Why it's worth getting your own lab testing done
Discover more from Realize Me’s Newsletter
Why it's worth getting your own lab testing done
Comprehensive blood testing can help you identify potential issues early and measure the effectiveness of your health and fitness efforts.
Most people either never get blood testing done or only do it when they do a physical with their GP. Even if they do get testing done, it’s usually limited and only looking to see if you’re sick.
We believe that it’s important for healthy people to get regular lab testing done for two reasons:
It allows you to identify any results that are well out of range early and, if necessary, investigate further with a medical professional.
It establishes a set of baseline values for you to measure progress and identify if anything has changed unexpectedly.
Measuring the effectiveness of your health optimization efforts
While some results shouldn’t change much over time, many will change if your health and fitness optimization efforts are working.
If you’re adjusting your diet in a way that should cause fewer insulin spikes, improve your cholesterol, and/or lower systemic inflammation, you should see changes in your HbA1c, lipids, and hs-CRP.
If you’re improving your lifestyle or supplementing to improve your testosterone levels, you should measure your hormones.
If you’re supplementing with vitamin D, you should be getting your levels checked to zero in on your ideal dose. For example, below, you can see how my vitamin D levels have changed as I’ve zeroed in on an optimal supplementation protocol for me:
Some of your results shouldn’t change much over time
One of the earliest indicators of something potentially “going wrong” is a sudden unexpected material change in a measure for you.
There can be significant variance in many reference ranges for lab tests, and knowing where you typically lie helps you know when things have changed in an unexpected way, indicating you should evaluate further.
As you can see, my values are pretty stable. If I suddenly saw a result of 4.3 or 5.7, while technically in the optimal range, I’d investigate that further with a medical professional.
Furthermore, if at some point in the future, you need to investigate an issue with a medical professional, being able to share your historical results and data on where you typically lie in the reference ranges, can be invaluable in helping identify causes.
Comprehensive testing doesn’t have to break the bank
At Realize Me, we offer our members blood testing from Quest Diagnostics at massively discounted prices. You can order individual tests or select one of our packages.
By way of example, our Comprehensive Male Health package costs $299 for members and includes nearly 80 markers, compare that to our most well-known competitor that charges $589 for 43 markers.
We’re currently in our beta and membership is free.
Realize Me provides advanced software for health optimization. Our members receive significant discounts on high-quality supplements and lab testing. Sign up here to join the waitlist.