Bloodwork · Marker glossary · 16 entries
Name the marker before you buy the bottle
These pages teach the lab half of the supplements pillar. Each entry says what the test is, how a coach reads the conversation range, what it does not diagnose, and which compounds and when-playbooks sit next to it.
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- Coach, not doctor. Aaron Cuha is a coach, not a doctor. No clinical credential is claimed for him, or for these pages. A number on a panel is a conversation starter with a clinician, not a DIY diagnosis. Nothing here is a prescription, a protocol, or a reason to start or stop a medicine. Educational use only. This database summarizes published research and is not medical advice. Where a dose appears it is a record of what a trial or clinic ran, or what people describe doing, with its source attached. Nothing here is a recommendation for personal use.
- Affiliate disclosure. Knowledge stays free. Every page, every guide and every tool is free to read and stays free. Lab-panel affiliate links, when they exist, live on /bloodwork/partners and print what is earned on the row, or that nothing is earned today. This glossary does not sell panels. The Archive does not order labs.
- Three lab stories stay separate. /bloodwork is the human panel. /testing and /prices/labs are peptide certificate chemistry. /supplements/quality is what is in the bottle.
Omega-3 index
percent of red-cell fatty acidsThe share of EPA and DHA in red-blood-cell membranes. It is a status marker for oily-fish intake and for EPA/DHA capsules, not a diagnosis of heart disease.
Open25-hydroxy vitamin D
ng/mLThe liver storage form of vitamin D, and the test used to judge whether someone is short. It is not the active hormone 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D.
OpenRBC magnesium
mg/dLMagnesium measured inside red cells rather than in serum. Serum holds about 0.3 percent of body magnesium, which is why a normal serum value can sit next to depleted tissue stores.
OpenFerritin
ng/mLA storage-iron protein in blood. It rises when iron stores are high, and it also rises as an acute-phase reactant when something is inflamed.
OpenIron panel
ug/dLThe set that sits beside ferritin: serum iron, transferrin or TIBC, and transferrin saturation. Together they say whether the ferritin story is empty stores, blocked stores, or overload.
OpenHbA1c
percentThe share of hemoglobin that has glucose stuck to it. It estimates average blood glucose over roughly three months.
OpenFasting glucose
mg/dLGlucose in the morning after an overnight fast. A single day, not a three-month average.
OpenFasting insulin
uIU/mLInsulin in the morning after a fast. With fasting glucose it is how people estimate insulin resistance. It is not a universal screening test.
OpenApoB
mg/dLA count of circulating atherogenic particles. Each LDL, VLDL, and Lp(a) particle carries one ApoB.
OpenLDL cholesterol
mg/dLThe cholesterol cargo inside LDL particles, often calculated from a standard lipid panel.
Openhs-CRP
mg/LA sensitive blood marker of inflammation. It is not a diagnosis of a disease, and it rises for many reasons.
OpenLiver enzymes
U/LEnzymes that leak into blood when liver cells are stressed. GGT also rises with alcohol and bile-duct stress.
OpenHomocysteine
umol/LA sulfur amino acid on the folate, B12, and B6 pathway. Blood levels fall when those vitamins go in, if the pathway was the problem.
OpenTSH and free T4
mIU/LTSH is the pituitary signal that tells the thyroid to work. Free T4 is the unbound thyroxine in blood. Together they are the usual first thyroid panel.
OpenBMP electrolytes
mmol/LThe everyday chemistry panel: sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, creatinine / eGFR, and often glucose and calcium. Serum magnesium is sometimes added and is still not RBC magnesium.
OpenLp(a)
nmol/LA genetically set LDL-like particle with an extra protein, apo(a). Diet and most supplements barely move it.
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