The 1st Blood Tests You Want For Biohacking

Blood tests are something experienced biohackers love to do.

There are lots of blood tests we could suggest to help 'track' your health.

One of those is an Inflammation Base Test.

And this is probably one of the first you might consider.

Acute inflammation from things like intense exercise is great for our health, and very normal.

However, chronic levels of inflammation which are triggered from things like:

- Consumption of highly processed food on a regular basis
- Drinking excessive alcohol
- Highly levels of stress

Inflammation is often linked with long-term, life-changing health issues.

Leading doctors in the biohacking niche are saying that inflammation will be the "thing" we focus on over the next 10 years to really gauge how healthy (or not) somebody is!

So as a baseline test, certainly for a beginner biohacker who's health may not have been great up to this point, THIS is the blood test to do.

So Which Blood Test Do I Need For Inflammation?

There's a number of tests you can get done to show the level of inflammation in your body

• Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (Or ESR)
• C-Reactive Protein (CRP)
• Plasma Viscosity (PV)

The most commonly used one is the ESR blood test

How Is Inflammation Measured In A ESR Blood Test?

A sample of your blood is taken and placed in a test tube containing a chemical to stop is clotting. The tube is kept upright and the red blood cells gradually separates from the plasma, kinda like a sediment.

The sed rate at which this occurs is what is measured (normally in millimetres per hour mm/hr)

The normal range for this test is 0 to 22mm/hr for men, and 0 to 29mm/hr for women.

The higher the rate, the more inflammation your body has. This is because certain proteins attach to your red blood cells, meaning they drop faster.

Females tend to have a high rate, and as you get older you'll have a high rate too.

What Can I Do To Reduce Inflammation?

Sleep, cold water submersion and removing pro-inflammatory foods are the 3 "easiest" ways to manage inflammation more successfully.

Improving the quality of your sleep plays a big part of reducing inflammation, having a set time of day you go to bed... removing blue light sources during the evening, and taking certain supplementation can all help improve the consistency and quality of your sleep.

Cold water submersion, is the least fun part of biohacking... but just 20-30 seconds of a cold water on the back of your neck at the end our your shower can help.

Full on ice baths are for the dedicated biohackers, and play a big part of reducing overall body inflammation. This is one of the tricks of high end sports people after a game, to help speed up recovery by reducing inflammation with cold water treatments

And then there is foods you consume. Removing highly processed foods, make a big difference with your inflammation levels. Cutting out gluten containing foods, and refined sugar from your diet will go a long way.

How Often Should I Be Testing My Inflammation Levels?

You can repeat an ESR test every month, to see noticeable changes in the rate. Beware of your state when being tested. Inflammation in your body can be acutely raised if you have an infection, or a recent bout of illness you are recovering from.

We hope this has helped you today!

- BioStack Labs Research Team