What do high hemoglobin levels in the blood mean? The normal?

Question

range was l2.0 - 16.0 and mine was l6.l. Any medical people

out there? I am assuming HGB is hemoglobin.

Answer 1

HgB and Hb are the abbreviations for hemoglobin, yes

Normally the HgB is 13.5-17.5 and 12.0-16.0 g/dL in males and females respectively.

As a lady, you are on the "high normal" Elevated Hb can be the result of a number of different disorders

1. Dehydration

2. Hypoxia (ie. if you are up in the mountains where the partial pressure of oxygen is relatively low, smoking, lung and cardiovascular disease where the uptake and distribution of oxygen is limited)

3. Polycythemia

4. Kidney disease

5. Carbon monoxide poisoning

6. Doping, ie. anabolic steroids, EPO injection or transfusion

7. Myeloproliferative diseases such as polycythemia vera

If you are at 16, I would take this as "high normal." This does not require any treatment at this point but continue to have your Hb checked regularly and be sure to look over the above reasons I gave you that can cause elevated Hb and if any of them apply to you, try to correct them.

Answer 2

Because  of the way they calculate "normal" ... 5% of the healthy people will be outside the limits. There are also small variations just from the test equipment. If you were tested the next day, it could be 15.9 and wouldn't be worrying.

If it were over 18 or so, that's getting into the "too high" range and it would be time to figure out what's happening.

Answer 3

Yes, HGB means hemoglobin.  Some labs use "Hb".

In the US the unit is "g/dL", whereas the rest of the world use "g/L".  16.1 g/dL = 161 g/L.

The normal range for hemoglobin depends on age, gender, among other things.  Being just slightly over the range may mean one of two things:

1. You are "normal" (as in, you don't have a problem with hemoglobin production), but your hemoglobin levels happen to be higher than roughly 97.5% of the population.

2. You were slightly dehydrated when you had the blood test done -- remember, the number is a concentration (grams per deciliter), so the less water you have in your blood, the higher the concentration will be, even if the amount of hemoglobin is normal.

3. Your high hemoglobin may mean you have a mild problem with hemoglobin overproduction.  This is much more unlikely than the previous 2 possibilities.

If your doctor is not concerned, you shouldn't be either.  Personally, I would trust a trained professional who has examined me (and has access to all my health information) over total strangers here on Yahoo Answers, but then again, that's me.

Good health.