The figures, for anyone assembling their own picture. One habit that pays for itself: post the method alongside the number. A figure without its method cannot be checked, and an unchecked figure is how this community accumulates folklore.

Worth separating that from the lipid panel, which this thread keeps folding into the same question. They behave differently and the advice does not transfer.

Following on from jim_asheville — and this may be the naive question:

How would you tell the difference between that and the alternative explanation?

LabKate said:

One habit that pays for itself: post the method alongside the number.

I read this differently. The confidence in this thread is running ahead of the evidence, and I would rather the uncertainty were stated than smoothed over because it is unsatisfying.

LabKate said:

One habit that pays for itself: post the method alongside the number.

Fair, and it stops being fair at the extremes. The middle of the range is well understood; the ends are where the honest answer is that nobody knows.

LabKate said:

One habit that pays for itself: post the method alongside the number.

Saving this. It is the first explanation that did not require me to already understand it. Taking it to my next appointment.