The boom in health and wellness trends and the quest for longevity and “health span” over “lifespan” has actually been wonderful for people’s accessibility to wellness services, athletes included. But it’s a double-edged sword, because with all the wonderful and helpful tools comes a lot of guff that exists purely to make a profit, without any sound scientific foundation or usefulness to the recipient.
One such tool that has gained popularity is online blood profiling or testing. These tests offer insights into various biomarkers that can impact an athlete’s performance, recovery, and overall health. However, it’s crucial to understand when these tests can be beneficial and when they might not be as helpful. So let’s get stuck into when blood panels might be a good idea and equally as important, when they might be a waste of your wallet’s energy and an unneccesary finger prick!
When is Blood Profiling Helpful?
1. Identifying Nutritional Deficiencies
It is beginning to become accepted that supplementing vitamins and minerals when there are NO deficiencies, is not just un-useful, but in fact could be associated with shorter lifespan. This could be because supplements taken when there is no deficiency, muck about with our own intrinsic and delicate balance, overloading on one nutrient which simultaneously causes a deficiency in another. Blood profiling can help identify deficiencies in vitamins and minerals crucial for energy metabolism, muscle function, and recovery, such as iron, vitamin D, and magnesium, some of which are commonly low in athletes in particular. When you know what’s low, you can attempt to correct it with diet and/or supplementation and take the guesswork out of what’s missing.
2. Monitoring Overtraining
Overtraining is a common pitfall for ambitious athletes. While there are a myriad of recognisable symptoms such as chronic fatigue, weight loss, sleep disruption etc, blood tests can really help to demonstrate this in black and white. It can also rule out other possible causes of these symptoms, which can be attributed to many different circumstances and causes. Blood tests that measure markers of muscle damage (like creatine kinase) and stress hormones (like cortisol) can indicate whether you’re pushing too hard and risking injury or burnout. Recognising these signs – particularly if you can pick them up early – can help in adjusting training loads and incorporating necessary rest.
3. Tracking Progress Over Time
While a one-off blood test might be useful in pin-pointing a specific deficiency or other underlying problem, there comes even more value in observing initial panels and then repeating to monitor the changes based on training, dietary adjustments and perhaps supplementation. Access to regular testing can show you exactly how well your body is responding to particular interventions and it may be useful to help deliver a more flexible dietary and supplement programme. It comes as a shock to many athletes that just because you need a supplement at one moment in time, doesn’t mean you will always need that supplement all of the time!
When Might Blood Profiling Not Be Helpful?
1. Without Specific Concerns or Symptoms
If you’re generally healthy, eating a balanced diet, and have no performance issues, blood tests might not provide significant insights. It’s essential to consider whether the potential findings of a blood test will influence your training or nutrition strategies. I’d also add that if you’re feeling a bit pants, but you’re NOT nailing down a solid foundation of a healthy human diet full of a variety of whole foods, good quality sleep and some sort of sensible cyclical training plan with adequate recovery, then blood testing is likely to be unhelpful; all it will tell you is what you already know – get the basics right first!!
2. In the Absence of Professional Guidance
Interpreting blood tests can be complex, and acting on this information without professional advice might lead to unnecessary changes or supplementation. There are complex interactions between deficient nutrients and it is not as simple as correcting one to improve everything else. Furthermore, your individual circumstances, age, health etc will have an impact on where you naturally sit within the given reference population. Always discuss your results with a healthcare provider or a qualified nutrition coach. Most providers should provide some level of support from a registered dietician (they qualified to deal with medical conditions, diseases and deficiencies) and a sports doctor. It is important to recognise the value in athlete specific blood testing with specialist dieticians and doctors as the evidence and solutions will NOT be the same as they are for gen pop.
3. Over-reliance on Blood Tests
While valuable, blood tests are just one piece of the puzzle. They should complement other performance metrics and subjective feelings of wellbeing, rather than being the sole basis for training and nutrition decisions. A bit like Whoop has started to remove intuition and athlete responsibility for some, which is actually detrimental for health and performance, blood tests need to be ADDITIVE and considered as a groovy tool! A little extra gadget! They are not a substitute for being smart about training, eating and recovery and more importantly, paying attention to how you FEEL.
Key Insights Blood Tests Can Provide
- Nutritional Status: Levels of vitamins, minerals, and iron can impact energy levels, recovery, and immune function.
- Hormonal Balance: Hormones like testosterone and cortisol play critical roles in performance and recovery.
- Inflammation and Immune Function: High levels of certain markers can indicate overtraining or the need for dietary adjustments.
Most decent providers will supply pre-formed panels of blood markers that are specifically important to athletes, but I’d recommend if you’re going down this route to ensure your blood test includes at the very least:
- Sex Hormones: Testosterone is actually important in men AND women and particularly for women transitioning to menopause, it can be a hormone that starts to deteriorate rapidly and cause fatigue and inability to perform and recover. There are many options for testing but it’s important to look at the amount of FREE testosterone in circulation as well as the total, as the two are not the same and free circulating hormone is key. A full hormone panel for women is a good indicator of overall health and energy availability as well.
- Vitamin D: So many people across the world are deficient in vitamin D now we have an awareness of the importance of sun protection and in Northern Europe, simply have limited access to natural sunlight! As an athlete, this is even more important so it’s a basic need and most people will find they benefit from a supplement.
- Inflammation: There are a myriad of things to look to test to monitor your general stress and inflammation levels, which could be linked to dietary and training patterns, but as a bare minimum, look for CRP (C-reactive protein), prolactin and cortisol to be included in your panel.
There are likely to be many more markers tested in the average athlete panel, but the ones above are the ones that usually throw up the most interesting and indicative results in the average athlete who is experiencing low energy and might benefit from more investigations to find out why.
One thing I will finish with is that the blood tests out there telling you they’ll cure your gut by telling you all about your food sensitivities? Yeah AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE. That ain’t how it works.
But the most important thing is, when you get your test done, make sure the support network is available to read it for you! It’s more complicated than it looks!
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