We track our steps and sleep daily—so why are we still relying on once-a-year health checkups? A deep dive into Function Health’s approach to early disease detection and proactive health monitoring.
Yes, and no. We did re-testing related to outliers and all was good. I already did my own testing several years ago and was put on the path of figuring several things out. If I hadn’t done that already, the issues would have surfaced now. Awareness can spur action. This round was confirmation that my actions are all in a positive direction.
Highly recommend “The Age of Scientific Wellness” By Lee Hood. It speaks to developing platforms using biomarker data to prevent disease. Lee is a visionary and continues to work towards improving lives at 86 years old.
I think the extensive biomarker based outputs such as those offered by Function Health is in early stages and it will probably be a while until some of the new kids on the block so to speak are clinically validated. That probably explains why the clinician notes are generic in nature.
Also, unless a causal mechanism to disease(s) and ideally evaluating success (and failure) of intervention data for specific set of biomarkers is available, these will continue to be more of "nice to have" information for most people. However, for more proactive folks, assessing trends over a course of time and getting a sense for how specific interventions (say reducing calorie intake or increasing aerobic exercises) impact the trend may still be useful over the long run.
Thanks but no. I’m interested in living my life not tracking my every parameter. I once heard an oncologist react to news about a test that would let patients know of their risk for a recurrence of CRC this way, “If we don’t have successful treatment, knowing something is coming does no good, and is psychologically harmful to the patient.” Be careful what you seek
Lana, thank you for your comment. I agree that it is not very useful to track a biomarker if there is no clinically relevant treatment associated with it. On the other hand, there is enough data to suggest that cancer cells respond better to treatment when diagnosed early. There is also universal acknowledgment that getting a CAC (Calcium score) test done to detect cardiovascular disease is also extremely helpful.
I’ve found my results to me enormously helpful with advocating for myself with the limited PCP time and attention.
That is awesome Cara. Did you find stuff that the annual checkup did not reveal?
Yes, and no. We did re-testing related to outliers and all was good. I already did my own testing several years ago and was put on the path of figuring several things out. If I hadn’t done that already, the issues would have surfaced now. Awareness can spur action. This round was confirmation that my actions are all in a positive direction.
Highly recommend “The Age of Scientific Wellness” By Lee Hood. It speaks to developing platforms using biomarker data to prevent disease. Lee is a visionary and continues to work towards improving lives at 86 years old.
Thanks a lot. I will check it out
I think the extensive biomarker based outputs such as those offered by Function Health is in early stages and it will probably be a while until some of the new kids on the block so to speak are clinically validated. That probably explains why the clinician notes are generic in nature.
Also, unless a causal mechanism to disease(s) and ideally evaluating success (and failure) of intervention data for specific set of biomarkers is available, these will continue to be more of "nice to have" information for most people. However, for more proactive folks, assessing trends over a course of time and getting a sense for how specific interventions (say reducing calorie intake or increasing aerobic exercises) impact the trend may still be useful over the long run.
Thanks but no. I’m interested in living my life not tracking my every parameter. I once heard an oncologist react to news about a test that would let patients know of their risk for a recurrence of CRC this way, “If we don’t have successful treatment, knowing something is coming does no good, and is psychologically harmful to the patient.” Be careful what you seek
Lana, thank you for your comment. I agree that it is not very useful to track a biomarker if there is no clinically relevant treatment associated with it. On the other hand, there is enough data to suggest that cancer cells respond better to treatment when diagnosed early. There is also universal acknowledgment that getting a CAC (Calcium score) test done to detect cardiovascular disease is also extremely helpful.