What is hemoglobin?
Hemoglobin is the main component of red blood cells. Hemoglobin (abbreviation: Hb) is a red substance made of iron and protein.
What's the function of hemoglobin?
- In the blood, it carries oxygen to the cells in the body from the lungs.
- Hemoglobin also carries carbon dioxide away from the cells to the lungs, later exhaled from the body. Carbon dioxide is a colorless and odorless gas present in small amounts in the air. It is a result of metabolism in the body. Metabolism is the chemical action in cells that release energy from nutrients or use energy to create other substances.
What are normal reference ranges for hemoglobin?
Normal hemoglobin levels differ depending on several factors, including age, sex at birth, hormonal supplementation, altitude of residence as well as presence of different hemoglobin types that impact hemoglobin turnover and affinity for oxygen binding.
Like other blood values, slightly high or low levels of hemoglobin may be normal for some people. Still, suppose you are falling too far out of the normal range. In that case, your doctor will most likely order more comprehensive testing to determine the cause.
Normal Ranges for Hemoglobin in g/dL:
Men: 14 to 18
Women: 12 to 16
Children to up 18 years of age: 11 to 13
Critical Range: <5 or >20
Additional notes:
- Elevated hemoglobin by itself is not considered a disorder, but rather a symptom of a medical condition. Therefore, treatment must target the underlying cause.
- Hemoglobin counts of endurance athletes can be as much as 30% higher than that of the average adult, which is considered normal.
Here are a few reasons why a hemoglobin test is being performed:
To check your overall health: Your doctor may test your hemoglobin as part of a complete blood count during a routine medical examination to monitor your general health and to screen for a variety of disorders, such as anemia.
To diagnose a medical condition: Your doctor may suggest a hemoglobin test if you're experiencing weakness, fatigue, shortness of breath or dizziness. These signs and symptoms may point to anemia or polycythemia vera. A hemoglobin test may help diagnose these or other medical conditions.
To monitor a medical condition: If you've been diagnosed with anemia or polycythemia vera, your doctor may use a hemoglobin test to monitor your condition and guide treatment.
Your medical lab tests hold vital information about your health. Our tools help you understand what's going on and how to take action.
$15 $5.99/first month
Cancel or upgrade anytime
Elevated hemoglobin by itself is not considered a disorder, but rather a symptom of a medical condition. Therefore, treatment must target the underlying cause.
It's important to note that hemoglobin counts of endurance athletes can be as much as 30% higher than that of the average adult, which is considered normal. Like other blood values, slightly high or low levels of hemoglobin may be normal for some people. Still, suppose you are falling too far out of the normal range. In that case, your doctor will most likely order more comprehensive testing to determine the cause.
High levels of hemoglobin are associated with increased blood thickness. Blood thickness can slow down the blood flow and oxygen transport. In some cases, blood clots can form. Blood clots increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Some specific causes of high hemoglobin might be:
- Dehydration
- Living at high altitude
- Medications such as anabolic steroids (incl. testosterone) and others.
- Smoking
- Poor lung function
- Heart problems
- Kidney Cancer
- Liver Cancer
--------------------------
Potential treatment options:
General approaches to managing high hemoglobin include staying well-hydrated to dilute blood concentration, undergoing phlebotomy to reduce blood volume, and taking prescribed medications to address the root cause, such as heart or lung diseases. In some cases, oxygen therapy might be necessary, especially for chronic lung conditions. Additionally, adopting lifestyle changes like quitting smoking, engaging in regular exercise, and following a healthy diet can be beneficial in controlling conditions that lead to elevated hemoglobin levels. Importantly, ongoing monitoring and regular health check-ups are crucial for keeping track of hemoglobin levels and ensuring overall health stability. This comprehensive approach, while general, underscores the importance of seeking personalized medical advice for effective management of high hemoglobin levels.
If your levels are slightly elevated:
To modestly lower slightly elevated hemoglobin levels, consider increasing hydration to dilute blood concentration, adjusting your diet to avoid excessive iron intake, and quitting smoking, as tobacco use can raise hemoglobin. Moderating exercise routines is also beneficial, as intense physical activity can increase hemoglobin. Managing stress through relaxation techniques can positively impact overall health, including hemoglobin levels. However, it's essential to regularly monitor these levels and follow the guidance of a healthcare professional, who can provide personalized advice based on your specific health situation. These general strategies should be considered in consultation with medical advice to ensure they are appropriate for your condition.
Anthony
Unlimited Plan Member since 2021
I have been using Healthmatters.io since 2021. I travel all over the world and use different doctors and health facilities. This site has allowed me to consolidate all my various test results over 14 years in one place. And every doctor that I show this to has been impressed. Because with any health professional I talk to, I can pull up historical results in seconds. It is invaluable. Even going back to the same doctor, they usually do not have the historical results from their facility in a graph format. That has been very helpful.
Karin
Advanced Plan Member since 2020
What fantastic service and great, easy-to-follow layouts! I love your website; it makes it so helpful to see patterns in my health data. It's truly a pleasure to use. I only wish the NHS was as organized and quick as Healthmatters.io. You've set a new standard for health tracking!
Paul
Healthmatters Pro Member since 2024
As a PRO member and medical practitioner, Healthmatters.io has been an invaluable tool for tracking my clients' data. The layout is intuitive, making it easy to monitor trends and spot patterns over time. The ability to customize reports and charts helps me present information clearly to my clients, improving communication and outcomes. It's streamlined my workflow, saving me time and providing insights at a glance. Highly recommended for any practitioner looking for a comprehensive and user-friendly solution to track patient labs!
Hemoglobin is a protein in your red blood cells. Your red blood cells carry oxygen throughout your body. If you have a condition that affects your body’s ability to make red blood cells, your hemoglobin levels may drop.
Low hemoglobin levels may be a symptom of several conditions, including different kinds of anemia and cancer.
If a hemoglobin test reveals that your hemoglobin level is lower than normal, it means you have a low red blood cell count (= anemia). Anemia can have many different causes, including vitamin deficiencies, bleeding and chronic diseases.
What are symptoms of low hemoglobin (= anemia)?
Low hemoglobin can lead to tiredness, difficulty concentrating, and when severe, even difficulty breathing, chest pain with exertion and fainting.
How is low hemoglobin treated?
Healthcare providers treat low hemoglobin by diagnosing the underlying cause. For example, if your hemoglobin levels are low, your healthcare provider may do tests that reveal you have iron-deficiency anemia. If that’s your situation, they’ll treat your anemia with supplements. They may recommend you try to follow an iron-rich diet. In most cases, treating the underlying cause of anemia will bring the hemoglobin level up.
What causes hemoglobin levels to go low?
- Your body doesn’t make enough red blood cells. Your body produces red blood cells and white blood cells in your bone marrow. Sometimes, conditions and diseases affect your bone marrow’s ability to produce or support enough red blood cells.
- Your body produces enough red blood cells, but the cells are dying faster than your body can replace them.
- You’re losing blood from injury or illness. You lose iron anytime you lose blood. Sometimes, women have low hemoglobin levels when they have their periods. You may also lose blood if you have internal bleeding, such as a bleeding ulcer.
- Your body can’t absorb iron, which affects your body’s ability to develop red blood cells.
- You’re not getting enough essential nutrients like iron and vitamins B12 and B9.
Diseases, conditions and other factors that affect red blood cell production include:
Lymphoma. Lymphoma is a term for cancers in your lymphatic system. If you have lymphoma cells in your bone marrow, those cells can crowd out red blood cells, reducing the number of red blood cells.
Leukemia. Leukemia is cancer of your blood and bone marrow. Leukemia cells in your bone marrow can limit the number of red blood cells your bone marrow produces.
Anemia. There are many kinds of anemias involving low hemoglobin levels. For example, if you have aplastic anemia, the stem cells in your bone marrow don’t create enough blood cells. In pernicious anemia, an autoimmune disorder keeps your body from absorbing vitamin B12. Without enough B12, your body produces fewer red blood cells.
Multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma causes your body to develop abnormal plasma cells that may displace red blood cells.
Myelodysplastic syndromes. This condition happens when your blood stem cells don’t become healthy blood cells.
Chronic kidney disease. Your kidneys make a hormone that signals your bone marrow to make red blood cells. Chronic kidney disease affects this process.
Antiretroviral medications. These medications treat certain viruses. Sometimes, these medications damage your bone marrow, affecting its ability to make enough red blood cells.
Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy may affect bone marrow cells, reducing the number of red blood cells your bone marrow produces.
What are risk factors for low hemoglobin?
- Older people or people who lack iron in their diets can be at risk of developing anemia.
- People who perform vigorous exercise are also at greater risk, as exertion can lead to a breakdown of red blood cells in the bloodstream.
- Someone who is menstruating or pregnant may also be at increased risk of developing anemia.
- People who have chronic health conditions, including autoimmune conditions, liver disease, thyroid disease, and inflammatory bowel disease, may have lower hemoglobin levels, which increases the chances of developing anemia.
Guiding our users for 10 years to promptly understand, track, and act on their laboratory results.
$15 $5.99/first month
Cancel your subscription at any time.
$250/once
full premium version
$45/month
track your clients’ labs
Cancel your subscription at any time.
Guiding our users for 10 years to promptly understand, track, and act on their laboratory results.
Personal plans
track personal results
Professional Plan
track multiple client's results
$15 $5.99/first month
$250/once
own it for life
$45/month
for health professionals
Complete Plan
Unlimited Plan
$15 $5.99
$250 full version
Are you a health professional?
Level up your lab report analysis with our Pro plan, built for health practitioners like you.
Health Business Account
$45/month
Cancel your subscription at any time.
Unlock additional Pro plans when you sign up.
Anthony
Unlimited Plan Member since 2021
I have been using Healthmatters.io since 2021. I travel all over the world and use different doctors and health facilities. This site has allowed me to consolidate all my various test results over 14 years in one place. And every doctor that I show this to has been impressed. Because with any health professional I talk to, I can pull up historical results in seconds. It is invaluable. Even going back to the same doctor, they usually do not have the historical results from their facility in a graph format. That has been very helpful.
Karin
Advanced Plan Member since 2020
What fantastic service and great, easy-to-follow layouts! I love your website; it makes it so helpful to see patterns in my health data. It's truly a pleasure to use. I only wish the NHS was as organized and quick as Healthmatters.io. You've set a new standard for health tracking!
Paul
Healthmatters Pro Member since 2024
As a PRO member and medical practitioner, Healthmatters.io has been an invaluable tool for tracking my clients' data. The layout is intuitive, making it easy to monitor trends and spot patterns over time. The ability to customize reports and charts helps me present information clearly to my clients, improving communication and outcomes. It's streamlined my workflow, saving me time and providing insights at a glance. Highly recommended for any practitioner looking for a comprehensive and user-friendly solution to track patient labs!
Healthmatters is a highly-personalized health dashboard.
Instead of searching for your lab results in different places or tracking them down from different providers, Healthmatters houses, organizes, and interprets them all in one central location.
With a Healthmatters account, you can dive into the details of each biomarker and gain insights into the meaning behind your medical test data, anytime, anywhere.
For our professional users, Healthmatters provides intuitive tools that not only streamline analysis but also save valuable time when delving into your client's lab report history.
Healthmatters.io personal account provides in-depth research on 4000+ biomarkers, including information and suggestions for test panels such as, but not limited to:
You can combine all test reports inside your Healthmatters account and keep them in one place. It gives you an excellent overview of all your health data. Once you retest, you can add new results and compare them.
If you are still determining whether Healthmatters support your lab results, the rule is that if you can test it, you can upload it to Healthmatters.
While we work with many popular labs, we welcome reports from lots of other places too.
It's as simple as this: if you can get a test done, you can upload it to Healthmatters and we can interpret results from any lab out there. If laboratories can analyze it, we can interpret it.
If you’re on the hunt for a specific biomarker, contact us and we'll add it to our database. Anything from blood, urine, saliva, or stool can be uploaded, understood, and tracked with your Healthmatters account.
There are two ways to add your test reports to your Healthmatters account. One option is to input the data using the data entry forms. The other method is to utilize our "Data entry service."
Our data entry forms offer an easy, fast, and free way for you to input the reports yourself. Self-entry allows you to add an unlimited number of reports at no cost. We make the self-entry process user-friendly, providing dozens of templates that pre-populate the most popular laboratory panels and offering instant feedback on entered values.
For those who prefer assistance, we offer a "Data entry service" to help you input your data. Simply attach an image or file of your lab test results, and a qualified team member from our data entry team will add the results for you.
We support various file types, including PDFs, JPGs, or Excel. This service is particularly useful if you have many reports to upload or if you're too busy to handle the data entry yourself.
Our special data entry service makes it easy to add your results to your private dashboard. Just attach an image or a file of your lab test results, and our skilled data entry team will do the work for you. It's all done by humans, ensuring that your data is entered accurately and with personal care for each client.
Depending on your account, the data entry service can be included for free or come at an additional cost of $15 per report.
For users on the Complete monthly plan, the first report is entered free of charge, and each additional report incurs a fee of $15.
Unlimited account holders enjoy the entry of ten reports without charge. Subsequent reports are subject to a $15 fee per report.
Additionally, users on the Complete plan can upgrade to a yearly subscription from the account settings. The annual subscription includes a data entry service for five reports.
The Unlimited plan is a one-time purchase for $250, and it covers your account for a lifetime with no additional payments.
For the Complete plan, the cost is $15 per month. You have the flexibility to cancel it anytime through your account settings, ensuring no further payments. To avoid charges, remember to cancel at least a day before the renewal date. Once canceled, the subscription remains active until the end of the current billing cycle.
Additionally, you can upgrade to the yearly Advanced plan from within your account. The annual cost is $79, and it comes with a data entry service for five reports.
You can always upgrade to a lifetime version with a prorated price from a monthly or yearly subscription.
Simply log in and navigate to your account settings to cancel your subscription. Scroll down to locate the 'Cancel' button at the bottom of the page. Ensure you cancel at least one day before the renewal date to prevent any charges. Once cancellation is requested, the subscription remains active until the conclusion of the current billing cycle.
Our goal has been to make your Healthmatters account as intuitive as possible.
We’ve crafted multiple ways for you to navigate your data, whether you're glancing at a single report or delving into your historical test reports.
1. Graph View:Dive into a visual journey with our biomarker graphs, showcasing over 40 data points. Combining years of results unveils trends, empowering you to make informed decisions. Our visualization tools make it a breeze to compare and understand changes over time, even if your results are from different labs. A search function and filters simplify the exploration of extensive data, allowing you to focus on what needs attention.
2. All Tests ViewExplore neatly organized reports on a timeline, highlighting crucial details like dates, critical results, and lab/panel names. Each report opens up to reveal in-depth descriptions and additional recommendations for each biomarker. The history of previous results is just a click away, and you can download a comprehensive report for deeper insights. Color-coded and user-friendly, it's designed for easy reading, understanding, and navigation.
3. Table View:For a holistic view of all biomarkers side by side, our table view is your go-to. Results are neatly displayed in a categorized and dated table, ideal for those with an extensive test history. Utilize sorting, filters, and color-coding to enhance your analysis and gain extra insights.
Yes, you can download information from your account. We can compile your labs into a CSV file. To download all your labs, you can go to Account Settings, and at the bottom of the page, you will find a link to download your information.
Yes, you can print your report. To do so, navigate to "All tests" and open the report you wish to print. You'll find a print button in the right corner of the report. Click on it, and your browser's print window will open. If you prefer to print in a bigger typeface, adjust the scale using the print window settings.
Yes, you can! We highly recommend activating Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for your account. To do so, please navigate to the "Profile and Security" section of your account, where you will find instructions for activating 2FA.
Yes, you can. When entering values for the biomarker, you will see an "Edit Range" button. Click this button, and you'll have the option to enter a custom range.
A personal account is all about keeping your own lab test results in check. It's just for you and your personal use.
The professional account is designed for health professionals who wish to track and organize their clients' laboratory results.
To learn more about Healthmatters Pro, please refer to the professional page.
At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.
Haemoglobin (g/L), Hematocrit (Female range), Hematocrit (HCT) / Packed Cell Volume (PCV), Hemoglobin, Hemoglobin (Female range), Mean Cell Volume, Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin (MCH), Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration (MCHC), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), Mean Platelet Volume (MPV), Mean RBC Iron, Mean RBC Iron Concentration, Mean RBC Volume, MXD #, MXD %, Platelet count / Platelets, Platelet Distribution Width (PDW), Platelet-large cell ratio (P-LCR), RBC (Female range), RBC Distribution Width, RDW-CV (Red Cell Distribution Width) in %, RDW-SD (Red Cell Distribution Width) in fL, Red Blood Cells (Erythrocytes / RBC), White blood cells (Leukocytes / WBC)
