Important Lab Tests to Prevent Future Disease Public Service Annoucement

For disease prevention, here are 6 markers that predict disease 10 to 15 years before standard labs can catch it. Your standard yearly physical checks which are basic metabolic panel a lipid panel, and hemoglobin AIC only monitor current disease and do NOT predict future disease. Those labs only catch disease after it's already developing. We need to look upstream at what's driving disease before it shows up.

Your doctor checks fasting glucose, but not Fasting Insulin, this is backwards. Insulin can rise 10 to 15 years before glucose abnormalities show up by the time your glucose is elevated you've already been insulin resistant for almost a decade. Fasting insulin should be under 5. If it's above 10, you're heading towards metabolic disease, even if your fasting glucose looks good.

Standard Cholesterol panels are outdated. Cholesterol doesn't tell you a particle number which is really important for heart disease. Risk. Apo B (Apolipoprotein B) measures the number of atherogenic particles in your blood and the number of Apo B molecule per particle capable of penetrating the arterial wall causing inflammation of the arterial lining and causing plaque formation. This is the single best predictor in my opinion of cardiovascular risk. I am for a lab result under 80 and ideally, under 60.

The High Sensitivity C Reactive Protein measures systemic inflammation. Chronic inflammation drives nearly every chronic disease, heart disease, diabetes, cancer demand dementia. The standard crp only catches acute inflammation, whereas HSCRP catches low-grade chronic inflammation. Most people want it under 1.0 ideally you want it under 0.5.

Elevated homocysteine increases risk for cardiovascular disease stroke and cognitive decline. It's a marker of methylation issues and often indicates B vitamin deficiency, including B6 B12 and folate. Homocysteine results should be under 10 ideally under 7.

Your doctor checks serum magnesium, which is useless for this reason. Serum magnesiums stay normal even when you're severely deficient, because your body pulls it from cells to maintain blood levels. A Red Blood Cell Magnesium shows you what's inside your cells where it matters. Most people are deficient.

Vitamin D isn't just for bone health. It's a hormone that affects immune function, mood, cardiovascular health and cancer risk. Of interest other than skin cancer as populations go away from the equator the incidence of many cancers actually go down and in my opinion demonstrates how Vitamin D most likely helps prevent many cancers( https://1library.net/article/latitude-and-cancer-incidence-or-mortality.y9ro6jwy#google_vignette). Also recall that significant number of people who died from Covid 19 were found to be Vitamin D deficient. The Optimal range depends on different researchers but I like to aim between 60 and 80 ng per milliliter. It only becomes too high by most accounts over 100. I take 50,000 units weekly and my levels are consistently 60.

Here's one problem with our healthcare system. Insurance often doesn't cover these labs. Unless you have a specific diagnosis, doctors are trained to treat disease, not prevent it. These markers catch dysfunction before it becomes a disease which doesn't fit the current medical level. Be your own advocate. Ask your doctor to add these labs if they won't find a functional medicine, doctor or order them yourself for services like lab or request these labs could give you a 10 to 15 year Head Start when preventing disease prevention is much cheaper than treatment. These 6 labs can uncover problems a decade before they become diagnoses and direct you as to what areas to modify in your life to reduce risk. For many of these increased risk issues the key to prevention is a healthy diet, modest exercise, and judicious use of supplements to correct documented deficiency's.