Labwork to Consider Each Year: Three Categories of Importance

Getting labwork done rules out deficiencies and health problems that may have simple solutions. Also, watching your metabolic health improve on your labwork is very rewarding.

[Quick update on my autoimmune healing diet: I’m on week 4 and still sticking to it 100%. Today my ketones were 4.3, and my glucose was 74, giving me a glucose/ketone index of 0.95! A GKI of less than 1 means I’m in the most extreme level of therapeutic ketosis and healing. I'm going in tomorrow to recheck my thyroid antibodies. Stay tuned! I’ve lost 16 lbs in 3.5 weeks, not my intention. This is more than I lost in my first month of ADF. Anyway, we are about to find out if Hashimoto’s is reversible by healing the gut!)

I like people to get a few key labs as part of my coaching practice because it’s very rewarding to see an objective number improving. This reminds us that fasting, improving diet, and healing the gut are not fad solutions or something you do to look good in a bathing suit.

The principles I teach are key interventions that radically improve health, and I like to have the receipts to prove it.

If you are embarking on a new health journey, this is an ideal time to get labs taken. If you’re been fasting for a while, labs are still helpful to show your progress.

If you are experiencing any kind of weight loss resistance, labs such as fasting insulin and thyroid, can help determine the reason for your plateau.

In the long term, any money you spend on labs is well worth it because being chronically ill is expensive. If you can ward off chronic illness through understanding fundamental imbalances in your body, you will save yourself a boatload of money in the long term.

In my next post, I will give the ideal ranges for each of these labs as well as lifestyle changes, nutrition, or supplements to use if the lab is out of range. The ideal level is often different than the generic reference range in the lab result.

But in this post, I want a simple list for people to refer to when looking for labs to order.

All prices below are for ordering your labwork through the Marek Diagnostics website without a doctor’s order. Depending on your insurance situation, you may save money by going to your primary care provider and asking for all these tests. If he/she is willing to run them, insurance may cover them.

If paying for your own labs, you can use your HSA/FSA. This is how I do it.

Some doctors are willing to run whatever tests you ask for, while others are not. Nearly every doctor will run a CBC and a CMP yearly, but some don’t like to do more beyond those two. 🤦🏼‍♀️

For directions on how to order labs yourself without a doctor visit, see the end of this post.

Note: all these labs should be taken while fasted for at least 12 hours. Cease all biotin supplementation at least 72 hours before drawing labs, as biotin skews results. Many B-complexes, skin formulations, and multivitamins contain biotin.

Cliff notes: if you only want to get the 4 most important ones, I would do fasting insulin, A1c, CRP, and vitamin D.