whose time has come; it is absolutely essential.”— Dr Dariush Mozaffarian🌿“Nature is the true healer. The physician is only nature's assistant.”— Attributed to Hippocrates🌿“All that man needs for health and healing has been provided in nature; the challenge of science is to find it.”— Attributed to Paracelsus🌿“Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.”— Leonardo da Vinci🌿“The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”— Attributed to Voltaire🌿“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”— Benjamin Franklin🌿“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise — not too little and not too much — we would have found the safest way to health.”— Attributed to Hippocrates🌿“Eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise.”— Hippocrates, On Regimen🌿“Health is created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life.”— WHO Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion🌿“The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”— Sir William Osler🌿“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being — not merely the absence of disease.”— WHO Constitution🌿“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”— Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin🌿“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”— Michael Pollan🌿“Do not eat anything your great-grandmother would not recognise as food.”— Michael Pollan🌿“Diet-related diseases produce crushing health and economic burdens.”— Dr Dariush Mozaffarian🌿“One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.”— Sir William Osler🌿“Good food is a right, not a privilege.”— Alice Waters🌿
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Reading your body

🧪 How to Read a Blood Test Report in India: Plain Guide

A routine Indian lab report is nine or ten short stories told in numbers. This guide explains what each panel measures, why reference ranges differ between labs, what the H and L flags really mean, and how to read a report in a calm, useful order before you meet your doctor.

By the Farmicine editorial team·Reviewed for claims compliance·4 min read· 30s 40s 50s 60s
In this guideWhat is on a routine Indian lab report?What do the H and L flags actually mean?Why do reference ranges differ between labs?Does fasting matter, and for which tests?In what order should you read the report?How does the Farmicine Bloodwork Reader help?When to see a doctor

Most of us open a lab PDF, scan for anything printed in bold or marked H or L, and feel either relieved or alarmed within thirty seconds. Knowing how to read a blood test report properly takes a little longer, but it changes the quality of the conversation you have with your doctor and the quality of the food choices you make afterwards. This guide walks through a routine Indian health-check report panel by panel, in plain language.

What is on a routine Indian lab report?

A standard package from an Indian lab usually bundles these panels:

  • Complete blood count (CBC): haemoglobin, red-cell size (MCV), white cells and platelets. It is the blood-building story.
  • Lipid profile: total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides in mg/dL. Many labs now add non-HDL and ratios.
  • Glucose and HbA1c: fasting glucose in mg/dL, sometimes a post-meal value, and HbA1c as a percentage that reflects roughly three months of sugar exposure.
  • Thyroid panel: TSH, often with free T4 and free T3.
  • Vitamin D (25-OH): reported in ng/mL in India; some labs use nmol/L, which is about 2.5 times larger.
  • Vitamin B12: in pg/mL, the marker vegetarians should watch most closely.
  • Ferritin: your iron stores in ng/mL, more informative than serum iron on its own.
  • Liver function (LFT): ALT (SGPT), AST (SGOT), GGT, bilirubin, albumin.
  • Kidney function (KFT): creatinine, eGFR, urea, uric acid and electrolytes.

What do the H and L flags actually mean?

An H or L simply means your value sits above or below the reference range printed by that lab. It is a comparison, not a verdict. Two things follow. First, a value slightly outside the range is often unremarkable, especially if you were unwell, dehydrated or had not fasted. Second, a value inside the range can still be worth acting on. A ferritin of 16 ng/mL may carry no flag, yet it represents nearly empty iron stores. A B12 of 230 pg/mL is "normal" on many reports, but is in the borderline band where many Indian vegetarians feel tired and foggy. Flags are where you start reading, not where you stop.

Why do reference ranges differ between labs?

Ranges come from the population and the testing method a lab uses, so two labs can print different limits for the same marker. Units differ too: vitamin D in ng/mL versus nmol/L, B12 in pg/mL versus pmol/L, glucose in mg/dL versus mmol/L. Age, sex and pregnancy shift what counts as normal. For haemoglobin, the WHO cut-offs commonly used in India are below 12 g/dL for women and below 13 g/dL for men. For vitamin D, many Indian clinicians consider below 20 ng/mL deficient and 20 to 30 insufficient. When a range looks odd, compare it with the one on last year's report and ask your doctor which cut-off they prefer.

Does fasting matter, and for which tests?

Fasting of 8 to 12 hours (water is fine) matters for glucose, insulin and the lipid profile, because triglycerides rise sharply after a meal and LDL is often calculated from them. HbA1c, TSH, vitamin D, B12, ferritin and the CBC do not need fasting. A few practical points: TSH is best drawn in the morning; high-dose biotin supplements can interfere with thyroid and vitamin D assays, so pause them for a few days if your doctor agrees; a recent cold or dental infection pushes ferritin and CRP up; and heavy exercise the day before can raise liver enzymes and creatinine.

In what order should you read the report?

  1. Check the basics. Your name, date of birth, sample date and whether you fasted. Mix-ups happen.
  2. Look for anything critical. Very high glucose, very low haemoglobin or potassium, or a creatinine far above range deserve a call to your doctor the same day, before any food planning.
  3. Read in stories, not rows. Haemoglobin, MCV, ferritin and B12 belong together. Fasting glucose, HbA1c and the triglyceride-to-HDL ratio belong together. ALT with triglycerides and waist size tells a liver story.
  4. Compare with your previous report. A trend is more informative than a single value.
  5. Write down three questions for your doctor, and the foods you plan to change.

How does the Farmicine Bloodwork Reader help?

The Bloodwork Reader accepts a PDF, photo or typed values from any Indian or international lab, recognises hundreds of test-name spellings, converts units and applies Indian reference cut-offs. It is deterministic: the same report always gets the same reading. The safety order matters. It checks critical values first, and if any result falls in an urgent band it stops, asks you to contact a doctor today and shows no supplement amounts at all. It is for adults only, and it begins with a consent step because it is a nutritional wellness review, not a medical report. Only once nothing urgent is found does it grade the nutritional markers, look for patterns such as low ferritin with low haemoglobin, and turn them into a food-first plan built around dal, greens, curd, seeds and sensible retest timing, with a separate list of findings for your doctor. Its tools do not diagnose; that conversation belongs to you and your physician.

If you want to understand the individual panels more deeply, see our plain-language guides to the CBC, the lipid profile and HbA1c and fasting glucose.

When to see a doctor

Book an appointment promptly if your report shows haemoglobin below 8 g/dL, fasting glucose above 200 mg/dL, creatinine or liver enzymes several times above range, platelets below one lakh per cumm, or any value the lab itself has marked as critical. See a doctor within a few days for any new H or L flag you cannot explain, for symptoms such as unexplained weight loss, persistent fever, breathlessness, chest pain, black stools or yellowing of the eyes, and before starting any supplement if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or on regular medicines. This article is wellness education and does not replace your doctor's care.

Related reading

Reading your body

🩸 CBC Blood Test Explained: Haemoglobin, MCV, Platelets

The complete blood count is the most ordered test in India and the least explained. This guide walks through haemoglobin, red-cell size, RDW, platelets and white cells, shows how small versus large cells point to different nutritional stories, and explains the thalassaemia trait pattern every Indian family should know about.

Reading your body

🫀 Lipid Profile Explained: LDL, HDL and Triglycerides

Your lipid profile is six numbers that describe how fat travels in your blood. This guide explains total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, non-HDL and the TG:HDL ratio, why Indian adults so often show high triglycerides with low HDL, and the food-first steps that work alongside your doctor's decisions.

Reading your body

🍚 HbA1c vs Fasting Glucose: What Your Sugar Report Means

Fasting glucose, post-meal glucose and HbA1c each tell a different part of the same sugar story. This guide explains the commonly used pre-diabetes cut-offs in plain terms, why the 4 pm energy crash matters, and the food-first and movement habits that work alongside your doctor's care.

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Frequently asked

Should I worry about every H or L flag on my report?

No. A flag means the value is outside the lab's printed range, which can happen after a meal, an illness or dehydration. Read flagged values alongside related markers and your previous report, and discuss them with your doctor.

Which blood tests need fasting in India?

Fasting glucose, insulin and the lipid profile need 8 to 12 hours without food. HbA1c, thyroid, vitamin D, B12, ferritin and the CBC do not.

Why is vitamin D in ng/mL on one report and nmol/L on another?

Different labs use different units. Multiply ng/mL by 2.5 to get nmol/L. A level of 20 ng/mL is about 50 nmol/L.

Can the Farmicine Bloodwork Reader replace a doctor's reading?

No. It is a nutritional wellness review for adults. It checks for critical values first and asks you to see a doctor when it finds one, then suggests foods and retest timing for nutritional gaps.

This guide is wellness education, not medical advice, and does not replace a consultation with your doctor. Farmicine products are food supplements that support structure and function; they are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.