Our cars have warning lights for when things are going wrong. We don’t. That’s why getting regular blood work done is hands down the most important aspect of biohacking and performance optimization. 

Why You Should Blood Test

There’s no better way to fully optimize your health, performance, and longevity than getting regular blood work done. It should be an absolute priority and should be viewed as an investment in yourself that will help you perform at your absolute best. 

You can take all the right supplements, get the right amount of sleep, do all the right training… and there could still be something wrong. 

The only way to really know what’s going on, and therefore the only way to reach your full potential, is to test, track, and analyze your key blood biomarkers. 

Things like free testosterone, estradiol, and growth hormone. Vitamin and mineral levels. Liver and thyroid function indicators. The list goes on. 

It might seem overwhelming at first, but fortunately nowadays there are tools that do all the hard work for you.

Enter, WellnessFX. 

We originally discovered WellnessFX after it was recommended by Tim Ferriss a few years back, and it’s been our go-to blood testing service ever since. 

The company offers the most comprehensive analysis tools available which are all wrapped up in an easy-to-use interface. You order one of their lab work packages, go get your blood drawn at a local lab (there are thousands across the country), and after a few days the results pop up in your dashboard. 

The tools show you customized recommendations for the optimal levels of each marker. And what’s more, if your numbers are off they give you recommendations for what to do to get back in range. 

You can also track results over time to see how your improving after each test. And they even let you manually add your own test results into your profile yourself (more on that later).

The only problem? It can be expensive. We think it’s worth it to get every biomarker we’re looking for and have all the processing done for us.

But if cost is an issue we’ve also included a second option that will allow you to test for many of the same biomarkers and still use the same great analysis tools. All it takes is a little extra work.

Option #1: The Full WellnessFX Performance Package

WellnessFX offers three package levels to choose from: Baseline, Performance, and Premium.

While the Baseline package covers a lot of great biomarkers, it lacks some key things that we look for like testosterone and IGF-1. And on the flip side of that, their Premium package includes a lot of biomarkers that honestly aren’t that necessary to test for unless you’re about to climb Everest or go the space station.

The happy medium? Their Performance package.

The WellnessFX Performance package offers the perfect combination of biomarkers that we look for. Here’s a few key standouts:

• Testosterone – The main driver of anabolic muscle building activity in the body.
• Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) – Binds to testosterone and other sex hormones, taking away their bioactivity.
• Free Testosterone – Testosterone that’s not bound to SHBG and therefore is available for your system to use.
• Estradiol – An estrogen steroid hormone and the byproduct of testosterone metabolism; still extremely important for men, but too much or too little can be detrimental.
• Cortisol – Stress hormone that breaks down muscle, raises blood sugar, and stores fat.
• IGF-1 – Growth hormone surrogate which affects the production of muscle and burning of fat.
• Insulin – Storage hormone for blood sugar and fat, where resistance is a precursor for diabetes.
• ApoB – A key binding protein of LDL cholesterol to tissues that has been shown to be one of the most accurate indicators of overall cardiovascular health.

All of those key factors come on top of a full triglyceride (cholesterol) panel and an advanced electrolyte and nutrients panel that covers every vitamin and mineral you could ask for. They also include markers for inflammation, livery & kidney health, and thyroid function.

In short, it’s exactly the set of biomarkers that we would create if we were to build our own. There’s literally no other measurement which we feel should be tested regularly for men’s health that they haven’t included. And the analysis dashboard makes reading the results and adjusting your behavior accordingly simple for anyone to do.

Here’s an example of the results readout:

Our electrolytes are looking pretty good! Unfortunately our latest HDL cholesterol levels weren’t quite as great. But WellnessFX tells you how to work on them: 

The only downside to the WellnessFX package? It can be expensive. At the time of this writing the Performance package diagnostics are priced at $497.

We personally think that the services they provide are absolutely worth the price, and as mentioned earlier this shouldn’t be seen as wasted money but actually an investment in yourself that’s used to maximize your future output.

But, if that package is a little out of your price range, we’ve come up with an alternative solution that still offers a lot of the same benefits for a smaller price tag.

Option #2: Order Independent Labs and Upload The Results To WellnessFX 

If you aren’t quite ready to get the full Performance package, our advice for the next best option is to order your own bloodwork done from an independent provider and then upload the results into a free WellnessFX account.

That’s right, you actually don’t have to buy a package to get access to the analysis tools that WellnessFX provides. You can create an account (here’s the link) and then follow the steps to manually input your own lab results into the system.

You get the same great benefits for tracking and analysis as you would normally, with all the recommendations for target levels and suggestions for improvements that we described above.

In terms of which independent provider to use, we’ve researched and tried dozens of options and by far our favorite so far is the Standard Male Hormone Panel from HealthLabs.com.

HealthLabs is one of the oldest and most reputable independent blood work providers available, and their standard male hormone panel hits a lot of the same checkboxes as the WellnessFX Performance package.

Here are the highlights:

• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP) – Blood sugar (glucose) levels, electrolyte and fluid balance, kidney function, and liver function.
• Complete Blood Count (CBC) – Differential and platelets test helps to give an overall view of general health and screens for a broad scope of diseases and conditions.
• Total Testosterone
• IGF-1 (Insulin Like Growth Factor)
• Uric Acid
• Lipid Panel
• Thyroid Panel
• Human Growth Hormone (hGH)/Growth Hormone (GH)
• Estradiol

The package does leave out some biomarkers that we’d like to see included: SHBG, free testosterone (although that’s available to add for an additional cost here), insulin, DHEA, vitamin B12, and ApoB.

So it’s definitely not quite on par with the Performance package.

But if cost is a factor then this is absolutely a great option to get you started, and the ability to pair these labs with the WellnessFX dashboard will get you well on your way to fully optimizing every aspect of your health.

You can get started ordering the Standard Male Hormone panel here. 

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