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Globe and Mail
11-05-2025
- Health
- Globe and Mail
Is in-depth and expensive blood work worth it?
A number of new startups suggest looking at your blood for improvements in energy, mood, and even lifespan. Growing up, the only time I'd have blood work was if something was wrong. Doctors would run tests to check levels relating to negative symptoms. Blood counts to check for infections or problems with the immune symptoms. A metabolic panel to examine the kidneys. If my levels fell within a desired range, no action was taken. But increasingly, folks looking to optimize their health are taking a new approach to blood work, seeking out the tests and reading them like tea leaves. Results aren't just to indicate sickness or stressors. They're supposedly a gateway into more energy, better sex and a happier, longer, life. That's the selling point for a number of companies offering full blood-work panels outside of regular doctor visits. Brands like Life Labs, The Bespoke Wellness Group and Inside Tracker tout the benefits of personal analytics based on blood work. The detailed information gives you a more complete understanding of both how your body works now and how it might work better. It's info that comes with costs and risks. Packages including comprehensive testing, pages explaining that data, and personalized follow-up plans run about $600. While companies have privacy policies in place, handing over sensitive information is never 100-per-cent safe, as shown with the recent bankruptcy of 23andMe. Still, blood work offers factual information about what's going on in your body. Changes to your diet, workout and supplement routines can be shown in the results, offering empirical feedback when health matters can often feel like guesswork. Recently, I underwent a comprehensive blood-work panel from Canadian startup NiaHealth. The hope was that by checking my levels and crunching the numbers, I'd be able to make some changes. The past few months, I've been feeling exhausted. I've been having trouble completing workouts at the gym. I'm foggy during meetings, and getting up in the morning can feel like a herculean task. Nothing is wrong exactly, but things are not great. With continuing fatigue, I wanted to make sure something else wasn't going on with my health. Because I don't have a family doctor, blood work seemed like one of the best bets to do that. 'I encourage patients to get our blood work done on a semi-regular basis,' said Amanda Jaeger, a naturopathic doctor with Step Up Massage and Rehab. Naturopaths are limited in what they can offer. Compared with a physician, their focus is generally around optimization rather than medical care. For Jaeger, the tests help zero in on the cause of certain problems and catch things that might not be obvious on a surface level. 'There are things that some people accept as normal − things like period cramps or fatigue − that don't necessarily have to be that way.' Through her clinic, Jaeger is able to make recommendations for supplementation and lifestyle changes based on numbers in the blood work. Even if folks' biomarker levels are within 'normal' ranges, that can make meaningful impacts on patient's day to day. 'When it comes to reference ranges, there are some stark differences from the lowest to highest. … I'm trying to look for optimal functions rather than normal ranges.' For my NiaHealth test, I chose a panel with fifty-plus biomarkers plus a testosterone add on. There was also a thirty-minute consultation with a nurse practitioner from their team to explain my results. While a lot of startups in the blood-work space offer comprehensive biomarkers with their tests, Jaeger notes that most people can get by with less. A complete blood count, a comprehensive metabolic panel, a TSH screening for thyroid, vitamin D and inflammatory markers are cheaper tests or things that can be assigned through public health that give a great overview of what's happening with your body. Still, accessing those tests can be difficult from a walk-in clinic or if you don't have a primary doctor. My blood work came in less than a week after my visit to a local clinic. During the half hour NiaHealth consultation, a nurse practitioner pointed to borderline cholesterol levels, iron levels above average and some vitamin deficiencies. The website's dashboard offered graphs and grades for my results that were easy to read. Overall I was at a B+. Suggestions for my diet included trying fatty fish. Offers for exercise included breaking up my walks throughout the day and trying to jog. While I ranked a perfect score for my testosterone, my levels are on the lowest end of normal, and suboptimal, according to previous tests I'd done with InsideTracker. The nurse practitioner with NiaHealth was kind and informative, but after walking through my levels, there was hardly time to address the fatigue that had jump-started the process. She suggested that to better understand the causes of elevated biomarkers tests would need to be done with my (non-existent) primary-care provider. Nonetheless, getting the blood work done was helpful in planning some next steps. And for some, that can be an absolute game changer. For former bodybuilder and current fitness coach Dominic Kuza, checking blood work was key to getting lean and achieving physique goals both for himself and his clients. An out-of-pocket blood panel revealed unaddressed thyroid issues that were a major setback for his training, requiring medication and lifestyle changes to get on track. Based in America, his basic blood panel did not include testing for thyroid functions or hormones. 'Through my own blood work I've found things that were completely overlooked by doctors, but this was due to how basic of a panel that a physical with your doctor contains,' said Kuza. 'Blood work gives us information that allows us to see how our body is functioning internally and why someone might be having a hard time progressing in the direction they are hoping to.' For everything a blood-work panel offers, costs and potential privacy issues are important to consider when deciding whether you'd like to move forward with the work. In the case of NIA Health, it has a privacy policy that says it will not share personal information except in the case of service providers, legal compliance or the sale of the business. There are also valid concerns that private companies offering health services weakens Canada's universal health care and encourages a two-tier system. Not everyone has the means or desire to spend $600-plus on tests. At the moment, that limits customers to wellness and health fanatics rather than the general public. But knowing the stats on what's happening in your body − and what those stats mean − is one way you can start taking better control of your health. Without seeing the numbers and some general recommendations from the folks at NiaHealth, any changes would have been largely guesswork. Still, it's a big spend for general feedback such as trying a Mediterranean diet, exercise and the value of vitamin D. For anyone looking to get the benefits of blood work without breaking the bank, working with your doctor and requesting basic panels is still your best bet.
Business Wire
23-04-2025
- Health
- Business Wire
InsideTracker Announces Terra, Taking AI-Driven Real-Time Health Coaching and Recommendations to a New Level.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--InsideTracker, a leader in data-driven health technology, is pleased to introduce Terra, a first-of-its-kind virtual coach that enables its members to dive deep into their own body. Terra builds on the success of Ask InsideTracker, a native AI tool released last year and now one of the platform's most popular features. With this major version update, Terra becomes a personalized health coach with the ability to access information and offer recommendations typically limited to high-end concierge medicine. 'We've been building AI systems for a decade, so the recent energy around this sector has been a tremendous opportunity for us,' said Rony Sellam, CEO of InsideTracker. 'Our members are now able to take advantage of advanced health tools unlike anything else on the market. The real breakthrough here is that these different types of AI are more effective when paired together. It's a huge testament to our engineers and data scientists that we're able to bring this solution to life.' Terra will have access to InsideTracker's blood-based biomarker data and other vital health information. This includes a users' body composition, sleep habits, supplement intake, fitness tracker data and food and exercise preferences. Terra answers sensitive questions quickly and develops a deep understanding of how underlying health metrics affect daily life. It can interpret blood results, troubleshoot symptoms, and find solutions that lead to improvements in health metrics. For example, you can ask, 'What is the number one thing I can do to improve my health right now?' Terra can quickly scan your data and give you a personalized reply. It might say: 'This week, focus on optimizing your sleep. You have three blood biomarkers hurting your body's ability to rest and recover. These are low vitamin D, low magnesium, and high hsCRP.' From there, Terra can recommend how to get those three biomarkers into the optimal range to effectively improve your sleep and overall health. Other questions may include: 'How do I lower my thyroid-stimulating hormone?' 'What vitamins should I take based on my blood test?' 'Why have I been feeling so tired lately?' With access to increasingly rich data, Terra will know a users' individual workout habits, mealtimes, genetic predispositions, and more to build and rebuild personalized health plans tailored to every individual's schedule, preferences, sense of urgency, and physiological needs. When habits or health data change, Terra will be able to guide you back to a healthy, science-backed routine. InsideTracker members who have participated in our beta testing reported: 'I loved the personal experience, it looked at my health profile and knew what stage of menopause I was in, then looked at my blood results and provided answers to my questions'; 'Terra provided a very intuitive interaction that referenced my results specifically'; 'Informative, got immediate answers to my questions'. InsideTracker has been pushing boundaries with AI for over 10 years. Its original AI model, SegterraX, is a central feature of InsideTracker's membership plan and is built on a type of AI known as knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR), which is designed to reason like a human expert. With Terra, InsideTracker merges its KRR with an LLM. This approach creates a powerful Dual AI system that results in greater health insights for members while keeping in place guardrails that prevent AI hallucinations, bad information, and the additional drawbacks that commonly plague other AI models. According to an InsideTracker customer survey, 9 in 10 respondents trust Terra's advice and insights. This signals a significant advantage over other AI models, which often have low consumer trust in regards to health and wellness. 'Terra represents a fundamental shift in how people will interact with their health data,' said Renée Deehan, PhD, InsideTracker's Senior Vice President of Science and AI. 'Unlike a human, AI has infinite patience to work through complex issues, and with this advancement, it can now cross-reference personal health data with peer-reviewed science. It's like having unrestricted access to a team of experts across multiple fields of study.' Terra is built on OpenAI's GPT-4, but it filters replies through the user's blood data and personal health profile, along with InsideTracker's proprietary library of educational material. This results in a hallucination-free conversation that eliminates the noise of unscientific health advice. It's also completely secure. While Terra knows details about the user's health, it does not have access to their name, DOB, or other identifying information. In addition, InsideTracker is HIPAA compliant and SOC 2 Type II certified for privacy and security. Terra is the first AI agent focused on health data to provide personalized lifestyle guidance based directly on an individual users' blood, nutrition, and exercise data, in a private and secure service. No chatbot or AI agent has been able to deliver this experience, until now. With access to blood data and other sources of health information, Terra can deliver instant access to clinical expertise to anyone. About InsideTracker InsideTracker is the industry leader in health analytics. Through a comprehensive analysis of your blood, DNA, lifestyle, and nutrition habits, it provides personalized recommendations for living longer, looking younger, and achieving peak performance. Its recommendations include nutrition, supplements, and exercise adjustments. Whether you're an athlete, professional, or parent, InsideTracker can deliver peak health in a way that fits seamlessly into your life.
