Ernesto Ramirez

June 4, 2015

Last week, together with our friends from InsideTracker, we ran a short contest to see what kind of experiments and tracking projects could be supported by having access to InsideTracker’s Ultimate Panel biomarker tests. And wow, the response was amazing.

We received so many great entries from the community. From individuals wanting to understand how their training and activity affect their hormones, to people just wanting help figuring out how chronic conditions are affecting them. It was hard to choose just two winners, so thanks to the generosity of the team over at InsideTracker we were able to choose three!

Congratulations to Dana Greenfield, Mary Eggers, and Felipe Gerhard! We’ll be doing more in-depth follow-ups with each of the winners here on the blog soon, but until then here are the great experiments and projects they proposed:

• Dana Greenfield – “I want to learn if certain foods I eat –such as spearmint tea, or omega-3 supplements–have actual effects on free testosterone or other altered biomarkers associated with my Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome diagnosis…”

• Mary Eggers – “I’ve been a triathlete for 20 years. Multiple Ironman races and and high volumes of training have left me with anemia, high levels of cortisol and some other issues. In August after age group nationals I’m going to switch my focus to swimming, with the goal of competing at USMS nationals. When I return, what will happen then? I am also switching from a paleo based diet to plant powered for this journey. What will that effect? This would be a fantastic chance to properly measure change…”

• Felipe Gerhard – “I want to study how a diet based only on Soylent will affect my overall health, hormones, and energy levels. How will I do it? I will switch to an almost exclusive Soylent diet for at least two months with one cheat day per week (~85% caloric intake from Soylent). One InsideTracker Ultimate Panel will be performed in the beginning to establish baseline value and a second one towards the end, 6-8 weeks into the diet. During the experiment, I will supplement with creatine, vitamin D, and any additional supplements recommended by InsideTracker after the first blood panel. I will continue ongoing tracking of basic QS stats such as body weight, body fat percentage, Fitbit data, daily and weekly habits, and sleep. I will start to track compliance with the diet and my energy levels through a subjective rating scale. What will I learn? Changing to Soylent as an almost exclusive source of food is a radical change in diet (#ForgetNormal). Though there are anecdotal long-term reports of people switching to Soylent, these reports are typically not accompanied with such an extensive blood panel that is offered by InsideTracker. In addition, there have been discussions around potential negative effects on hormonal levels. Therefore, tests for Testosterone, DHEAS, Cortisol, and other hormones included in the Ultimate Panel will be a crucial component of this experiment. I am personally interested in improving my sleep and energy levels and hope to see a correlation not just with the change of diet, but potentially also with the range of biomarkers that InsideTracker provides…”

Want to learn more about InsideTracker and what you can learn from blood and biomarker tests? Come see them in person at our QS15 Expo! Tickets are now on sale and readers of the blog get a special $10 discount! Register today!