re: Bloodwork: What panels to get

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awesome. atleast now you will have a path forward if you have anything you need to fix

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I'm really curious. As far as I can tell, the main thing I need to fix is losing my last 5-7lbs to lose.

Any opinion on finasteride? I'm pretty sure they are going to tell me to stop it.

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Why did you start taking it in the first place?

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hair maintenance

Been years since I researched it, stop caring about my hair so no don’t really have info. Sorry

I did the Efferding Panel about 2 years ago. You posted a YouTube video about it. I am about to turn 30. I will probably go for the full package this time.

I finally had lab panel interpretation with Marek. I was very low in two hormones I had never heard of before:

Pregnenolone
DHEA Sulfate

I think they are going to recommend prescription supplementation there (they said they don't trust the OTC quality).

What say anyone on this topic?

My DHEA was pretty dang low and OTC supplements got it right in no time. (I used Life Extensions and Pure Encap). I've never heard of someone recommending prescription DHEA.

I started out taking 50mg per day. Now, I take 25.

Obviously listen to your practitioner.

Edit: I looked into this a bit more and Marek is partnered with a "Fullscript" company. Is this what they talked to you about? If so, just order what you need from Amazon; I'm sure it's less expensive. Fullscript acts as a concierge service to make it easier to order, replace, etc. but you can do that yourself.

Looking at Fullscript brand list, you can get many from Amazon. (I like Pure Encapsulations, Life Extensions, and NOW brands).

While places like Marek are great and MUCH needed, be careful and research what they recommend. They are there to make money as well and can get expensive.

Obviously they have access to your bloodwork results as a whole and I may be missing something so def take their advise under consideration.

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Do you mind sharing what the impact of getting it back in line was?

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Not sure I understand. I had a follow up 3 months after my DHEA was low and at the next appointment, it was raised to somewhat normal levels. See below for Timeline.
5/12/23: 70.7 (Started 50MG / Day here)
8/15/23: 185 (Started 25MG / Day here)
3/17/24: 198 - 25 MG
6/24/24: 258 - 25 MG

I noticed no changes in anything. (Didn't feel any affects)

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I haven't talked to their doc yet, just the "health coach" or whatever for the first look at the results. He basically said the prescription version is guaranteed to be exactly what it's supposed to be vs the more free-wheeling supplement market.

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While I agree that you will know what you are getting, there are some honest, reputable supplement makers out there. I've used Pure Encap, Now, Thorne, Life extention with no issues.

This is awesome info, 777!

I’ve been curious as to some more extensive bloodwork options for a while, but I have had two issues:

1. I haven’t known what to do / what to tell my doc to analyze. It sounds like this would clear that so thanks for that!

2. I don’t have a clue what to do with whatever these things say! I have to imagine this will look like hieroglyphics to the lay person. What do you do with them? Do they include analysis / recommendations in them? Do I bring these to my doc and ask him to translate?

I’ve started getting super into my health and love stuff like this but want to see what I do next with them to know how to use them!

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Eh, with your metabolic system, you can't always feel something that is optimizing it. Many markers are intertwined and working together. Keep in mind that I did start feeling the affects of my testosterone. Some of that could've been due to the DHEA.

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They gave me a flow chart that was labeled something like the "hormone cascade" and it shows how DHEA et al are precursors to testosterone and the like.

It's the fact that it's so complex and intertwined that makes me hesitant to just supplement, if you know what I mean.