These days, you can’t be on a street corner in New York City without someone hawking a COVID-19 test to you — on the spot or at home.COVID-19 test kits are everywhere, but coronavirus isn’t the only condition you can check from the comfort of your bedroom.From food sensitivities to hormone levels, a better question might be: What can’t you test yourself these days?But health-related tests can get complicated quickly, especially when you’re dealing with blood, saliva, lab results and multi-step instructions.
How much can you know about yourself?How accurate is this information anyway?To help take some of the guesswork out of the process, we decided to try three very different at-home tests.We ordered kits, ran tests, sent samples back, and received our results.The process of each test is unique, but one thing is the same – the results have made us re-examine the way we take care of our bodies.
Okay, so some of us have been feeling a little sluggish since contracting COVID-19 and experiencing symptoms of brain fog, a long-term COVID-19 symptom.The Mental Vitality DX kit from Empower DX seems like a must try.As the name suggests, the test kit is designed to “give insight into your mental vitality” by measuring levels of specific hormones, nutrients and antibodies.Results are designed to help your well-being and mental health.The test retails for $199 and can also be purchased with your FSA or HAS card.
Process: About a week after ordering a test kit through the company’s website, the mail is filled with all the necessary supplies (mouth swabs, vials, Band-Aids, and finger sticks) and a return shipping label. The company requires you to download its app and register yours Toolkit so that when you send it back, your results are automatically linked to your account.
Oral swabs are easy; you just swipe the inside of your cheek with a cotton swab, hold the swab in the tube, and you’re done.After that, it’s time to get bloody — literally.You are instructed to prick your finger and fill a vial (about the size of a pen cap) with blood.True.They do offer tips on extracting the optimal amount of blood, like doing jacks to get your juices flowing.Hey, anyway, right?The company recommends that you send the package the same day you collect the sample.(That’s fine, because who wants blood bottles around the house?)
Results: A little over a week from the date you sent your test kit back, results will be delivered to your inbox.Empower DX results come directly from the lab that conducted the test and a guide to help you understand what it means.The Mental Vitality DX kit tests various functions of the thyroid gland (which produces hormones), the parathyroid glands (which control calcium levels in bones and blood), and vitamin D levels.The results of all these moving parts help paint a bigger picture of what’s going on inside you.But because you get the results in the lab, it’s not easy to understand.The company strongly recommends that you speak to your doctor to learn about the findings.
But it’s not just any doctor, says Monisha Bhanote, MD, triple board-certified physician and founder of Holistic Wellbeing Collective in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.When we shared the test results, her main takeaway was: You may need to talk to more than one MD, and some doctors may not have the expertise in the specific areas these labs are testing, she said.”It’s important to have your results reviewed by a medical professional who knows how to interpret them,” Dr. Bhanote said.”When you’re looking at hormone levels, you might think [talking to] a gynecologist. Then, if you’re looking at your thyroid, you might think about an endocrinologist.” Meanwhile, for experts who study the genes that direct your body to make folic acid group, you may be better off finding a functional medicine physician.Bottom line, Dr. Bhanote said: “The easiest way to get this type of specialist testing is to work with a physician in integrative or functional medicine, as most people are well versed in these tests. These are not tests you would take on a regular basis for general health conditions. .”
Base is a home health testing and tracking company that offers stress, energy levels and even libido tests.Energy testing programs look at the presence of certain nutrients, hormones, and vitamins in your body—both too much or not enough to explain why you may feel lethargic when you should have energy.Sleep testing programs assess hormones such as melatonin and are designed to clarify your sleep cycle.In some cases, you may have trouble falling or staying asleep at night; in other cases, you may subscribe to the “sleep after death” culture, which makes shuteye an afterthought.In all cases, it’s easy to underestimate how a lack of these things can affect your mood, weight, and overall health.Each test retails for $59.99, and the company also accepts FSA or HAS as payment.
Process: The company uses an app and it is the user’s responsibility to register their kit on the app upon receipt.This may sound like a pain, but once you do, you can access short clips of other people’s steps through the test, which makes it very user-friendly and ensures accuracy.
The sleep test is the easier test to perform.The company provides three saliva tubes and a bag to seal and return the sample.You are instructed to spit into one tube first thing in the morning, another after dinner, and the last before bed.If you can’t send the tube back the same day (and since your final sample was taken at bedtime, you probably won’t), the company recommends that you refrigerate the sample overnight.Yes, right next to a gallon of milk.
The energy test is trickier because it requires a blood sample.The kit comes with a finger prick, a blood collection card, a shipping label, and a bag for returning samples.In this test, instead of putting a blood sample into a vial, you drop a drop of blood on a collection card, which is conveniently marked with 10 small circles, one for each drop.
Results: Base downloads your test results directly into the app, complete with a simple explanation of what was measured, how you were “scored” and what it meant to you.For example, the energy test measures vitamin D and HbA1c levels; a score (87 or “healthy level”) means there is no indication that vitamin deficiency is the cause of fatigue.Sleep tests assess melatonin levels; but unlike energy tests, these results show high levels of this hormone at night, which may be the reason for waking up still drowsy.
Confused about your results?For clarity, the company gives you the option to speak with an expert on their team.For these tests, we spoke with a board-certified holistic health practitioner and certified health and nutrition coach who offered a 15-minute consultation and tips on how to improve certain vitamin and mineral levels , including food options and recipe ideas.The company then reiterated everything discussed via email, with links to supplements and exercise practices based on the results.
Have you ever felt sluggish or bloated after eating?So are we, which is why this test is a no-brainer.The test assesses your sensitivity to more than 200 foods and food groups, categorizing things on a scale from “normally reactive” to “highly reactive.”(It goes without saying that the foods you might want to eliminate or eat less are foods to which you are highly reactive.) The test retails for $159 and can be purchased using your FSA or HAS.
Process: The instructions for this test are relatively easy to follow.After going through multiple punctures, vials and collection cards before, we are so far professional in providing blood samples.The test includes return labels, finger sticks, bandages, and blood drop cards—this one has only about five circles to fill, so it’s easy.Samples are shipped back to the company for analysis and results.
Results: Easy-to-understand results highlighted a small number of foods that elicited a “moderate response.”Basically, “reactivity” refers to how your immune system reacts to food and the symptoms it can cause.For foods that cause moderate to high reactivity, the company recommends going on an elimination diet for about a month to see if removing them from your diet improves your overall health.After 30 days, the idea is to reintroduce the food into your diet for one day, then take it out for two to four days and watch your symptoms.(The company recommends keeping a food diary during this time.) If certain symptoms are noticeable or worse, well, you know the culprit.
So, after weeks of self-testing, what have we learned?Our energy is good, our sleep can be better, and coconut and asparagus are best eaten less.The testing process is a bit tedious to say the least, but it’s worth considering these tests to get a complete picture of your overall health while ensuring a sense of privacy (if that’s an issue).
Let’s be honest, though: the process is long, and testing can be expensive.So before you invest time and money, make sure your commitment to improving your health isn’t just out of curiosity.”What’s the point of knowing the outcome if you’re not going to act?” asked Dr. Barnott.”Your test results should be a guide to help you make conscious lifestyle changes for better well-being. Otherwise, you’re just taking the test for the test’s sake.” Who wants to do that?
Post time: Apr-23-2022