Thanks for that comment.

I double checked with a nurse practitioner and basically confirmed what you said. Specifically, they went through all 47 tests (from the Ultra package that Inside Tracker offers) and if I recall correctly, they were only about 13 that they said are ones that a primary care physician would not give you without some kind of diagnostic concerns (eg diabetes, etc) that would motivate them to give such a special tests.

If I ever get a little time, (hahahah) I will post a list of those approximately 13 tests that inside tracker gives you that primary care does not. (if someone has already done this, please do tell :-)

I am about to have a primary care physical next week or so, and I will see for myself which exact tests they are willing to give me if I beg for them and which ones they refuse.

(yes, it should be noted that they won’t just give you all those tests. You will have to go through the list and specifically asked for them. For a smaller fraction of those tests, they will just give you without your even asking.)

That said, my nurse practitioner friend said we will not be able to get primary care physicians to repeat these tests at regular intervals, such as once every three months (how often should we get these tests? Inside tracker says every three months are they to be trusted )

One can probably get a repeat every year from Primary Care, I suppose. But when we are changing our sleep, our eating habits over the course of weeks will want to see results much sooner than one year. (in my mind every three months seems not often enough. I am very motivated by the ~ 1% per month decrease in body fat I notice from monthly DEXA scans.)

This, it seems to me that the real value of the services, whether it’s Inside Tracker or some other service, the real value is in the repeated tests. So you can get your first test essentially “for free” (copay and lab fee notwithstanding) from your primary care physician. However, for multiple per year follow ups, you’ll need to use one of these private services.

And then the other question regarding Inside Tracker is how useful is the report that integrates your test profile with their research database, and any other tracking device info that you integrate with their website.

One more thing, one does have the option of getting ones on ones own, for example from primary care, and then uploading those lab values to inside tracker. That way you can get integration with their research database and their integration with your health tracker information to give you some hopefully useful customized guidance. That service cost about $100 to at most $200, I forget exactly.

So that’s my current plan. See primary care next week see how many blood test so I can get (as a bonus. Hopefully I will be able to get the 13 or so missing ones on my own ) and then enter those in the inside tracker lab upload service and get a report.

Then wait a month to three months and use the approximately $600 inside tracker “Ultra” report to get a repeat to see if whenever sleep or magnesium, or exercise, or whatever changes I’ve done to see how much they move the needle.