To date, they have shown that the blood test results correlate with diagnoses made using the mental health gold standards the DSM-IV criteria and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale almost 90 percent of the time.

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But high triglycerides and low HDL the other components that are measured in a standard cholesterol blood test are a hallmark reflection of the poor diets and sedentary lifestyles that researchers say are behind the wide prevalence of obesity among both children and adults.

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The reason it typically takes two days to conduct a blood test and it can take as long as five is that once a nurse takes a blood sample, it must be sent to a central lab where the blood is cultured or amplified in order to let any infections grow and then cleaned.

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If some scientists are correct, the test may be the forerunner of what could be called the Ides of March tests, a panel of blood tests that might predict, as the onlooker foretold for Julius Caesar, when one might die but not how.

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