Lab testing based approach to Longevity & Health Optimisation
Health optimisation, hormones and longevity are ‘trending’, with content related to what to eat and how to live to feel better for longer, reduce hormone issues and prevent illness flooding the media. Home health testing and tracking devices are everywhere, empowering you to take care of your own health.
You likely know that you should be eating your greens, getting more sleep, reduce stress and exercise, supplement with vitamin D during winter. Perhaps you have even toyed with some more advanced ‘biohacking’ ideas such as metformin, tried blood sugar monitors, stool testing and devoured the podcasts of Huberman, Peter Attia, Zoe and the like.
But how do you know you are doing it right?
Before getting lost in all the many tools and supplements out there promising the eternal fountain of youth, I want to explain some of the basic biology of longevity and health optimisation, so that you can learn to make educated choices, see what works and what is important for your unique biology – rather than running after trends, some of which entirely overhyped, and some simply not right or needed for you.
While medicine used to (and still does in most instances) look for and treat one ‘faulty’ pathway unique to that one disease, chasing new and exciting drugs for each condition, yet often with said drugs having side effects and causing other issues in other bodily systems. And while this approach does safe lives, research over the past decade has been shining a light on the fact that many of the chronic health conditions we dread, such as cancers, strokes and heart attacks, Alzheimer’s, autoimmune disease and more, have at their core common underlying ‘hallmarks’, that apply to them all. By addressing these hallmarks, rather than throwing in one drug that fixes one disease, but might cause another, Functional Medicine is a root cause approach that aims to support these common hallmarks, as to get the individual to thrive – in all areas of their health, and with no side effects.
These hallmarks of aging are, in ‘sciency’ terminology:
- Genomic instability
- Telomere attrition
- Epigenetic alterations
- Loss of proteostasis
- Disabled macroautophagy
- Deregulated nutrient-sensing
- Mitochondrial dysfunction
- Cellular senescence
- Stem cell exhaustion
- Altered intercellular communication
- Chronic inflammation
- Dysbiosis (R).
In more simple terms, this means inflammation, gut microbiome imbalances, cells that have changed and degraded over time, creating a bunch of ‘smoke’ as they are producing energy, like a clogged up car motor needing a filter change, with old, faulty and sick cells sticking around when they should be gobbled up by our immune system to make space for new cells.
And rather than causing one illness per faulty mechanism, this accumulation of ‘sludge’ gradually accumulates to declines in overall health, whether that manifests as symptoms in younger years, such as hormone imbalances, PCOS, PMS, fibroids and cysts, male pattern hair loss, depression, cancers or eczema, to later in life, ‘age-related’ issues such as Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease and more – and faster ‘aging’ overall.
And while this might sounds scary (wait, your bloating, eczema and PMS can lead to severe issues down the line?), it also opens a window of opportunity, empowering you to make changes now, to prevent issues before the entire body’s machinery has come to a halt by accumulated sludge and rust – by which time it becomes much harder to heal and reverse the damage.
The wonderful news also is that by addressing these hallmarks, rather than simply supporting and preventing one condition, we can mitigate the risk for most!
And the tools are really quite simple and ‘basic’, with mostly no need for fancy, expensive drugs and equipment. Approximately 80% of the health optimisation tricks apply to everyone, and include
1.Eating a balanced, whole foods, Mediterranean style diet,
with plenty of vegetables (and fiber), protein, some good fats (in particular omega 3s found in fatty fish), keeping your gut microbiome happy, and blood sugar steady
2. Including periods of intermittent fasting,
where the body gets a chance to clean up, getting rid of mutated, old and sick cells (also called autophagy and apopotosis), and has time for a ‘filter change’ of the machinery.
3. Sticking to the ‘natural rhythm’
– ie eat during day light hours, sleep at night, getting sunshine and spending time in nature.
4. Getting the majority of foods, drinks, household products from natural sources
(reduce ultra-processed foods, synthetic cleaning and beauty products/ plastics and heavy metals)
5. Move regularly, while making sure to not overdo it, which leads us to the next, and one of the most important topics —>
6. Stress management.
Aim to be in the restorative, healing and regenerative state (=parasympathetic state, with one of the big players called the vagus nerve) for the majority of the time, so the organs in the body can do their thing (digest, create hormones, get rid of sick cells, etc), and reserve being in the fight-or-flight state for the special occasion (when we are in fight or flight, also called sympathetic, state, blood gets redirected towards your muscles to run away from that perceived tiger, away from our digestion, reproductive organs, immune system, etc!)
7. Meaning and purpose, and social connectedness.
These might sounds a little whoo whoo and hippy-dippy, but research shows that they have in fact a tremendous impact on health and longevity (most likely via their effect on putting us into the restorative parasympathetic state, rather than the hypervigilant fight-or-flight mode).
8. Sleep!
9. Adding in a few basic supplements,
that due to the change of our natural habitats/ soil and living patterns just are too hard to get naturally, such as
- Vitamin D with K2 in winter
- Magnesium
- A clean multi vitamin for an extra dose of iodine, B vitamins and more, keeping our nervous system, brain and hormones happy. Make sure the Bs are in methylated form, which might run you a few more £s per bottle, but rather than blocking cells (which is what the synthetic and cheaper version of folate, called ‘folic acid’ does for many), actually supporting them
- Omega 3s – unless you eat fatty fish most days!
- If you are female, have a monthly period, but not the biggest fan of meat, you might also need some added iron. This one you want to test your levels for however, as too much is not great neither! Which brings us to the next topic.
The above tricks might seem quite ‘basic’ to you, or perhaps you found one or a few that you haven’t included yet, and might want to add to your health optimisation and longevity trick box.
However, sometimes (and those are often the people that come to see me for consultations) you might already be doing all those things, and yet the body is struggling.
That is where a Functional Medicine and lab testing based precision approach comes into play.
Or on the other hand, you are feeling great, but want to make sure you are not missing anything, as you know that symptoms often only show after years of decline! If either of these are you, you have come to the right place. Let me dissect both!
You are seemingly doing everything right, but you are still struggling?
In these cases, running some Functional Medicine tests can help. Certain strategies don’t work for everyone, if their bodies are currently out of balance. Common examples I see in my practise include:
- Eating fiber/ beans and legumes, taking probiotics and/or eating fermented foods make you bloated and feeling terrible?
- You are ramping up your protein, mostly nuts and eggs, but are feeling miserably inflamed rather than the magic weight loss and mental clarity you have been promised?
- You carry a water bottle around with you to stay nicely hydrated, but feeling terrible?
- You know how important sleep is for health, but you toss and turn all night?
These are just a few examples, the list could go on for a long time. As mentioned prior, while the majority of the healthy living strategies are the same for most, sometimes underlying issues can make certain strategies worsen symptoms, rather than improve. In the examples above, if the person has an overgrowth of bacteria or fungi, also called SIBO or SIFO, in their gut, throwing in more fibre and fermented foods, which is important for most, can act like throwing gasoline on a fire, feeding the already existing overgrowth.
Or if one has a hidden food intolerance to for example almonds, or eggs (which sadly is quite common!), then eating more of these healthy foods can make that person terribly inflamed. This is because when there is a food intolerance, the immune system has (by mistake!) decided that a healthy food looks like an invader such as a virus, and every time that person eats that food, the immune system pumps out inflammation to try and kill this invader off. This is a great strategy when directed towards the seasonal flu, but a problem if that food is a daily staple, leading to chronic low grade inflammation!
The water bottle example above could be due to the person filling it with unfiltered tap water that is filled with lead and other toxins, or the bottle itself is plastic, leaching micro plastics into the system.
And lastly, you are trying to sleep, but the more you try, the more you lie awake, tossing and turning? Common culprits include blood sugar problems, cortisol disruptions (stress), and commonly overlooked, histamine issues from hidden food intolerances, allergies and gut microbiome imbalances, and nutrient deficiencies.
An experienced Functional Medicine practitioner will order a range of tests to see where you might be missing something, and come up with a strategy that is bespoke to you.
Some of the tests I most commonly use include:
- Organic Acid Test for fungal and bacterial overgrowth, mold, neurotransmitter (serotonin/ dopamin) levels, mitochodrial health, some vitamins and more. You can find out more on this test here.
- GI Map, a comprehensive stool analysis looking for overgrowth such as parasistes, H pylori, whether there are enough good bacteria in your gut or you might benefit from specific probiotics, gut inflammation and digestion markers. Find out more here.
- IgG Food intolerance testing. Find out more here.
- IgE Food allergy testing. Find out more here.
- Heavy metal testing. Find out more here.
- DUTCH dried urine hormone testing, which looks not only at your total level of hormones, but also how well the body is breaking them down. For example, your estrogen levels might be ok, but if they are being broken down the wrong way, it can still contribute to estrogen related issues such as fibroids and cancers! Find out more here.
Note: I have added links to more info on each test above, plus you can order them all directly through the links provided if you are based in the UK or Europe. If you are based in the US, please email my team at hello@mprecisionhealth.com to order those tests to there.
2) You are feeling great, but want to make sure you are not missing anything, as you know that symptoms often only show after years of decline
This is a wonderful space to be in. Research shows that it is that much easier to prevent issues than to reverse them.
You have gone to your GP and run a health panel, and he/she said all looks just fine?
Did you know that the reference ranges by labs are created by taking an average of the population, NOT of optimally healthy people? This means that for many markers, even while you might be ‘in the range’, that marker might not be optimal anymore, contributing to that gradual sludge we touched upon earlier. If not corrected, over time this can accumulate to real damage, which is when the lab result will ‘all of the sudden’ come back as in the red/ out of range!
Within Functional Medicine and precision health optimisation, we aim to be as proactive as we can, looking at those common blood markers and placing them into the stricter, optimal ranges, where those exist.
Common examples include simple yet powerful markers such as, that you have likely had done in even the most basic health panel:
- HsCRP (a marker for inflammation)
- HbA1c (a marker for long-term blood sugar balance)
- Fasting glucose
- Ferritin
- Red and white blood cell count
- Liver markers like GGT
- Vitamin D
For example ferritin, a storage protein for iron, is usually deemed ‘ok’ in ranges anywhere from 15 to 300, depending on the lab. However, research suggests that levels of around 50-90 might be best if health optimisation is the goal. Levels below 50 (as commonly seen in women with a monthly cycle that don’t eat meat, ie don’t replenish their iron that way, or with gut issues) contribute to the cells not getting enough oxygen to do their jobs the best they can (contributing to fatigue, thyroid issues, hair loss and more), and levels above 90 can ‘rust’ our cells, inflame the system and create free radical damage, literally aging us from the inside out. More on ferritin and its optimal ranges here.
Another common marker is HbA1c, which measures how much sugar has attached itself to your hemoglobin (red blood cells), being a fairly good indicator of one’s blood sugar balance over the past 3-4 months (that is how old our red blood cells get, on average). Labs usually only flag this once the person is in pre-diabetic ranges. However, even blood sugar that is no where near diabetes, but constantly above optimal, has been shown to contribute to endothelial damage (that lining in our blood vessels) and with it increased blood pressure, risk for atherosclerosis, a faulty immune system (increased ‘immune escape’, where the immune system overlooks cancerous cells, and on the contrary reduced ‘immune tolerance’, increasing the risk of autoimmunity, plus inflammation!).
These are just examples, but it is easy to see how powerful even these simple markers can be – and yet the strategies to optimise them are so simple!
Often people aren’t aware that their sweet tooth is actually making their body rust from the inside out, or on the contrary, they might actually be doing just fine, and the little bit of dark chocolate or other dessert they have is perfectly fine and not to worry about!
They might also not be aware that perhaps being vegan while also menstruating might be not ideal (or supplementation warranted if being vegan is an ethical rather than health driven choice) – and on the contrary, men and women that don’t have cycles, might do better with less meat and iron.
However, rather than guessing, I always recommend running these simple tests, checking whether they are OPTIMAL, and make personalised tweaks where need be.
Mirthe
It is my goal to empower you to become the CEO of your health trajectory, preventing and optimising with precision and science backed strategies to live your best life & thrive.
HI, I'M MIRTHE
It is my goal to empower you to become the CEO of your health trajectory, preventing and optimising with precision and science backed strategies to live your best life & thrive.
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