Old thread, but it comes up first when you search for this, so it is worth updating. Worth stating the units and the reference range whenever you post a number here. A large fraction of the apparent disagreement in these threads is two people using different units and both being right.

Happy to go further on any of that.

hans_munich said:

Order of operations matters more than any single choice here: establish a baseline, change one thing, wait long enough for it to express itself, then…

Coming at hans_munich’s question from a different direction. Start from the measurement rather than the conclusion. Almost every disagreement here turns out to be two people measuring different things and comparing the numbers anyway.

If somebody has the primary source to hand I would rather cite it than paraphrase it.

One concrete data point for the thread. One practical note: write down what you did and when, before you need it. Reconstructing a timeline from memory three months later is how people end up unable to answer the one question that would have resolved it.

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

Was that from a primary source or from a summary of one?

lucas_SP_BR said:

One practical note: write down what you did and when, before you need it.

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.