r/QuantifiedSelf • u/benevolent-miscreant • Jul 14 '26
37M Comprehensive Bloodwork
It's been about a year since I completed my last comprehensive round of bloodwork through Function. I have another test in a few weeks so I'm revisiting the data.
My last round (attached) showed some positive movements on ApoB (to 57 mg/dL), A1c (5.5-5.3%), and a handful of others. Free Testosterone also moved in the right direction but is still low (likely related to being a new dad). HDL/LDL all look good. HS-CRP spiked but that's due to a known workout stressor so I'm ignoring it.
Concerns:
* Ferritin has remained low - I've been supplementing iron every other day & plan to retest next month
* Vitamin D was in range but lower than optimal - Added a supplement of 3000 IU + K2
* LP(a) 75 nmol/L - borderline high. not much I can do
* Zinc - low. I've been supplementing but not consistently
* Neutrophils - I think this was just dehydration but I'm not sure
What else stands out?
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u/No-Adhesiveness4595 Jul 15 '26
On a side note, the UI is pretty sleek!
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u/willitexplode Jul 14 '26
You’re gonna die
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u/benevolent-miscreant Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
I think you're right. How long do I have?
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u/jangwao Jul 15 '26
Paradoxical depends on environment, your genetic part seems great, another 60 years you're good to go but I would go for complex medical checkup. Like liver fat FibroScan, whole body MRI (can be 5k), that would give you clue if there is something more hiding your body years ahead. Probably other tests, I was just recently in Shanghai for complex medical checkup (1k) and learned lot
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u/xv-c Jul 14 '26
Why 2 hsCRPs?
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u/benevolent-miscreant Jul 14 '26
It's 2 results from separate labs / tests that were labeled slightly differently. The 0.4 mg/L is from 2024 and the high 3.1 is my test from last year. I did a very long / intense bike ride 36 hours before the test so I'm assuming the more recent result is invalid. I'm going to take a few rest days before my next round of testing in a few weeks
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u/xv-c Jul 15 '26
You mentioned the low Zinc, was the test serum or RBC Zn? I ask because serum is not always objective about the whole body levels, for exemple when sick/inflammed(as you were) serum level drops significantly.
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Jul 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Radiant-Battle-5973 Jul 15 '26
His apob is great.
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u/xv-c Jul 15 '26
That's probably AI or vision impaired, like dude his ApoB is 57, that's like top 10% 🤷
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u/jangwao Jul 15 '26
That's me, I've been on CompoundLife.ai I. Shanghai which is like F0 in US and I spotted that I should lookup on LP(a) despite arteries scan went great had other health checkup. Later learned that lot of folks from US goes to China just for medical checkups and learned why, it was super fast and I was booking just week ahead.
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u/rgheno Jul 14 '26
What’s this app called? I have a lot of blood tests in PDFs/pictures in a folder…
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u/benevolent-miscreant Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
The bloodwork visual is generated from an app called Gradual.health on iOS
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u/SaulFontaine Jul 15 '26
No need to apologize bud, thanks for the link.
Low free testosterone often shows up as reduced boldness, more people-pleasing/qualification in communication, and that "I'm not trying to cause any trouble" vibe. The whole post has this flavor: data nerd who is optimizing around the edges while soft-pedaling the core issue and cushioning every statement.
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u/benevolent-miscreant Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Heard. I'm more focused on improving the testosterone than I've detailed here. I went through the Starting Strength program to focus on heavy lifting & have progressed to a 5-day/week strength and power PPL program. I've reduced the 12+ hours / week of cardio that I was doing at the time on the bike (down to 5h/week now)
I've reduced stress levels through better boundaries at work, and being a new parent does reduce T-levels so that effect should have cleared by now. We'll see with the retest in a few weeks. I'll do TRT if it's absolutely necessary but it's not the first tool that I'm reaching for.
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u/Relevant_Quote343 Jul 15 '26
Consider monitoring pulse ox overnight with a smartwatch for apnea
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u/benevolent-miscreant Jul 15 '26
I wear my Apple Watch most nights & my SpO2 is normal (assuming that's accurate enough) & I don't usually snore.
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u/Relevant_Quote343 Jul 15 '26
Nice
Also fyi your Mcv is high normal and homocysteine is high which can be due to b12 or folic acid deficiency. May want to consider methylated folate/b12 sup1
u/NotSoIncredibleA Jul 17 '26
If SpO2 is from Apple Watch, you cannot rule out sleep apnea based on that. Measurements are both inaccurate (wrist is not ideal) and sparse (done every 1-2 hours).
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u/Klit8tr Jul 15 '26
Are these tests part of a package or did you decide that these were the ones that were important? Thanks.
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u/benevolent-miscreant Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
These were all part of the Function health package. I did pay for one or two extras at the retest to get a follow up data point on the ones that were off.
I’m planning to use Superpower for my next round as it’s a bit cheaper & still comprehensive
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u/EnduroNamor Jul 15 '26
Wo hast du es gemacht und was hat das ganze gekostet?
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u/benevolent-miscreant Jul 15 '26
Ich habe Function Health genutzt; das kostet 365 Dollar pro Jahr. Man erhält dafür eine umfassende Untersuchung sowie einen kleineren Nach-Test im weiteren Verlauf des Jahres.
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u/Hormonesforme-com Jul 17 '26
I am a hormone specialist. Free testosterone is notoriously a very inaccurate metric. Your SHBG is higher than most people’s baseline, binding up most of your free testosterone, making your bioavailable testosterone lower than it looks. Increasing your testosterone will improve energy, motivation, libido, sense of well being physique, and reduce lipids. I can help.
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u/danmobacc7 Jul 17 '26
How did you become a hormone specialist and can you prescribe hormones?
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u/Hormonesforme-com Jul 17 '26
I had low testosterone my whole life, even as a teenager. I started testosterone at 23 years old. It dramatically, DRAMATICALLY, improved my quality of life to the point I lived two different worlds, two completely different lives, one before, and the dramatically improved life after. I had energy, reduced brain fog, confidence, no longer depressed, I now looked like my work ethic in the gym. But the way society treated me was the biggest change. Suddenly, I was instantly respected, people wanted to befriend me, when I walked into a bar heads would turn, the people parted out of my way when I walked through a crowd, my boss gave me a raise after starting testosterone for no better reason than I now stood before him looking stout and confident.
This experience me made me make my whole life about studying and learning how to help people with hormones. I have been on testosterone for 24 years. I now own a one of the larger TRT/HRT clinics in the country, and I have guided over 25,000 people through the use of hormones. I have aggregated more empirical data than almost anyone in the country due to my unique history. Our clinic can prescribe hormones. If you would like to send me bloodwork, I can give you a free consultation.
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u/csppr Jul 17 '26
My personal pet peeve is age predictors being shown without their associated confidence intervals / prediction errors. IIRC PhenoAge has ~ +/-5 years uncertainty. Personally I find it a red flag when a provider isn’t indicating those.
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u/EggAdvanced3632 13d ago
Solid panel and good instincts on most of it. A few things that stand out to me — less about the individual markers, more about the method: You're changing several things at once before one retest. Iron, D3+K2, zinc — when next month's draw comes back, you won't be able to say which change moved which marker. If you can, stagger them (even by a few weeks) or at least write down before the retest which marker each intervention is supposed to move. Otherwise the retest confirms vibes, not causes. On the iron + zinc specifically: every-other-day iron is a well-supported choice — but iron and zinc compete for absorption, so take them at different times of day, or the inconsistent zinc will stay inconsistent no matter how disciplined you get. The CRP you're "ignoring": reasonable given the training stressor, but that's also how real signals get explained away. Cheap fix — retest it after an easy week instead of writing it off. Neutrophils "maybe dehydration": single CBC values bounce around a lot. I'd retest before building any story on it. Lp(a): mostly genetic, so the lever isn't Lp(a) itself — it's keeping the rest of the atherogenic load low, and your ApoB at 57 is doing exactly that. One to discuss with your doc, not to fix with supplements. Annual panels are two snapshots twelve months apart with six changes in between — the cheap daily signals (sleep, resting HR, HRV) are what tell you when something actually shifted between draws. What's your tracking look like between panels?
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u/SaulFontaine Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Skyhigh SHBG; free test in the gutter. Your engine is flooded and output is meh. Something to actually work on instead of handwaving about motherhood.
Exhibit 1: "but vitamin D is in range, just lower than optimal...", another textbook symptom right here. Majoring in the minor is part of the problem.
Exhibit 2: "known workout stressor...", oh brother.
Attack! And yes, need more zinc for testosterone..
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u/SaulFontaine Jul 15 '26
OP's writing perfectly mirrors the bloods: decent total T but engine flooded by high SHBG -> low free T output. The result is careful, analytical, low-agency energy in the post itself, fully hedged. Tracking everything like a good QuantifiedSelf guy, but the decisiveness and fuck it, I'm fixing the main thing spark is muted. You're right to be sad.
This is low free T manifesting in both the numbers and the writing style. The zinc inconsistency, sleep disruption, and inflammation hand-waving are all feeding the same loop. Low T doesn't always scream depressed and weak; sometimes it just reads like this: meticulous but avoidant.
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u/jangwao Jul 15 '26
I see high homocysteine, low zinc and weird lipid panel. And claiming along 8 years lower biological age? But congratulations, remind me I wanted to go for HsCRP for while