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I wish there was some way to just know what minerals/vitamins/... I currently need the most (or, which could still have a positive effect even if already a suff

I wish there was some way to just know what minerals/vitamins/... I currently need the most (or, which could still have a positive effect even if already a sufficient amount), and which I already have enough of so could skip. So it'd be possible to supplement what's needed, and not the rest. A blood test supposedly should show this, but I only get one of those very rarely, and a snapshot of one such test doesn't tell much.

crazygringo 3y ago
Your own comment already gives the answer you're looking for. Blood tests, of which you can have multiple done over a time period. You're complaining a test doesn't exist because it's a test you only get done rarely...?
- Aardwolf 3y ago
  The frequency would need to be quite high to know what you need each day, and such tests are expensive, slow (has to go to a lab etc...), a hassle, and not part of standard health insurance where I live
  - gumby 3y ago
    Day-to-day levels don’t matter for a lot of the compounds of interest at the levels we’re talking about. In fact it generally takes a while for levels to adjust in any measurable or meaningful way.
    - Aardwolf 3y ago
      Things like a headache or a bad sleep night are only for 1 day or so though, so those must be something that's lacking for just a day, not something that needs months to build up
      - crazygringo 3y ago
        Those aren't being caused by vitamin deficiencies then. Headaches and lack of sleep can be caused by hunger, stress, tension, anxiety...
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    Doing them daily would be useless -- it generally takes a month or more for supplements to start to show effects. 6x or 4x a year is the most you need. These will tell you if your vitamin D supplementation is working fine, or if you need to double it, or if you should halve it, for example. The tests aren't that expensive. At insurance rates, it'll run you maybe $75-150 for the whole standard set in the US if you're paying 100%. And the first one is mostly covered as part of your free annual checkup anyways. Are they slow and a hassle? Sure, but what do you expect? They're also a minor miracle, that they can detect so much about your health from little vials. Point is, if you want to do it, you can.
conception 3y ago
The only vit that I know about that has studies showing supplements helps is D. Everything else falls under “eat a healthy balanced diet”. And supplementing doesn’t help. Get your blood tested yearly at s physical to make sure nothing odd is going on and you’ll be doing about as good as you can.
- mgrandl 3y ago
  This is super wrong and potentially harmful. If you are deficient in anything a supplement definitely can help. Iron is a good example. A big chunk of the female population is iron deficient. Supplementation is a perfectly valid way of combating this.
  - spondylosaurus 3y ago
    Also, if you're taking iron supplements and your levels are still too low, you might have an absorption issue—which either warrants getting the absorption issue checked out or starting direct iron infusion instead of iron supplements. But you gotta get your iron one way or another!
  - conception 3y ago
    Right. Which is why I said to get your blood tested yearly?
- gumby 3y ago
  > The only vit that I know about that has studies showing supplements helps is D. Even that is not clear. We know that sick people often have lower D levels but we don’t know which way the causality runs. Or there could be no causality at all: low D levels could simply be correlated with a sedentary lifestyle which is the actual problem is some cases. Thus adjusting the level would be a waste of time.
- someNameIG 3y ago
  If you're eating a plant based diet B12 supplements are required.
andruby 3y ago
Blood tests are pretty quick and reveal a lot. Especially vitamin levels, inflammation, some cancer markers, … We get our teeth checked once or twice a year. I honestly think we’d catch a lot if we did the same with blood tests. We’d probably save a lot on healthcare with early detections and corrections.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  > I honestly think we’d catch a lot if we did the same with blood tests. Don't we? The blood tests seem to be the main point of an annual checkup when nothing else is obviously wrong.
- gumby 3y ago
  > I honestly think we’d catch a lot if we did the same [biennial testing] with blood tests. We’d probably save a lot on healthcare with early detections and corrections. That is definitely not clear. Also every procedure has iatrogenic risk. Look at cancer screenings in the USA: they have gotten more precise and more frequent, so more cancers are caught earlier and survival time increased. Or has it? Since we find smaller tumors, we find ones that might never have metastasized at all, but intervene anyway. Even for the dangerous ones, earlier detection means earlier treatment, but was the patient going to at 50 either way? That just means they are a cancer patient for a longer period, which by the metrics counts as longer survival.
  - zw7 3y ago
    These are the over-diagnosis bias and the lead-time bias for anyone interested in learning more. The book Risk Savvy by Gerd Gigerenzer has a chapter that does a good job of covering these. The entire book is worth a read.
  - keenmaster 3y ago
    All the grumbling about too much screening doesn’t pass my sniff test. No one can convince me that detecting cancer earlier isn’t, on average, a good thing. The real problem is how expensive our healthcare system is - the cost of even basic screening procedures makes them into a much bigger deal than they need to be.
anonporridge 3y ago
A standard blood panel is relatively cheap to order for yourself. It can actually be cheaper to go this route with cash than through insurance, especially if you need a doctor's visit first to order one. https://www.healthlabs.com/standard-health-testing-panel-cbc-cmp-ua-lp https://www.healthlabs.com/standard-health-testing-panel-cbc... At only $80 and an easy visit to a local blood draw clinic, I do this twice a year by my own volition and now have several years of data and trends to monitor. I'm still quite young and healthy, but I hypothesize that having this data from my health will be very useful as a baseline as I age. If something concerning crops up, then I would pay to see a doctor for further testing and diagnosis. I also add testosterone and H1C tests for good measure. Considering also adding Apo-B to keep well on top of atherosclerosis risk. Now, a comprehensive vitamin panel (closer to what you're asking for) is a lot more expensive. Most people are more than fine just taking a multivitamin and calling it good. Luckily, true vitamin deficiency is fairly rare, and the information you get in a standard blood panel will help catch all the heavy hitter mortality risks. https://www.healthlabs.com/comprehensive-vitamin-panel-1 https://www.healthlabs.com/comprehensive-vitamin-panel-1
thenerdhead 3y ago
I use LabCorp, but people say good things about https://www.insidetracker.com/ https://www.insidetracker.com/ (a bit more pricey). Most on-demand blood tests are HSA eligible.
- hollerith 3y ago
  What does "on-demand" mean here?
  - Modified3019 3y ago
    It’s where the customer/patient requests a test for themselves, for any or no reason. As opposed to a doctor ordering a test, as either part of a routine checkup or for a more specific reason.
    - hollerith 3y ago
      OK, thanks. In other words: does not require an order from a doctor.

crazygringo 3y ago

Your own comment already gives the answer you're looking for. Blood tests, of which you can have multiple done over a time period. You're complaining a test doesn't exist because it's a test you only get done rarely...?

Aardwolf 3y ago
The frequency would need to be quite high to know what you need each day, and such tests are expensive, slow (has to go to a lab etc...), a hassle, and not part of standard health insurance where I live
- gumby 3y ago
  Day-to-day levels don’t matter for a lot of the compounds of interest at the levels we’re talking about. In fact it generally takes a while for levels to adjust in any measurable or meaningful way.
  - Aardwolf 3y ago
    Things like a headache or a bad sleep night are only for 1 day or so though, so those must be something that's lacking for just a day, not something that needs months to build up
    - crazygringo 3y ago
      Those aren't being caused by vitamin deficiencies then. Headaches and lack of sleep can be caused by hunger, stress, tension, anxiety...
- crazygringo 3y ago
  Doing them daily would be useless -- it generally takes a month or more for supplements to start to show effects. 6x or 4x a year is the most you need. These will tell you if your vitamin D supplementation is working fine, or if you need to double it, or if you should halve it, for example. The tests aren't that expensive. At insurance rates, it'll run you maybe $75-150 for the whole standard set in the US if you're paying 100%. And the first one is mostly covered as part of your free annual checkup anyways. Are they slow and a hassle? Sure, but what do you expect? They're also a minor miracle, that they can detect so much about your health from little vials. Point is, if you want to do it, you can.

conception 3y ago

The only vit that I know about that has studies showing supplements helps is D. Everything else falls under “eat a healthy balanced diet”. And supplementing doesn’t help. Get your blood tested yearly at s physical to make sure nothing odd is going on and you’ll be doing about as good as you can.

mgrandl 3y ago
This is super wrong and potentially harmful. If you are deficient in anything a supplement definitely can help. Iron is a good example. A big chunk of the female population is iron deficient. Supplementation is a perfectly valid way of combating this.
- spondylosaurus 3y ago
  Also, if you're taking iron supplements and your levels are still too low, you might have an absorption issue—which either warrants getting the absorption issue checked out or starting direct iron infusion instead of iron supplements. But you gotta get your iron one way or another!
- conception 3y ago
  Right. Which is why I said to get your blood tested yearly?
gumby 3y ago
> The only vit that I know about that has studies showing supplements helps is D. Even that is not clear. We know that sick people often have lower D levels but we don’t know which way the causality runs. Or there could be no causality at all: low D levels could simply be correlated with a sedentary lifestyle which is the actual problem is some cases. Thus adjusting the level would be a waste of time.
someNameIG 3y ago
If you're eating a plant based diet B12 supplements are required.

andruby 3y ago

Blood tests are pretty quick and reveal a lot. Especially vitamin levels, inflammation, some cancer markers, … We get our teeth checked once or twice a year. I honestly think we’d catch a lot if we did the same with blood tests. We’d probably save a lot on healthcare with early detections and corrections.

crazygringo 3y ago
> I honestly think we’d catch a lot if we did the same with blood tests. Don't we? The blood tests seem to be the main point of an annual checkup when nothing else is obviously wrong.
gumby 3y ago
> I honestly think we’d catch a lot if we did the same [biennial testing] with blood tests. We’d probably save a lot on healthcare with early detections and corrections. That is definitely not clear. Also every procedure has iatrogenic risk. Look at cancer screenings in the USA: they have gotten more precise and more frequent, so more cancers are caught earlier and survival time increased. Or has it? Since we find smaller tumors, we find ones that might never have metastasized at all, but intervene anyway. Even for the dangerous ones, earlier detection means earlier treatment, but was the patient going to at 50 either way? That just means they are a cancer patient for a longer period, which by the metrics counts as longer survival.
- zw7 3y ago
  These are the over-diagnosis bias and the lead-time bias for anyone interested in learning more. The book Risk Savvy by Gerd Gigerenzer has a chapter that does a good job of covering these. The entire book is worth a read.
- keenmaster 3y ago
  All the grumbling about too much screening doesn’t pass my sniff test. No one can convince me that detecting cancer earlier isn’t, on average, a good thing. The real problem is how expensive our healthcare system is - the cost of even basic screening procedures makes them into a much bigger deal than they need to be.

anonporridge 3y ago

A standard blood panel is relatively cheap to order for yourself. It can actually be cheaper to go this route with cash than through insurance, especially if you need a doctor's visit first to order one. https://www.healthlabs.com/standard-health-testing-panel-cbc-cmp-ua-lp https://www.healthlabs.com/standard-health-testing-panel-cbc... At only $80 and an easy visit to a local blood draw clinic, I do this twice a year by my own volition and now have several years of data and trends to monitor. I'm still quite young and healthy, but I hypothesize that having this data from my health will be very useful as a baseline as I age. If something concerning crops up, then I would pay to see a doctor for further testing and diagnosis. I also add testosterone and H1C tests for good measure. Considering also adding Apo-B to keep well on top of atherosclerosis risk. Now, a comprehensive vitamin panel (closer to what you're asking for) is a lot more expensive. Most people are more than fine just taking a multivitamin and calling it good. Luckily, true vitamin deficiency is fairly rare, and the information you get in a standard blood panel will help catch all the heavy hitter mortality risks. https://www.healthlabs.com/comprehensive-vitamin-panel-1 https://www.healthlabs.com/comprehensive-vitamin-panel-1

thenerdhead 3y ago

I use LabCorp, but people say good things about https://www.insidetracker.com/ https://www.insidetracker.com/ (a bit more pricey). Most on-demand blood tests are HSA eligible.

hollerith 3y ago
What does "on-demand" mean here?
- Modified3019 3y ago
  It’s where the customer/patient requests a test for themselves, for any or no reason. As opposed to a doctor ordering a test, as either part of a routine checkup or for a more specific reason.
  - hollerith 3y ago
    OK, thanks. In other words: does not require an order from a doctor.