Blood work

YOUR BLOOD: THE ORIGINAL BODY FUEL

The human body runs with blood, the original body fuel. Therefore, The Daniel Plan participants are asked to order a “blood panel” from their doctor or local clinic. Although voluntary, and is not required to continue in The Daniel Plan, both Dr. Daniel Amen and Dr. Mark Hyman highly recommend it.

Here’s why: First, it will provide you a good overview for how healthy (or unhealthy) you are and give you a better sense of the specific areas in your biology that are out of balance. This gives you information you can act upon. If you know your glucose is high or that your cholesterol is imbalanced, you can make changes in your diet and lifestyle that will impact these biological factors and your health outcomes will improve.

Second, it gives you a baseline by which to judge your progress over the course of the plan. Getting your blood tests redone will give you a quantitative assessment of how you are doing. You can then work to make additional adjustments if necessary or you can keep on the program and watch as your weight and health improve.

The Daniel Plan has identified the following clinics who provide this service for you. There is a cost that ranges depending on what you order. None of the services below will file an insurance claim for you. However, they will give you a receipt for Wellness Lab, diagnostic code V70, which you can send to your health insurance company. If you want to be sure they will reimburse you for the cost, contact them BEFORE you take the tests.

 

After you’ve received the results to you blood test, go to www.danielplan.com and sign into your profile. Click on the “Extended Health Profile” and enter your results under “Lab Results.”

BLOOD TEST EXPLANATION

Below is an explanation of the various items found in full blood work panel.

  • Insulin Response Test (Glucose tolerance test WITH insulin)
    • 1 in 2 people have diabetes or metabolic syndrome (prediabetes) and 90% do not know it). The Insulin Response test is the best way to find out if you are have the problem
    • Fasting and 1-hour, and 2-hour glucose and insulin levels after a 75-gram glucose load. (See below for abnormal).
    • Fasting blood sugar should be less than 90 mg/dL
    • One-hour and two-hour glucose should not rise above 110 mg/dL, some say 120 mg/dL
    • Fasting insulin should be between 2 uIU/dL and 5, anything greater than 10 uIU/dL is significantly elevated.
    • One-hour and two-hour should be less than 25uIU/dL to 30uIU/dL. Anything higher than 30 uIU/dL indicates some degree of insulin resistance.
  • Hemaglobin A1c (>5.5 % of total hemaglobin)
    • This is a measure of the average of the last 6-8 weeks of your blood sugar levels and can pick up metabolic syndrome and diabetes
  • NMR lipid profile—particle size and number. Even if your cholesterol numbers are normal with or without medication you may still be as significant risk if you have small cholesterol particles
    • Total LDL particles < 1000 nmol/L
    • Total small LDL particles < 600 nmol/L
    • LDL size > 21 nm
    • HDL size > 9 umol/L
    • VLDL < 0.1 nmol/L
  • Cholesterol panel:
    • § Total cholesterol (> 180 mg/dl)
    • § LDL (>70 mg/dl)
    • § HDL cholesterol (<60 mg/dl)
    • § Triglycerides (>100 mg/dl)
    • § Triglyceride/HDL ratio (>4)
    • § Total cholesterol/HDL ratio (>3)
  • High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (less than 1.0 mg/L is ideal): This is the best measure of hidden inflammation in the body.
  • Fibrinogen (less than 350 mg/dL is ideal): This is a clotting factor in the blood that increases with inflammation and insulin resistance.
  • Lipoprotein (a) is a genetically inherited lipoprotein marker that increases the risk of cardiovascular disease but can be treated. Less than 30 nmol/L is ideal.
  • Uric acid (less than 7.0 mg/dL is ideal): This is a byproduct of protein metabolism that causes gout and increases in insulin resistance.
  • Homocysteine (less than 8.0 mol/L is ideal): This is a sensitive marker for folic acid deficiency.
  • Ferritin (less than 200 ng/mL is ideal): This is a measure of excess iron stores that increases with inflammation and insulin resistance.
  • 25 OH vitamin D (50-80 ng/dl is ideal): Vitamin D deficiency is an important predisposing factor to inflammatory and chronic diseases.
  • Thyroid hormones (TSH, free T3, free T4, TPO antibodies): Low thyroid function is undiagnosed in 50% of people who suffer. All these tests are needed.
  • Free and Total Testosterone (male and female): This hormones is often altered by lifestyle and diet and are important to monitor and treat.
  • Celiac and gluten sensitivity testing: wheat and gluten sensitivity leads to inflammation, obesity, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune, digestive, mood, cognitive and many other common disorders. This affects up to 1 in 10 people, most who don’t know it.
    • Ask for total IgA, IgA and IgG antigliadin antibodies, and IgA tissue transglutaminase.
  • Complete blood count: assess white and red blood cells and platelets
  • Complete metabolic panel: Includes liver function tests (elevated AST, ALT, GGT): These tests identify the death of liver cells, most often caused by elevated insulin resistance because of a fatty liver and affects over 70 million Americans; kidney function tests (BUN, creatintine, and urine microalbumin): Used to identify early damage to kidneys, which can occur from prediabetes, diabetes and high blood pressure
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