Albumin is the most abundant protein in your blood, made by your liver. It keeps fluid in your blood vessels and carries calcium, hormones and medicines. The value says whether your liver is producing, whether you eat enough protein and whether you are inflamed, and it colours the results of calcium and zinc.

ALP is an enzyme that enters your blood from two places: the bile ducts of your liver and the cells that build bone. So a high value is a bile drainage that falters or bones that are busy, and gamma-GT tells which of the two; with a vitamin D deficiency your bones work harder than you think.

Creatinine is the waste product of your muscles that your kidneys filter out of your blood day and night, and the value is therefore the most common measure of how well your kidneys work. It also depends on how much muscle you have, and that makes reading it a matter of context.

The eGFR is an estimate of how much blood your kidneys filter per minute, calculated from your creatinine, your age and your sex. It is the number your kidney function is read from, and above 60 it is healthy; the trend over the years says more than one value.

Fasting glucose, on your report also written as fasting blood sugar or fasting plasma glucose, is the amount of sugar in your blood after a night without eating: the level your body falls back to once your last meal has long been processed.

CRP is the protein your liver makes within hours as soon as there is inflammation somewhere in your body, and it is the fastest and broadest gauge of it. It says that something is going on, not where or why, and a low value is the healthy state.

Eosinophils are the white blood cells of allergy and parasites. The count rises with hay fever, asthma, eczema, a reaction to a medicine or a worm infection, and it falls towards zero through cortisol and prednisone.

Lymphocytes are the white blood cells that recognise viruses, make antibodies and remember what they have seen. The count rises with a viral infection and in the recovery phase after it, and falls through cortisol: with stress, acute illness and prednisone.

Monocytes are the cleaners of your immune system: white blood cells that move into the tissue, become macrophages there and digest dead cells, bacteria and debris. The count rises in the recovery phase after an infection and with inflammation that has been running a while.

Neutrophils are the largest group of white blood cells and the first on the scene at a bacterium or a wound. The count rises with a bacterial infection, stress, exercise and smoking, and falls after a virus or through medicines.

Leukocytes are your white blood cells, the army of your immune system, and the total count says how large that army is in your blood right now. It rises with a bacterial infection, stress and smoking, and falls with a virus or through medicines.

Basophils are the rarest white blood cells, filled with histamine, and they take part in allergy and in inflammation that has been running a while. A low count is never a finding; a rise is usually mild and says something only in the pattern with the other white cells.

Haematocrit is the share of your blood that consists of red blood cells: at 0.45 almost half your blood is cells and the rest plasma. It tells the same story as haemoglobin from another angle, and it is the value that gives away soonest whether your blood is thickened.

Haemoglobin is the protein in your red blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs to your muscles and brain. The value says how much oxygen your blood can carry, and with that whether you have anaemia; why, ferritin and the cell size tell you.

MCH is the average amount of haemoglobin per red blood cell: how well each cell is filled. It almost always moves with the cell size, low in iron deficiency and high in a deficiency of B12 or folate, and it is one of the first cell values to respond when you top up iron.

MCHC is how densely the haemoglobin is packed in your red blood cells: the filling corrected for cell size. It is the slowest and most stable of the cell values, falls in an iron deficiency that has lasted a while, and a high value is more often a measurement artefact than a finding.

MCV is the average size of your red blood cells. It is the first fork in anaemia: small cells point at iron, large ones at B12, folate or alcohol, and because a red cell lasts four months, MCV is the report of the last few months, not of today.

RDW measures how much your red blood cells differ from each other in size. Normal is roughly 12.3 to 14 % for men and 12.4 to 14 % for women, where the labs overlap. A low RDW is naturally low and healthy; a high RDW is an early signal that your bone marrow has started making cells of a different size, usually through iron deficiency or a deficiency of B12 or folate.

Erythrocytes are your red blood cells, and this value counts how many circulate per litre of blood. The count does not yet say how much oxygen your blood carries, that depends on how much haemoglobin sits in each cell; together with haemoglobin and the cell size it points at the kind of anaemia.