#consumer diagnostics

By Perrin Braun

We lead demanding lives! Work, exercise, and family obligations can keep even the most proficient time managers on their toes, leaving them little time for taking care of themselves. If you want to feel better, and want to know whether there are any biochemical issues that affect your wellness and performance, the best thing to do is to test your blood. But we are busy and may feel we don’t have time go to the lab to get tested.  InsideTracker is now offering an exciting new option that makes blood analysis extremely easy – the InsideTracker Home Kit.

With InsideTracker’s Home Kit option, you can easily do your own blood test anywhere in the U.S. at any time and quickly find out your results.  And, when you receive your blood analysis, you will also learn how to improve your out of-range biomarkers, your well-being, and your performance.

The Home Kit option is designed to be as simple and user-friendly as possible! Here’s how it works: you do the test in minutes without leaving your home. It’s an easy, and nearly painless, finger nick that takes just a few drops of blood. Your purchase includes a prepaid mailer: you just seal the test cassette in the mailer and drop it into any U.S. mailbox.  After the lab tests your blood, InsideTracker generates analysis and recommendations for your biomarker results. The Home Kit is a convenient option that gives you flexibility in scheduling when you want to take a blood test, but more importantly, it provides you with access to powerful and sophisticated InsideTracker online analysis and recommendations.

Click here to learn how InsideTracker can help improve your physical performance and optimize your health!

So, what information will you see you receive your results? InsideTracker will provide you with:

Graphs showing your personalized blood results and optimal numbers

Explanations of the role that each biomarker plays in health and athletic performance

A unique food plan that is customized to fit your individual needs and preferences

Lifestyle, exercise, and supplement recommendations for improving biomarkers that are out of your optimized zone

For just $99, each Home Kit measures six different biomarkers—glucose, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, and ALT (which is a marker of liver health).  These biomarkers play a critical role in affecting your wellness and athletic performance:

Glucose is the body's primary source of energy. This type of sugar comes from digesting carbohydrates into a chemical that your body can easily convert to energy.

Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that forms part of every cell in the body. Normal levels of cholesterol are important for maintaining energy, an active metabolism, and a healthy heart and circulatory system.

Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) carry cholesterol throughout your body. High levels of LDL can result in a buildup of cholesterol in your arteries, which are the blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to your body.

High-density lipoproteins (HDL) also are a type of lipoprotein, but HDLs act as cholesterol scavengers, carrying cholesterol from other parts of your body back to your liver, which removes it from your body.

Triglycerides are a lipid, or a type of fat, that is found in your blood and stored in fat cells. If you eat more calories than your body needs, extra calories are turned into triglycerides and stored in fat cells.

ALT is an enzyme found primarily in liver cells. When there is damage or injury to liver cells, ALT leaks into the blood stream. Excess drinking, smoking, and being overweight are among the causes of high ALT.

For all these biomarkers, most doctors will simply tell you whether or not your results are “normal.” Clinical data demonstrate that while an individual might be in a “normal” range for specific blood-test parameters, optimizing the parameters can significantly improve physical performance and well-being, beyond what “normal” levels can achieve.  InsideTracker’s cutting-edge algorithm integrates into your blood analysis an “optimal zone,” a range specific to you that takes into account your unique demographic information including age, gender, ethnicity, and activity level, as well as lifestyle and performance goals. InsideTracker gives you simple interventions for nutrition, exercise, supplements and lifestyle to help you move your biomarkers into your optimal zone and reach your peak performance.

InsideTracker also shows you your blood test data over time to help you continue to make progress toward your goals. To make it even easier for you to do regular blood tests, InsideTracker offers a set of 6 Home Kits for $499 or a set of 12 Home Kits for $899. With the extra kits, you can choose to test as often as you wish, although InsideTracker recommends waiting a month between tests to allow time for your body to change after you start following recommendations. Each set of kits is designed to be used by just one person. If you want to test a family or a group, each person should order his or her own kit.