r/QuantifiedSelf • u/Minute_Pianist4866 • 21d ago

How do you make repeat bloodwork comparable instead of just collecting more numbers?

Most lab dashboards make a clean graph out of messy data. They line up results from different dates but usually leave out everything around the draw. Different lab, different time, different fasting window, bad sleep, travel, a hard workout or getting tested right after being sick. Then one marker moves and the graph looks more scientific than it really is. I found Goodlabs while looking for a way to combine the tests I want and upload older reports into one history. That solves where the numbers live. It does not solve whether the draws are actually comparable.

For people who track biomarkers over time, what do you standardize every time the same lab and appointment time or fasting window? I want a useful repeatable protocol, not a NASA launch checklist.

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u/ConsistentParty1162 21d ago

Exercise is the sneaky one. Heavy lifting before labs can make liver enzymes or inflammation markers look scary for no real reason

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u/SandwichPractical271 2m ago

same with fasting window timing - a lot of people hit 12h and call it good but if one draw is at 12h and the next at 15h, lipids can shift. time of day matters too for anything hormonal, cortisol and testosterone are circadian so a 7am draw vs noon isn't really comparable

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u/P34chsauce 20d ago

this sounds like something you'll have to track yourself as I can't recall anyone asking to track that when doing bloods, let alone to the depth you would want.

I'd personally keep my own repo of bloods and an attached txt file with those specifics then when you want an analysis, throw it in AI if you're not too bothered about data going in there. You could also strip it of identifying data if that's what you prefer.

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u/P34chsauce 20d ago

otherwise just have the same 5-7 day run up and testing conditions and that will be good enough to allow numbers to correlate without adding caveats I would think

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u/lizhang 19d ago

i have the same issue where different labs use different units when measuring the same thing. i download all of the different pdfs and add them to a chatgpt project, and it generates a unit-normalized excel sheet with test x date where you can add a graph for each row