Personal testing regimen?
Hi everyone,
I'm wondering: what kind of biomarkers do you all test, to assess whether self-experimentation is slowing degenerative aging?
Personally, I've been very focused on studying insulin sensitivity over the past several years. So I test fasting glucose, fasting insulin, and IGF-1. I'm also increasingly convinced that LDL-C or ApoB is a useful biomarker for atherosclerosis, so I regularly test my LDL-C. I test these biomarkers around 3 times per year.
What do you regularly test?
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Nothing at the minute. Probably the crux of how things must change generally & for me. Widening the question. Do you/anyone partake in health screening. In UK the NHS provide Bowel Screening for cancer/AAA Screening for Aneurism/ & usually Blood Pressure & Cholesterol Levels, so I get those. Ladies get other tests.
But have wondered what biomarkers /additional screening I should partake in. Indeed where to get it ? Also accuracy ? Prostate cancer treatment & diagnosis would seem to leave a lot to be desired. Would like to know if there is a reliable vascular check that could be undertaken, Know too many people who have had fatal or devastating first heart attacks. Believe 90% of people follow instinctive anti-aging protocol. What is happening here seems a big step in the science approach.
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Seaside Do you get the LIfeline Screening? In the USA it includes BP check, carotid ultrasound, aneurysm check and I think one other cardiac test which I can't recall but I'm pretty sure it's NOT for calcium in the blood vessels. I have not had any of those except for BP but I have had EKG's and several years ago I had a stress EKG, which I really hated because I was sent for screening for shortness of breath. I was short of breath after 80% of the time, so I had to stop so they said it was inconclusive but normal at 80%. A few years later I was DXed with adult asthma! No wonder I had shortness of breath. I don't like the stress echos because I think people push themselves too much on the treadmill. Because he was very out of shape and overweight, my husband had the drug for his stress echo when he was being screened for surgery and he told me the drug made him nauseous. That would have pushed my health anxiety symptoms over the top so I hope I never have to get the stress test done that way either! I have had the stool test for cancer twice now. Also ladies gyn visit every 2-3 years. Depends on insurance coverage and health history. Get tested for whatever you can with blood and urine. Be careful about invasive tests. I'm not against the invasive colon test I cannot at the moment even recall the name of the test but I don't like the probe as well as the Demerol or whatever they give you for the pain. I would do it the way Katie Couric did, wide awake but with a little IV or oral pain med and maybe a little sedative. Many want to sleep through these procedures, but I know that means more medicine and I like to be awake whenever possible because I have more control. Of course LEF sells blood tests and I'm considering paying a little at a time, triage style for whatever my health plan won't cover.
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Maximus, I always ask my PC to test everything possible that could effect my life quality and lifespan. He knows I'm a life-extensionist. Fortunately, my health insurance has covered all the tests he says can benefit me, except for LDL particle size. He said that would cost me out of pocket in the hundreds, I think. He always tests for fasting blood glucose, requiring a 12 hour fast. That's been running around 90 for years so I know I need to improve that. He's happy with my cholesterol levels. I know my triglycerides are good but my LDL last was about 130, which is not good, but my HDL was good, over 50, and he said that makes up for the LDL not being optimal. He also said they're not doing homocysteine testing anymore because of false readings, which is odd to me because I've read more than once in the past year that it should be tested. He also tests for CRP, which I know is not optimal and I need to address that better from now on. Also he tests for the blood cells, calcium,and my Vit D, he said was a little low last time, and other nutrients/minerals/vitamins and I think for DHEA and cortisol, eosinoprils, hormones...it's always a long list but I'm always trying to add to it. :)
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USA2Elsewhere It sounds like you've been doing some important testing.
One concern I have in your story is that I understand LDL of 130 to definitely be higher risk for heart disease, atherosclerosis and stroke. HDL of 50 does not make up for that. A good target for LDL is under 70, and even under 50 if you can do it.
I recently achieved LDL of under 70 with just diet and supplements (no statin). It involves a lot of soluble fiber, eating a lot of cooked barley with fruit and yogurt, and beans in the evening (in chili and salads). I also take 2 g/day of plant sterols and 500 mg of niacin in the AM.
I hope you can get that LDL down!
I watched a good intro video about LDL-C at this website: http://plantpositive.com/
There are a lot of videos there, and I didn't watch them all. But learning how people with genetically low LDL have much lower rates of heart attacks, and how hunter-gatherer tribes with low cholesterol basically don't have heart disease, helped convince me to get my LDL down.-
Maximus Not sure why my P.C. thinks my high HDL makes up for the 130LDL. I plan to soon talk to my PC about the blood numbers, as I think it's been a few years since my LDL was checked. For several years it was 111 -- still too high. I just checked all my copies of my bloodwork results and I found none more recent than 2009, so I don't know the most recent LDL numbers. Can HDL ever be high enough to make up for 130LDL? My mom found out about 25 years ago that she's inherited high LDL, which has been high no matter what she ate. It was over 300 for the next 20 years, even with statins. However about 5 years ago she began losing weight due probably to her worsening depression and her LDL lessened greatly. She is still on statins but as for her LDL number at her last blood test, I know it had greatly improved but don't know the number. I assume I do not have the "family" high cholesterol, since it wasn't very high until recently, as it was 200 total -- not great but no doctor made any remarks about it. I heard in the 1990's that LDL can get low enough to make one more prone to cancer. I thought 100 was considered high optimal. One strange thing about my mom. Those blood tests I mentioned were taken about a year ago after she had an "incident". She was dx'ed with ischemic (mini) stroke, yet nothing was found in any of her test results showing the actual clot or whatever it was..They said it was in the occipital lobe purely based on her symptom, and there was only one -- lessening of peripheral vision in the one eye. She even wore a heart monitor for 11 days, as one last test. Both the neurologist and neuro-ophthalmologist are perplexed. I am also because I did a lot of online research about stroke, especially mini strokes, and everyone else I read about had something show up in at least one of the tests other than high LDL. So she continues to take child aspirin and statins and she said her vision is restored almost to what it was before the incident. Will try the soluble fiber and "hunter/gatherer" diet more. Also wondering if NAD+ is considered in place of niacin to any extent.
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USA2Elsewhere That sounds like a conundrum with your mom. I'm not sure I can make sense of what was happening in her story, either. That is very high HDL.
You sound well-read and thoughtful about these health topics. Good for you for being mindful about them. Not everyone is.
About familial high cholesterol: yes, I heard it's usually much higher than 200, so I'd suppose you don't have that. But I'm not an expert on cholesterols and atherosclerosis (yet). I'm working on it.
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Testing has been difficult - it's absolutely ridiculous that you have to get your stupid physician to approve a blood test. All they do is look at the actual versus nominal results, and only earn their keep if you want to take medication for some condition. So for a long time I've been searching for away to easily get some blood work done, and happily discovered that Life Extension.com offers lots of tests. At the moment I'm trying the "Male Elite" test to see how it goes.
Otherwise the test I relied on the most was Homocystein, it's my belief that this marker of inflammation is the best indication of overall health. Otherwise all my numbers are in the green or better. By better I mean better than their nominal - for example with the white blood cell count. I'm a whole foods vegan and follow a health regime, commonly people like me have 'low' platelet counts. Reason being the nominal values are too high as they account for the general population that has high inflammation and other issues which stress the immune system and raise the WBC count.
Speaking of the uselessness of physicians on this, for years I had to listen to them get worried about the cell count. Early on before I knew the score they'd send me off to get an AIDS or cancer test, since those two can lower your WBC count.
Otherwise I have a MTHFR variant and take methylfolate, which I monitor because it has a tendency to get a bit too high from the supplementation (I also check D since I supplement with that too).
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Dan Mc Hi Dan. Yes, I totally agree with you regarding the availability of blood tests. It is absurd to me that you can't get tests ordered yourself. Taking this restriction to an extreme, imagine if assessing other biomarkers such as weight or blood pressure also required a doctor to order. It's silly, especially with the kind of research available for non-doctors like us to learn about test results, what they could mean, and how to affect those biomarkers.
LifeExtension's blood tests are a great way to get many of these tests ordered for yourself, and at a much lower price than a doctor's office will charge you anyway!
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One unexpected way to find out how you’re doing; get life insurance! All they care about is your expected lifespan. I did so recently and got “Preferred Elite”, the highest rating.
Nice confirmation I’m doing the right things.
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Have been testing mostly all what is mentioned here and this for 20+ years. Importantly hormones and particularly their axis ratios. Feel patterns and trends are possibly even more important than single biomarkers validated in the clinic. Key is the link to morbidity and mortality capturing the complexity of underlying biochemistry.
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Reading Bill Faloon's presentation at RAAD2018. Do you know the details of the blood markers suggested to be measured. I can guess some of the most important, e.g. hr-CRP for "inflammatory" but there many more. Unless I overlooked, only the category are given (at p. 16), i.e.:
• INSULIN RESISTANCE
• IMMUNE FUNCTION
• CARDDIOVASCULAR
• INFLAMMATORY
• THROMBOTIC RISK
• GLYCEMIC MARKERS
• LIPIDS (FULL-SPECTRUM)
• HORMONES
• GROWTH FACTORS
• BLOOD CELL COUNTS
• VITAMIN D STATUSThank you!
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albedo Hello again Albedo.
Yes, you can see the list of specific biomarkers to be measured, here:https://www.societyforagereversal.org/blood(Edited on 9/22/2019): The new link is now here: https://age-reversal.net/testing/
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Maximus
Oh that is great! Thank you Maximus, I completely overlooked that on the site.
Beside IL-6, D-Dimer and CD4/CD8 I have basically all this data since 20+ years and doing some small analytics on it. Beside what you can do using Excel and some basis statistics, anova etc.. I am looking for some specific software to gain a more in depth insight.
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albedo
You're welcome Albedo! That's very good that you have 20+ years of all of that data. So you will be able to notice some interesting things as you self-experiment with various interventions.
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Max Peto The link is dead now. Would you fix it? Thanks!
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aribadabar Thanks for asking Aribadabar! I've just updated my old post.
Here is the new link: https://age-reversal.net/testing/
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Max Peto Thank you for the prompt response, Max! Much appreciated!
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