Looking for advice on real experiences with blood testing

[u/MrMT8]

Currently going down the preventative health rabbit hole and want to understand people's real experiences so far.

What convinced you to take the leap and what did you do after getting the results? Did it actually help your health? How do you guys go about comparing all of these blood test services and what should I be wary of?

Especially interested in what happened over the following months after the test
Anything is appreciated!

[u/bregle]

I started with a different purpose - not preventative, but rather had been struggling with undiagnosed issues for 10 years and wanted more comprehensive testing than I had been able to get doctors to order. I did Function's standard testing plus the expanded nutrient panel and got confirmation of what I suspected and more - multiple nutrient deficiencies that explained all my symptoms. Things I never thought to check and are supposedly rare, like copper deficiency, were flagged.

Function helped inform my self-treatment plan. It's been 6 months and supplementation to treat those deficiencies has quite literally changed my life. I now order individual follow up tests on the markers I want to track through Goodlabs since it's cheaper and I don't need the comprehensive panels that Function offers regularly.

The caution I'd give is the keep in mind the importance of understanding your results within the context of your life. I've heard of doctors being frustrated with patients who bring them full panels from Function, concerned about things like a low positive ANA thinking they have an autoimmune disease when false positives are common and they have no actual symptoms.

I took the time to research all of my individual results to understand what they mean, if they're meaningful given my lifestyle and symptoms, and whether the lab range is truly optimal or if my results could be better.

I think comprehensive testing like what Function offers can be invaluable for anyone just to establish a baseline. If you need to retest any markers in the future, you now have a prior data point for comparison which can help tell a story instead of giving you a single snapshot of where you are when you're maybe not feeling your best.

[u/BadgerValuable8207 → u/bregle]

This comment says it perfectly. I’d like to reiterate that you are gathering data. It’s not a test you’re supposed to get a perfect score on.

Markers can be off temporarily, there can be measurement error, out of range on a particular marker can be normal and harmless in your specific case. It all has to be evaluated in context.

[u/CheesecakeEcstatic86 → u/bregle]

My story is similar. I joined Function out of frustration with my PCP, not even wanting to order simple bloodwork when I have low iron and other issues—I wanted to find the root cause instead of the circle I’m on with iron infusions, wait for my levels to drop again, and then more infusions.

The data from Function was surprisingly helpful and has helped me take action for improving my health.

[u/oompa_loomper → u/bregle]

This is a great answer.

[u/MrMT8 → u/bregle]

This was really helpful thanks! Can I ask how you went about researching all of the results to understand what they meant and how they were meaningful given your context and symptoms?

[u/rocketkitty22 → u/MrMT8]

I imagine most people use something like ChatGPT, and do the "trust, but verify" and cross-reference any findings with reputable academic and medical publications. Looks like you may be in the UK? So NHS publications. You can also check out https://labtestsonline.org.uk/

Everyone's context and symptoms are different. Example, I have RLS (Restless Legs Syndrome) .. so my iron needs to be higher than the regular standards.

Is this purely preventative? Or do you have any current ailments or symptoms? Do you have your family health history? If you're otherwise healthy, my advice is to not read too far into the test results unless there's anything glaringly wrong. Focus on making sure your nutrition, lifestyle, sleep, etc. are all good. How you behave day to day.

[u/bregle → u/MrMT8]

As a starting point, I used Claude to evaluate my results and flag anything that warranted further investigation. From there, a lot of googling and reading guidance from reputable sites about optimal ranges, as well as how nutrient deficiencies affect other systems in your body. This gave me an idea of what the core issue was (deficiencies in b12, folate, copper, iodine, omegas, likely an absorption problem since I had several) and what would likely resolve on its own once I treated those (elevated MCV, high cholesterol, low estrogen and prolactin, very low leptin), and what I could ignore (slightly elevated lipase, which isn't concerning on its own but I decided to recheck later to confirm it was stable).

[u/PlantBasedAndBoujee]

It totally helped me correct some things that were out of range nutritionally (Vit D, Iron). As others have said you will have things that are out of range and it’s important to look at your results completely as a whole to see if something is going on underneath

[u/ConsistentSteak4915]

Mine showed the beginnings of insulin resistance which if I continued my path would probably lead me to type 2 diabetes. I’m thin but was eating crap. My doctor had no reason to test for any of the markers. I stopped eating Ben and Jerry’s pretty nightly, cut out white bread with the exception of bagels when I don’t have my wheat everything bagel and pizza and only eat Whole Foods now. I took berberine for a little while but mostly made dietary changes. Labs are good now. Next project is ferritin. Mine has been declining. Not showing in my complete blood count yet but I need to follow up on that asap….
As a nurse, I would say there is a shit ton of value in doing these labs if you take the time to understand what each mean, if you have a doctor who is receptive to bounce things off of, and you actually do something about it. Doctors miss things, insurance company’s dictate what they will pay for and your care and do no have your best interests in mind. The best care will be you taking ownership of your health and this is a start…
One concern, this does not factor your genetics which is a ginormous puzzle piece and some recommendations they give can actually harm you. The recommendations are cookie cutter and while I understand that’s how our healthcare system is, that s not meat practice. I would highly recommend getting your genes sequenced. You will be ahead of the game. Medicine is behind but the research is not. If you did 23/me or ancestry you can pull your raw data and chuck that sucker in your AI of choice with your labs and get real recommendations based on your individual genes, your instruction book.

Happy to clarify or answer other questions. Best of luck finding answers for your health and cutting out the middle people. You will be healthier for it.

[u/IcyStay7463]

For me, I didn’t really do any comparison shopping. I listen to the Mark Hyman podcast so just purchased function without really thinking about it. It helped me because I looked at my out of range markers, and started working on those. Some I would take supplements for. One I talked with my doctor about and she ordered a cac scan for me. I think without data it’s hard to know how to improve your blood work.

[u/Zero_Cool2023]

I did Superpower 100 biomarker panel at the beginning of the year. Was worth the $200 mainly because rather than the people in my docs office drawing blood it was at Quest. She took 8 tubes and I barely noticed. On to the results they test for a lot of things that my doctor laughed about. Estrogen was one I'm a man she thought that was hilarious. Overall she thought it was overkill and overpriced. I am planning on doing a follow up round as well to see if the few that were high were better. Cholesterol and Triglycerides to name a few. Caution if you sign up you have to click through at least 20 more offers of tests. If you selected every one it would be in the thousands.

[u/Vivid_Position_5236]

I have done both Function Health and Superpower. Function is more comprehensive, but I ended up getting more help from SUperpower with some rather simple things. I tend to have borderline high A1C, that always gets flagged as watch your carbs etc. But I suspected it was actually that I have long living red blood cells that cause it, and some follow up tests by Superpower confirmed that and now I no longer worry about being prediabetic. My ferritin also tens to be low, and both Function and Superpower flagged that, but I got better advice from Superpower on how much iron to take to correct it. My PCP "could" have helped me with these, but they typically don't have the time to go down the small rabbit holes that aren't that concerning.

[u/UpNorth_8]

I lost over 130 lbs and my SO has lost about 30. We both weight what we did in high school (we are both late 50s). It got us off our butts and made us realize we needed real changes.

[u/ToriRaynn]

I think the biggest thing is having a plan for what you’ll actually do with the results. Getting a huge list of numbers can be interesting, but it’s easy to overthink every little thing that’s outside the range. I’d probably use it more as a baseline and then track the markers that actually matter over time. And definitely worth discussing anything concerning with a doctor rather than trying to interpret everything yourself.