People are increasingly seeking out blood work as a way to optimize their health, rather than diagnose issues.ediebloom/Getty Images
A number of new startups suggest looking at your blood for improvements in energy, mood, and even lifespan. Growing up, the only time I’d have blood work was if something was wrong. Doctors would run tests to check levels relating to negative symptoms. Blood counts to check for infections or problems with the immune symptoms. A metabolic panel to examine the kidneys. If my levels fell within a desired range, no action was taken.
But increasingly, folks looking to optimize their health are taking a new approach to blood work, seeking out the tests and reading them like tea leaves. Results aren’t just to indicate sickness or stressors. They’re supposedly a gateway into more energy, better sex and a happier, longer, life.
That’s the selling point for a number of companies offering full blood-work panels outside of regular doctor visits. Brands such as Life Labs, The Bespoke Wellness Group and Inside Tracker tout the benefits of personal analytics based on blood work. The detailed information gives you a more complete understanding of both how your body works now and how it might work better.
It’s info that comes with costs and risks. Packages including comprehensive testing, pages explaining that data, and personalized follow-up plans run about $600. While companies have privacy policies in place, handing over sensitive information is never 100-per-cent safe, as shown with the recent bankruptcy of 23andMe.
Still, blood work offers factual information about what’s going on in your body. Changes to your diet, workout and supplement routines can be shown in the results, offering empirical feedback when health matters can often feel like guesswork. Recently, I underwent a comprehensive blood-work panel from Canadian startup NiaHealth. The hope was that by checking my levels and crunching the numbers, I’d be able to make some changes.
What can your blood work tell you?
The past few months, I’ve been feeling exhausted. I’ve been having trouble completing workouts at the gym. I’m foggy during meetings, and getting up in the morning can feel like a herculean task. Nothing is wrong exactly, but things are not great. With continuing fatigue, I wanted to make sure something else wasn’t going on with my health. Because I don’t have a family doctor, blood work seemed like one of the best bets to do that.
“I encourage patients to get our blood work done on a semi-regular basis,” said Amanda Jaeger, a naturopathic doctor with Step Up Massage and Rehab.
Naturopaths are limited in what they can offer. Compared with a physician, their focus is generally around optimization rather than medical care. For Jaeger, the tests help zero in on the cause of certain problems and catch things that might not be obvious on a surface level.
“There are things that some people accept as normal − things like period cramps or fatigue − that don’t necessarily have to be that way.”
Through her clinic, Jaeger is able to make recommendations for supplementation and lifestyle changes based on numbers in the blood work. Even if folks’ biomarker levels are within “normal” ranges, that can make meaningful impacts on patient’s day to day.
“When it comes to reference ranges, there are some stark differences from the lowest to highest. … I’m trying to look for optimal functions rather than normal ranges.”
For my NiaHealth test, I chose a panel with fifty-plus biomarkers plus a testosterone add on. There was also a thirty-minute consultation with a nurse practitioner from their team to explain my results.
While a lot of startups in the blood-work space offer comprehensive biomarkers with their tests, Jaeger notes that most people can get by with less. A complete blood count, a comprehensive metabolic panel, a TSH screening for thyroid, vitamin D and inflammatory markers are cheaper tests or things that can be assigned through public health that give a great overview of what’s happening with your body. Still, accessing those tests can be difficult from a walk-in clinic or if you don’t have a primary doctor.
Can blood work results change your habits?
My blood work came in less than a week after my visit to a local clinic. During the half-hour NiaHealth consultation, a nurse practitioner pointed to borderline cholesterol levels, iron levels above average and some vitamin deficiencies. The website’s dashboard offered graphs and grades for my results that were easy to read.
Overall I was at a B+. Suggestions for my diet included trying fatty fish. Offers for exercise included breaking up my walks throughout the day and trying to jog. While I ranked a perfect score for my testosterone, my levels are on the lowest end of normal, and suboptimal, according to previous tests I’d done with InsideTracker.
The nurse practitioner with NiaHealth was kind and informative, but after walking through my levels, there was hardly time to address the fatigue that had jump-started the process. She suggested that to better understand the causes of elevated biomarkers tests would need to be done with my (non-existent) primary-care provider. Nonetheless, getting the blood work done was helpful in planning some next steps. And for some, that can be an absolute game changer.
For former bodybuilder and current fitness coach Dominic Kuza, checking blood work was key to getting lean and achieving physique goals both for himself and his clients. An out-of-pocket blood panel revealed unaddressed thyroid issues that were a major setback for his training, requiring medication and lifestyle changes to get on track. Based in America, his basic blood panel did not include testing for thyroid functions or hormones.
“Through my own blood work I’ve found things that were completely overlooked by doctors, but this was due to how basic of a panel that a physical with your doctor contains,” said Kuza.
“Blood work gives us information that allows us to see how our body is functioning internally and why someone might be having a hard time progressing in the direction they are hoping to.”
Is blood work worth the price?
For everything a blood-work panel offers, costs and potential privacy issues are important to consider when deciding whether you’d like to move forward with the work. In the case of NIA Health, it has a privacy policy that says it will not share personal information except in the case of service providers, legal compliance or the sale of the business.
There are also valid concerns that private companies offering health services weakens Canada’s universal health care and encourages a two-tier system. Not everyone has the means or desire to spend $600-plus on tests. At the moment, that limits customers to wellness and health fanatics rather than the general public. But knowing the stats on what’s happening in your body − and what those stats mean − is one way you can start taking better control of your health.
Without seeing the numbers and some general recommendations from the folks at NiaHealth, any changes would have been largely guesswork. Still, it’s a big spend for general feedback such as trying a Mediterranean diet, exercise and the value of vitamin D.
For anyone looking to get the benefits of blood work without breaking the bank, working with your doctor and requesting basic panels is still your best bet.
