It’s easy to see how InsideTracker can help professional athletes, like Sarah Haskins, who have to keep their bodies in the best condition possible. Even a small change in nutrition can improve performance and turn a good effort into a winning one. But InsideTracker also offers big benefits for everyday athletes. One example is Kathy Taudvin, a multi-sport mom who knows how important it is to stay healthy for herself and for her family.
Taudvin participates in running, yoga, hiking, biking, tennis, and skiing—which is enough to exhaust anyone! However, she knows that proper nutrition is integral to providing her body with the energy that she needs.
When she heard about InsideTracker from a friend, Taudvin decided to give it a try. The results from her first blood test showed that, despite her active life and healthy diet, several biomarkers, including iron and calcium, were out of her optimal range. Athletic women, like Kathy, need 18 mg per day of iron – more than twice as much as men do. When iron levels drop, an athlete’s levels of energy and endurance also fall. At the same time, low iron increases the risk of injury and susceptibility to illness. Unlike iron, calcium requirements are the same for women as for men, but women are more likely to be calcium deficient. Everyone needs calcium to build and maintain strong bones and teeth. If an athlete’s calcium levels are low, stress fractures and muscle pain can result.
“Because InsideTracker alerted me to troublesome markers, I was able to take action,” says Taudvin. The changes that she made to her diet worked. “I’m now feeling as vital as I did 20 years ago,” she says.
Taudvin found the Bloodwork page of the InsideTracker program most useful because it showed her the biomarkers that were out of her personal optimal range, explained the role of each biomarker in her health and athletic performance, and told her steps she could take to improve her levels. She used the information provided on her Bloodwork page to make changes to her diet and supplements that would help get her biomarkers back to optimal zones. Since making those adjustments, Taudvin reported that her “running times have been markedly improved.”
Prior to her InsideTracker blood analysis and personalized nutrition program, Taudvin was already careful about her diet. “Nutrition has always been a cornerstone of my lifestyle,” Taudvin declared. When she reviewed her InsideTracker nutrition recommendations, she realized that she couldn’t get enough calcium and iron just from foods and chose to add supplements to her daily regimen.
Because the information that Taudvin learned from her first blood analysis proved to be so useful, she scheduled a follow-up test. “I found that the changes I made to my nutrition, primarily through iron and calcium supplements, had worked! I feel better and am thrilled,” Taudvin said.
Does this busy athlete and mother have any advice for people who are looking to improve their physical performance? “Create and maintain healthy habits,” she says. With the information she received from InsideTracker, she was able to make adjustments to her already healthy lifestyle that made her feel better than she has in years.