Today, I’m going to break down the must-have blood tests that you can get done the next time that you get blood work.
These are potentially lifesaving tests that we may not get enough education on, so this blog will give you information that you can turn into knowledge.
Regular CBC
This is your regular complete blood test—you’re going to be able to see your white blood cell and platelet counts.
If one of those is off, I would encourage you to Google whatever blood cell it is and understand what it means if it’s high or low.
Certain ones are tied into allergens, or could be due to a depleted immune system.
You can also look at your red blood cells, which can be bogged down from anemic-type situations.
If the red blood cells are deficient, methylated B vitamins are a big part of that, as well as eating properly-balanced clean proteins and your overall gut health.
You want to make sure you’re getting the complete blood work tests to look at your white and red blood cells.
BMI/Adipose Tissue/Ab Fat
I would press for at least one of these tests. A lot of them will do a BMI (Body Mass Index) test for you to understand how much toxic fat you have.
This becomes important because the more fat that we have around our waistlines, the more organ fat that we have.
That’s the toxic type that can put us in states of chronic disease, especially when it comes to liver fattiness and fat around the heart.
This is also a major comorbidity predictor for whether or not a virus will put you in the hospital or cause death if you get it.
You want to know how much adipose tissue belly fat you have. According to the BMI test, 70% of Americans are overweight, and 35-40% are in the obese range.
That’s a major predictor of not only heart disease or cancer, but specifically viruses and your risks when it comes to immune health.
You can look up simple BMI charts to understand where you’re at based on your height and weight.
You could request an adipose tissue or an abdomen fat test as well.
ESR
This is your erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and is a great predictor of inflammation in the blood.
Erythrocytes are blood vessels that clump together when there’s more inflammation.
We want our sedimentation rate to be within a normal range, which is especially important for those going through cancer.
If you have an autoimmune-related condition or you’re worried about the aftereffects of a medical procedure or virus, this is an easy test that can tell you how much inflammation is in your blood.
Platelets/Ferritin/D-dimer
Your platelets are another good measure of how your blood is clotting and how much inflammation is inside the system.
I like to keep my platelet count at least below 350, and ideally below 300.
Using things like an omega + turmeric is a good way to keep platelets down, but be careful not to overdo it.
If you have some kind of clotting disorder, you can work with your doctor on it, but that’s step number one for blood inflammation.
The second one to look into is ferritin, which is tied to clotting and strokes.
If your ferritin level is high, meaning over 100, it’s a good indication that you need to give blood.
This means that your blood is getting too thick and there’s too much of it. This becomes a problem for men who take in too much iron over their lifetime, and for postmenopausal women who don’t have a way to get rid of iron.
This is a good number to check and see to know if your iron is too high, because it can create a stroke or clotting risk.
A great way to know if you’ve had clots post virus or medical procedure is the D-dimer test.
This is going to tell you if you’ve been breaking down the fibers that create a blood clot, and it measures the particles left over from the dissolving of a clot.
The good news is that you’re dissolving them, but if this number is off, it means you’re creating them.
Fasting Insulin/A1C/Glucose
These tests are obviously accomplishing different things, but they all deal with insulin, which is a bully in your body.
Insulin down regulates your estrogen or testosterone, and increases cortisol in the body, which is going to produce more belly fat.
All of those things leave you more metabolically-unstable and exposed to diseases.
88% of Americans are metabolically-unstable. That means you don’t respond well to a virus, bacteria, or fungus and aren’t as capable of fighting them off.
Testing your fasting insulin shows you your insulin resistance, and whether or not your body is tired from insulin’s constant demands on your body.
A1C is a longer look at how your body is adapting to and using glucose in the system.
This is a big predictor of diabetes, which is going to be one of the highest comorbidities for immune-related hospitalizations and deaths.
Then you can measure your daily glucose. Under 100 is ideal, and 75 means you’re doing really well.
You obviously don’t want your glucose to be too low, but not many people need to worry about that.
These 3 numbers will help you control your blood sugar levels and be more metabolically-stable.
Vitamin D3
Vitamin D3 is what we activate to benefit our body’s immune response.
If you have an autoimmune disease, measuring your D3 level is crucial. Most autoimmune disease-sufferers have very deficient levels of vitamin D3.
Vitamin D2 is a more synthetic form which is found in few foods, and is usually the capsule form that you get prescribed.
The active D3 form is more involved with the immune response that you’re looking for.
You want to have your D3 level above 50, because this is the level where it starts preventing breast and colon cancers, heart disease, and decreases your risk of getting a virus.
Try to regularly measure this, and keep it above 50 and below 100.
Antibodies (Thyroid, ANA)
If you have an autoimmune response or a thyroid condition, you need to be looking at your antibodies.
I put thyroid in there because over 80% of thyroid conditions are due to an autoimmune response. You need to measure thyroid antibodies to see if they’re in play.
If they’re high, you may have an autoimmune condition.
If you have a gut problem, it’s not a thyroid issue. The thyroid is being impacted, but it’s not the driving force.
The same applies to ANA antibodies. You want to test these because then you can make lifestyle changes to see if you can impact that number.
These tests give you a number to try to lower, just like someone trying to lower their blood pressure.
LDH/CRP/Homocysteine
This is a family of 3 different inflammation markers that are very powerful. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) can actually be measured 5 different ways for 5 different parts of the body.
You can measure inflammation in the brain, digestive system, and some others. Not many doctors are going to know about the 5 subsets, but they will be able to measure the general LDH.
That’s a good number to be tracking, especially in the middle of cancer.
Platelets, ESR, and LDH can predict success post-cancer, so you should be measuring these.
CRP is the top heart number to measure that supersedes cholesterol. I’ve done an entire video on this that you can watch to learn more about CRP.
It’s a big predictor of heart attacks and heart-related diseases.
You could have low LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol, but if your CRP is high, you’re at high risk.
Another one that can be measured is homocysteine, which are your inflammation levels, especially in the blood.
This is important post-virus and post-bacteria, because it can indicate the microbes that get in our body and attack our immune system.
Check For Underlying Viruses
If you have a doctor that is willing to, you should check for underlying active viruses like H. pylori, EBV, Hep B or C, CMV, HPV, HSV, HIV.
The key word here is ‘active,’ because a lot of times if you do a blood test for these and they’re not active, then they won’t show up.
This is very common with the Epstein-Barr virus. If it’s not flared up, you don’t even know it’s there.
You might want to test for these to see if they’re sitting inside of your system, so that you can start taking steps like getting regular doses of lauric acid from coconut oil, monolaurin or oregano.
These are several good ways to eliminate viral conditions, because taking these nutrients can help isolate them.
With some of these conditions, you may have to wait until they’re flared up to test for them, so I would recommend a complete autoimmune gut overhaul with proper microbial cleanses.
You can also do a breath test to check for candida in your body.
AST/ALT
This will test if there’s damage going on in your liver, which is your body’s main filter.
It will test if your medication could be damaging your liver, as well as if ibuprofen, over-consuming, or over-drinking is damaging it.
These will also find out if you have fat in your liver, and measure the filtration rate of your kidneys.
Summary
These are all incredibly important tests that you want to ask for when you go for blood tests. There are a few other ones that can be done, but these will give you a great start.
You can grab a free copy of my book to help you start going through some of these lifestyle changes.
I also have a mini course that can help walk you through immune-related problems.
It will give you guides to help recover from viruses, and undo any damage done.
Nutrition is incredibly important when it comes to immune health. You can find some immune-boosting foods in my video, so you can start bolstering the immune system.
If you do have negative tests, I hope this was helpful.
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