Here at InsideTracker, we are continually seeking more and better ways to enable the InsideTracker community to optimize their health, wellness and performance, in a guided and supported process. For the past three years, InsideTracker customers, from professional athletes to executives, and Olympians to health-conscious consumers, have made life-changing improvements based on the analysis and recommendations from InsideTracker. We are now proud to introduce an even more comprehensive blood analysis package, the next step in full-body optimization: the InsideTracker Ultimate Plan.
Ultimate provides the opportunity for an even greater level of personalized advice and a deeper dive into your body’s biochemistry, with the essential support needed for change. Our scientists have gone beyond measuring biomarker levels; we are measuring the complex ratios and relationships between complimentary and synergistic biomarkers to give a much more in-depth analysis. Furthermore, our science-based nutrition and lifestyle recommendation engine has been completely overhauled to support this new flagship plan, which represents the culmination of our drive for innovation, customized care through support and advice, and our years of research building the most usable, useful health analytics platform available.
Key Areas in the Ultimate Plan
Liver health. InsideTracker added three new markers to the Ultimate Plan to reveal the health of your liver and the likely cause of any liver damage. The second-largest organ in your body, your liver filters harmful compounds from your blood, removing fat, alcohol, and other toxins. In addition, the liver controls hormone and blood sugar levels, stores energy from food, and produces proteins, enzymes and bile. Alcohol, fatty food, and excess weight might compromise your liver health. But how do you know if your liver is unhealthy or optimized? You probably don’t. Liver damage or disease may progress without any symptoms at all or with vague ones such as feeling tired or weak. Only a blood test will reveal the true health of your liver.
Individually, each of the biomarkers in the Liver Enzymes Group can give you information about one aspect of your liver’s health. We have found that users have a difficult time integrating all of the individual biomarker information and understanding the steps they need to take in order to improve their liver health. To aid in this process, we have combined all the biomarkers related to liver health into a single metric that will provide you with a more accurate and complete picture. This simplification will make it easier for users to determine whether or not they need to make changes to their nutrition or lifestyle to improve overall liver health.
Ironing out your problems. Our new Ultimate Plan adds four more iron-related markers to give customers a systemic view of this essential nutrient, allowing for better understanding of any iron imbalances. According to the World Health Organization, up to 80% of the people in the world may be iron deficient. Premenopausal women, particularly those who exercise regularly, face a great risk of iron deficiency or even anemia. Athletic, active males are also at high risk for iron deficiency. Iron is an essential component of proteins involved in oxygen transport, and it plays a key role in cell growth and differentiation. If you are low in iron, your muscles and brain may not receive enough oxygen, which can cause you to feel tired and weak, affect job performance, and undermine your immune system. On the other hand, excess iron can be dangerous as it can damage organs and even cause premature death.
Because iron is so important, all InsideTracker plans check ferritin and hemoglobin levels. The Ultimate Plan gives you a more comprehensive view by testing for four more iron-related biomarkers; we have also combined all the iron markers into a single measurement in order to provide you with a more accurate indication of the total amount of iron in your body. The process of transporting iron from our diet and into the hemoglobin of our red blood cells is a very orderly process. Examining each of the iron-related biomarkers individually only shows how much iron is present at one of these steps. Instead we have integrated this information to give a more accurate recommendation of whether you should increase, decrease, or maintain the amount of iron in your body.
Strength, endurance and stress hormones. Our Performance Plan includes Total Testosterone, a key hormone for muscle development and strength, bone health, and overall energy. However, in order for testosterone to perform these functions it cannot be bound to other molecules within the body. It can thus be difficult to tell how much of the testosterone in your body is actively promoting its functions and how much is inactive. We have combined all the factors we believe contribute to the testosterone process to determine how much “effective” testosterone is in your body. We hope this figure will provide a more compelling indication of whether or not you need to take steps to improve your testosterone levels.
We have also added the testosterone to cortisol ratio (T:C). Cortisol is a hormone that works to break down body tissue to make more energy available, particularly in times of stress, and the ratio is a concise measurement that tells you how well your body is responding to training. At all times your body is balancing factors that use energy to build up tissue (i.e. testosterone) and factors that break down tissue to release energy (i.e. cortisol). Therefore the testosterone to cortisol ratio is an indication of whether your body is in a state of building up or breaking down. A low T:C ratio can indicate that you are overtraining because your are outputting more energy than you are taking in, so your body breaks down tissue to compensate for the energy deficit. Conversely, maintaining your T:C level can indicate that your body is responding well to training and you will more likely experience performance gains.
The Ultimate Plan is available now. You will receive personalized ranges and analysis of 30 biomarkers, with recommendations for sophisticated nutrition, lifestyle, exercise and supplement interventions to help you reach your optimal levels and maintain ultimate performance. Sign up today.
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