I added this post to my story page, but this warrants it’s own post. This is cutting edge medical testing that everyone should have access to, unfortunately western medicine hasn’t caught up yet.
This past March (2024), I had a battery of testing through Function Health, a company began by my original Functional Medicine doctor Mark Hyman to allow the average person to get standard Functional Medicine Testing. My thyroid antibodies are normal, my blood glucose is 88, my fasting insulin is 9.8, my hsCRP (inflammatory marker) is low.
I also did a Galleri Cancer Screening Test, (Read more about that here.) which was negative for all the cancers they can detect via shed tumor DNA in your blood. This will one day be more standard, and like Functional Medicine lab-work, most is not covered by insurance… yet. Once insurance companies realize how much money they can SAVE by keeping us healthy vs. treating us once we get sick, that will change. Legislators: ARE YOU HEARING ME?
I also had a biological age done. I am set to turn 69 this year, not fun to think about, yet I feel better than most past years. Here’s my biological age!! My husband brags “He’s got the young wife”, LOL
What is biological age?
Biological age, compared to actual age, is an indicator of the quality and rate of aging on a genetic, cellular, and molecular level. Faster biological aging increases the risk of diseases associated with aging: pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, cognitive decline and dementia, kidney failure, hormonal imbalances, muscle and bone loss, autoimmunity, and macular degeneration.
Biological aging occurs as a person gradually accumulates cell damage, which affects cells’ ability to repair, rebuild, and function. Here’s an example: two people with identical calendar ages can have very different biological ages. You may be 60 years old by calendar but 40 years old biologically. At the same time, your 40-year-old peer might be 70 years old biologically.
Everything we do impacts our biological age: diet, exercise, environmental toxins, and physical and emotional stress. Optimizing those inputs and others like prioritizing quality sleep, reducing exposure to environmental toxins, and even using certain phyto-chemicals can reverse your biological age. While eating a high sugar, starch, ultra-processed diet, being sedentary, over-stressed, and sleep deprived will accelerate biological age.
You can’t change calendar age, but your biological age is reversible.
Learn more about what tests are covered at Function Health here. You WILL need a Functional Medicine Physician to help you interpret them.
I haven’t posted a photo in awhile. Here’s my 68.7 photo, err… my 50.2 photo!!
