New Year, New Blood Work

Lab Work to Get Before Your Insurance Deductible Renews

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I know you are being spammed with 8 million detox and cleanse emails, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet (but not sugar sweet, more like stevia sweet).

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The beginning of the year is a great time to get blood work. Blood work isn’t only for times when you are feeling “off.” It’s super important to have benchmarks over the years so that if you ever do feel like something is off-balance, we can compare your blood work to your past values.

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Here’s my personal timeline:

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Once per year:

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• CBC (complete blood count): this is the most routine blood test that shows a range of things that may be off-balance such as iron levels, infections, inflammation, etc…

• CMP (comprehensive metabolic panel): measures your sugar (glucose) level, electrolyte and fluid balance, kidney function, and liver function

• Lipid Panel: measures cholesterol numbers

• A1c: monitors your risk for diabetes

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*All of these can be requested from your primary care doctor or specialist. They will write a script and send you to a lab for testing. Insurance most likely covers all of this, but always check with your provider.

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• Micronutrient Test: I also do a micronutrient test from a lab called Vibrant America. This test measures all of your vitamins and minerals, essential fatty acids, and amino acids. This allows me to tweak my supplementation and take only what I need and nothing more.

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*This isn’t covered by insurance, in fact, you would get through myself or a functional medicine practitioner who carries this test. If you are interested in taking this test and adjusting your supplement regimen to your unique needs, email me and we will ship you a kit. The cost is $375.

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Every 3-4 months:

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• Vitamin D: Since vitamin D is so important for overall health (ahem, cold and flu season), I do this more often to make sure I’m not over or under supplementing. It’s impossible to know how much you are absorbing from the sun in the winter vs. summer. Testing is the only way to truly tweak your supplementation to ensure you are at optimal levels. You want your vitamin D levels to be between 50-75.

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*You can buy a cheap vitamin D home test kit from Everlywell and test the entire family.

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If something feels “off”:

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• Complete Thyroid Panel (TSH, T3, Reverse T3, Free T3, T4, Free T4, TPO, AntiTg antibody)

• Autoimmune Panel

• Inflammation markers (C-reactive protein and Homocysteine levels)

• DUTCH hormone testing

• Stool testing for gut issues

• Heavy metal testing

• Genetic mutation testing

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I know this is a long list, but I can help direct you to the right testing if something feels “off."

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Phew! Tillie’s show is almost over so I’ll end this here before I have a toddler crawling on me and erasing this blog. :)

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If you have any questions, let me know. Forward this to whoever needs it...you know, that friend or parent who never goes to the doctor!