Is Preventative Blood Work Worth It?
My experience with Function Health and Functional Medicine
👋 🌴🌊🏀 Hello, my friend. I’m feeling grateful this morning as 1/ My son and I are about to drive up to Raleigh to watch our beloved UCONN Huskies play in March Madness (Let’s goooo!!!) and 2/ I just retuned from sunny Turks & Caicos where my family and I were lucky enough to be vacationing this week. While we were having fun in the sun, my recent Function Health results were in the back of my mind. So I thought I’d share some insight today into my experience with getting this extensive blood work done— the good parts and the less good parts.
Let’s do it!
Intentional Wisdom x Peloton
Don’t forget to join the Intentional Wisdom community on Peloton (link here). I’m at the bottom of the leaderboard this week as I have not been “Peloton’ing” down in T&C. Hopefully the swimming and kayaking made up for it.
This week’s challenge: Complete 3 strength workouts. 💪
Function Health - Extensive Bloodwork 🩸
Back in October, I had my first blood draw with Function Health. If you’re not familiar, Function Health is a service that lets you get blood drawn at a local lab, then analyzes your results and gives you insights across 100+ biomarkers. It covers everything from heart health to metabolic health, immunity, nutrients, and hormonal health—all for $500 per year.
When I got my results, I was generally encouraged. My biological age came back 11 years younger than my actual age, almost all of my markers looked good, and while my cholesterol was a little bit elevated, it wasn’t anything that I was particularly worried about.
But one thing stood out: my ANA (antinuclear antibody) levels were abnormal. ANA is a marker often associated with autoimmune diseases, and while I wasn’t experiencing major symptoms, it definitely caught my attention.
My Doctor’s Response: “It’s Nothing to Worry About”👨⚕️
I brought up the ANA result to my primary care doctor, and his response was basically: don’t worry about it. He told me that a large percentage of people who take these kinds of tests end up with elevated ANA levels, and that it’s often not a cause for concern. He gave me the sense that this kind of testing sometimes results in a lot of unnecessary calls to rheumatologists.
I understood that answer but wasn’t necessarily satisfied with it. I wasn’t panicking by any means, but I also wasn’t comfortable ignoring something that could be an early warning sign.
A New Symptom: Dry Eyes 👁️
Around that same time, I started noticing something strange: extremely dry eyes. Not just mild dryness—persistent, frustrating dryness that I hadn’t dealt with before. I started looking into it, and sure enough, dry eyes can be linked to several autoimmune diseases.
That, combined with my ANA numbers, was enough convince me that a follow-up autoimmune panel was a good idea even if my doctor wasn’t advocating for it. So, I went back to Function Health and ordered their more extensive autoimmune panel.
And that’s when things got even more interesting.
More Tests, More Red Flags 🚩🚩
The deeper panel flagged several other abnormalities tied to autoimmune disorders. One of the biggest? A spike in my high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP)—which is a marker of inflammation and is commonly associated with autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
Additionally, I had several other autoimmunity markers that were ‘out of range’ including Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide (CCP) AB (ICG), Rheumatoid Factor (lgM) and my ANA pattern.
At this point, I decided there was more to dig into but that I needed to work with someone who could help me interpret and act on these results in a meaningful way. That’s when I decided to seek out a functional medicine doctor — basically someone who would take the time to look at the full picture from taking a (very comprehensive) health history to assessing blood work, diet, supplements, stress, sleep and everything else that could possibly play a role.
Enter Functional Medicine ⛑️
I found a great functional medicine doctor close to where I live in Charlotte, someone who used to work as an ER doctor in New York City during COVID.
She went through all of my biomarkers, test results, and health history, and after reviewing everything, she agreed that there’s likely something going on with my immune system — or at least that something is causing inflammation in my body and that it needs to be investigated further. So, we put together a plan.
Interestingly, she told me that she’s been seeing a real spike in autoimmune disorders post-COVID.
Could that being playing role for me? Too early to tell. I’ve had COVID four times now, so is it possible that COVID triggered or accelerated an autoimmune issue or at least had something to do with the inflammation? Not sure it’s possible to say with any degree of certainty but I’m not ruling anything out.
The Plan: Supplements, More Testing, and Diet Changes
Anyhow, after a comprehensive analysis of my health, bloodwork, etc., we came up with a detailed plan to start digging deeper into what could be driving inflammation in my body:
Supplements – I was already taking fish oil so we’re sticking with that. I was also already taking red yeast rice and berberine for cholesterol, but she suggested adding CoQ10 as well. She also put me on vitamin D as my levels were low. I’m also going to do a reset of my gut micro biome using something called Biocide followed by probiotics
Follow-up blood tests – She ordered additional autoimmune panels, inflammation markers, and metabolic tests. I’ll be getting these done in the coming weeks and it sounds like these will be covered by insurance.
Environmental toxin testing – We’re testing for mold exposure, heavy metals, and other toxins that could be triggering inflammation. Some of these markers were already included in my Function Health panel, but we’re going deeper in a few areas where she thinks it’s warranted.
Dietary changes – Her approach is a Mediterranean-style, anti-inflammatory diet, but with a real emphasis on keeping inflammation as low as possible. That means cutting back on red meat and dairy while focusing on fruits, vegetables, ancient grains, and healthy fats. I love the idea of trying to address inflammation through food instead of medicine if I possibly can and I’m very willing to adjust my diet — even materially — if ends up working for me. I’ll also be taking a month off dairy to see how my body responds.
Is all of this just a wild goose chase? A solution in search of a problem? Maybe, but I don’t think so. That said, if you’re considering getting extensive, preventative blood work done through Function Health or a similar service, I do think it’s important for you to consider both the pro’s and con’s. Here’s how I would assess them:
The Benefits of Preventative Blood Work
1. More Transparency = More Control
I like knowing what’s going on inside my body. Having access to this level of blood testing—without needing to go through the traditional medical system—gives me the ability to be proactive rather than reactive.
2. Early Detection Can Be a Game Changer
If something is going on, I’d rather find out sooner rather than later. A standard 15-minute checkup wouldn’t have flagged any of this. Instead of just treating my dry eyes with eye drops, I’m now looking at the root cause—potential systemic inflammation.
3. The Medicine 3.0 Approach
Peter Attia, in his book Outlive, talks about how we’re shifting from Medicine 2.0 (treating diseases once they appear) to Medicine 3.0 (proactively identifying and managing risk factors before disease even manifests). That’s exactly what this is: getting ahead of problems before they become unmanageable.
The Downsides (Or, Why This Might Not Be for Everyone)
1. It Can Lead to Stress & Anxiety
This process has 100% caused me stress and anxiety. Some might argue that I’ve unnecessarily done this to myself — maybe, but if I end up identifying a potential problem early, it will have been worth it in my mind.
The way Function works is that your biomarkers start populating in the app before you receive any analysis. So inevitably, when measures start coming in ‘out of range’ you end up going to “Dr. Google” and that’s almost always a recipe for inducing stress and anxiety.
Ultimately, a clinician (or is it AI?) at Function reviews your results and you get a full write-up on what everything means and next steps you should consider. But in my experience — especially if something abnormal is flagged — you’re going to want to partner with an actual doctor to put everything in perspective and interpret the results.
2. It Can Get Expensive
While $500 per year for Function Health seems reasonable, the follow-up tests, supplements, and doctor visits can add up quickly. I’m being mindful of not going overboard, but it’s something to be aware of.
3. If You Go Looking for Something, You’ll Probably Find It
There’s an argument that if you go searching for problems, you’ll find them. Some people might prefer not to know every little abnormality in their body, especially if it’s something that may never turn into a real issue. I’d personally rather know, but this is exactly that — a personal choice.
What’s Next?
Over the next few months, I’ll be:
Dialing in my diet to focus on anti-inflammatory foods.
Testing and retesting to see how my biomarkers change over time.
Working closely with my doctor to determine if this is a true autoimmune issue or something else (like an environmental trigger).
If I do end up with an autoimmune diagnosis, that’s not ideal. In fact, it’s scary, disappointing and something I’m pretty concerned about, if I’m honest. That said, the disease would’ve been there anyway—I just would’ve found out later, potentially when it was much harder to manage. Knowing sooner would give me the power to take action early.
So we’ll see what happens. Either way, I think I’ll be focusing heavily going forward on reducing and controlling inflammation in my body. It just makes a ton of sense to me. I’ll likely be writing and podcasting more on this topic in the months to come so I’ll look forward to sharing what I learn — and if you’ve got thoughts on this topic or have had similar experiences — I’d love to hear from you.
Until then, thanks as always for reading. And I’ll see you next week.
And let’s go Huskies! Beat Florida!
Greg
Content Diet
📙The Complete Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Beginners - Calimeris & Cook — For guidance on the low-inflammation / Mediterranean-style diet referenced above, I grabbed this book which is laid out in an understandable way and gives clear guidance on foods to choose/avoid but lots of meal ideas & recipes.