A Tiny Mineral With A Big Purpose: Why Your Magnesium Levels Are Critical

It’s been linked to issues ranging from sleepless nights to type 2 diabetes, but most people aren’t even aware of the importance of their magnesium levels. It’s not a headline-grabbing topic to be sure, but you may be surprised by how big a role this tiny mineral plays in your well-being. At Any Lab Test Now we realize the critical role magnesium plays, and since helping you take control of your health is our goal, we want you to know about the magic mineral, magnesium.

Magnesium-the magic mineral

If your body has worker bees, magnesium is one of them! Your body needs it in order to perform more than 300 different biochemical reactions — things like protein synthesis, muscle and nerve functions, blood glucose control, and blood pressure regulation. But magnesium doesn’t get a break when all that work is done. It’s also required for energy production and contributes to bone building, calcium and potassium transportation, and the synthesis of our DNA! Because of magnesium’s many roles in the body, it plays a major role in disease prevention and overall health.

Lowdown on low levels

So how much magnesium do you need? Well, that depends on your age and your gender. What many health officials seem to agree on is that, particularly as we age. Researchers are beginning to consider the potential link between the lower intake of magnesium, to the increased rate of chronic disease. And it appears that when it comes to magnesium deficiency, a deficit of marginal to moderate proportions could be related to chronic inflammatory response conditions. So basically, scientists suspect that your magnesium tank doesn’t have to be flat empty for your body to start making bad choices. found that this marginal to moderate magnesium deficiency, through aggravating chronic inflammatory stress, may be contributing to a host of life-threatening diseases:

  • Atherosclerosis and stroke
  • High blood pressure
  • Osteoporosis
  • Type 2 diabetes mellitus
  • Certain types of cancer

But that’s not all. Some experts believe low levels of magnesium are linked to even more problems including; migraine headaches, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, premenstrual syndrome, and impotence.

Signs and symptoms

Some people are going to be more susceptible to magnesium deficiency. Having a bad diet is a pretty obvious cause. Not so obvious causes include; alcoholism, chronic stress, uncontrolled diabetes, and even some medications including certain diuretics and heartburn medications.

What makes diagnosis so difficult is the wide range of symptoms, many of which can be attributed to other causes. Things like; hyper-excitability, irritability, muscle cramps, restless legs, fatigue, depression, insomnia, tingling or numbness, rapid heartbeat, poor memory, anxiety, even hallucinations in severe cases. On a side note, having too much magnesium isn’t good either, though this condition is less likely to occur.

Take Control of Your health

You see how critical magnesium is to your health, that’s why it’s so important for you to know that you have the proper levels. The Magnesium Test available at Any Lab Test Now is quick and easy. It’s a simple blood test that generally takes between 24 to 72 hours for results. In particular, we encourage people with existing cardiovascular disease to have their magnesium levels checked to ensure they are getting enough to prevent cardiac arrhythmia. And since magnesium and calcium levels in the body are closely linked, the test can also be used to determine underlying causes of chronic, unexplained low calcium or potassium levels that are not improving with supplements.

If you find your levels are low, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor. In the meantime, try to increase your intake of whole grains, leafy green vegetables, nuts and beans. They are all rich in magnesium and other good-for-you stuff.

Resolution #1…A More Balanced YOU!

Resolution #1…A More Balanced YOU!

Ellie loved the jolly jingle of the holidays; and making warm and wonderful memories for her family. She hasn’t enjoyed the stress, weight gain, and lack of energy that ushered in the new year though. Truth be told, she’s been battling those feelings, and a host of other “issues” for some time, but chalks it up to a busy life, not enough exercise and a less-than-ideal diet. She’s determined that her New Year’s resolutions THIS year will change all that. But wait. Could there be more to Ellie’s feelings of an imbalanced life? It is possible fluctuating hormones are the culprit.

Hormones affect everything, from sleep quality to hair loss to libido. Hormone health is very important and an imbalance can wreak havoc in every area of your life. Hormone imbalances can occur at any time in a woman’s life — especially during puberty, menopause or perimenopause. A good first step in achieving balance and ensuring your hormones are working in harmony is to find out what you are dealing with.

Any Lab Test Now knows how important women’s health is and how often women care for themselves LAST. That’s why we offer Take Home Hormone Kits that can be picked up at Any Lab Test Now and completed at your convenience. Return shipping and materials are included, and results are received in days.

  • Dry, Discolored or Wrinkled Skin?
    Loss of elasticity, collagen and moisture can take the luster off your skin. The Skin Vitality Take Home Hormone Kit is a simple dried blood spot and saliva test that can get fast results. If you discover an imbalance, it’s possible that topical hormone therapies may be just what the doctor ordered to restore your skin’s gentle glow
  • Disturbed, Fitful or No Sleep?
    Try the Sleep Balance Take Home Hormone Kit. Melatonin and cortisol should be working in concert to help you sleep and wake on normal cycles. If that’s not the case, this simple dried urine test determines if your levels of either are out of whack. Test results can help you make the lifestyle changes you need to catch more ZZZs.
  • Stressed, Tired, Wired and Anxious?
    Adrenal is the “master stress” hormone and if yours is not at optimal operation you could experience allergies, anxiety, irritability, infertility, sugar cravings, decreased energy — the list goes on and on. Results of the Adrenal Stress Take Home Hormone Kit, a simple saliva test, can be used to begin relieving your symptoms and reducing long-term disease risks.
  • Lethargic, Gaining Weight, Depressed?
    Try The Elements-Thyroid Take Home Hormone Kit. An estimated 60 percent of people with thyroid disease don’t realize it. This dried blood spot and dried urine test measures thyroid hormone levels and tests for deficiencies of beneficial elements as well as the presence of toxic elements. With your results, you can work with your physician to restore optimal thyroid function.
  • Persistent Weight Problems and Low Metabolism?
    Sadly, the U.S. ranks as the fattest nation in the world with the highest prevalence of obesity among adults over 40. If you struggle with maintaining a healthy weight, the Weight Management Take Home Hormone Kit, a dried blood spot and saliva test, measures hormones, vitamins and insulin. Your results will help you and your physician create a roadmap for achieving a healthy weight and avoiding long-term health risks.

Armed with information these tests provide, you are empowered to feel better, think better, and live your best life. Make your New Year’s resolution a more hormonally-balanced YOU!

Call or visit your Any Lab Test Now location to ask about getting a Take Home Hormone Kit today.

Setting Weight Management Goals for the New Year

It’s December and time has run out! Did you complete all of your 2017 Resolutions? It’s OK if you didn’t, but it’s time to think about what you’ll change in the upcoming year to reach your goals. There are many resources that can help you finally check off all your New Year’s resolutions, and one of those is the array of tests at Any Lab Test Now. If you’re concerned about particular health goals, like weight management, we are here to help you gauge your progress and learn what’s working and what’s not working so your 2018 resolution to-do list can get “to-done.”

Comprehensive Metabolic Panel

This panel can help you identify issues with your body’s overall metabolism, which can be impacted by organ function, nutrient intake and activity level. By measuring your electrolyte level, kidney and liver function, and the overall composition of your blood, we’re able to tell if your body is performing optimally. There are several ways your body can get out of balance, which can keep you from losing weight or seeing results from your training. If you don’t want your effort to go to waste, make sure your body is performing at its peak with a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel!

Micronutrient Test

What if you think your diet is perfect, but you’re still not seeing the results you want? Our Micronutrient Panel can tell you how balanced your nutritional intake is by showing you the overall balance of micronutrients in your bloodstream. Your macronutrients — protein, fat and carbohydrates— play a huge role in your diet, and they need to be consumed in large amounts. But your micronutrient intake matters just as much, and they’re needed in such finite amounts, that any deficiencies can have a profound effect on your overall health and wellness. Vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and antioxidants determine your energy levels, fat-burning rate, muscle development and many other aspects of your metabolism. This test can help you determine if you’re absorbing enough of these micronutrients for your body to perform at its best.

Men’s or Women’s Health Profile

This test takes a step back to examine your overall health. If your body is on the verge of a chronic health issue or has some unidentified health issue, it will inevitably lead to difficulty managing your weight. This is because the common symptoms of ongoing, chronic health issues, which can often include fatigue, muscle loss, weight changes, changes in thirst or urination, or mood changes, can impede your weight loss efforts. If you develop chronic health issues like thyroid problems, diabetes, heart disease or hormone imbalances, these can make it nearly impossible to feel your best.

New Year’s Resolutions aren’t always easy to accomplish. But just because your goals are taking a bit longer to reach than you might like doesn’t mean it’s time to give up. Each new milestone is a chance to change your approach and find something that will work better, faster or more easily than what you tried before. To get an inside look on how your body is functioning and find out how you can optimize your diet and training, find your local Any Lab Test Now today!

Got High Blood Pressure? You Could Be Putting Yourself at Risk

“High blood pressure,” also known as hypertension, is a phrase we hear all too often in the American medical landscape. So much so, in fact, that the words have become normalized as something you will most likely hear at least once throughout the course of your lifetime. According to the CDC, one in three American adults has high blood pressure, and only about half of those with high blood pressure have the condition under control. This is dangerous news as high blood pressure, often dubbed “the silent killer,” is capable of wreaking havoc on your health. It often has no warning signs or symptoms, but can set you up for an endless list of problems, including the No. 1 cause of death in the United States: heart disease.

The Silent Killer

If high blood pressure presents no signs or symptoms in most people, how can you know if you have it? The best way to keep tabs on your health is to regularly check your blood pressure with the help of a medical expert. By monitoring your blood pressure levels on a regular basis, you can be better prepared to take the steps toward lowering your blood pressure if necessary. If left untreated, your high blood pressure could be opening you up to a whole host of dangerous and even deadly health problems, including:

  • High blood pressure can cause a number of disabilities if left unchecked. Lack of blood flow to various areas of the body can cause harm to those areas, leaving them with permanent damage. One common result of untreated hypertension is vision impairment or blindness due to blood vessel damage in the eyes.
  • Poor Quality of Life. Not only is high blood pressure dangerous, but it can make your life more difficult on a daily basis. Left untreated, high blood pressure can cause cognitive impairment, dementia and memory problems, nerve damage, bone loss, sleep apnea and even sexual dysfunction.
  • Untreated hypertension can lead to an aneurysm due to damaged arteries, heart failure, heart attack and stroke. It can also cause damage to the kidneys, resulting in kidney scarring and kidney failure.

Consider all of the ways in which these could impact your life as you know it. Untreated high blood pressure could mean not being able to drive and losing the independence of getting yourself around. It could mean that you have trouble remembering your grandchild’s birthday. Worse yet, it could force you to say goodbye to your loved ones too soon. Get tested before it’s too late.

Take Control of Your Health

If you are worried about having high blood pressure, the best thing you can do is get your blood pressure tested. Once you know your numbers, you can take the necessary actions toward improving your health. This would include scheduling regular check-ups with your doctor, and asking about the changes you can make to keep your blood pressure at a safe and healthy level.

Any Lab Test Now offers several options for blood pressure testing and monitoring, including the Basic Check-Up Panel and other Health & Wellness Tests. Nothing is more important than your health. Don’t allow your high blood pressure to put your health at risk. Talk with the experts at Any Lab Test Now to learn what testing options are right for you, and take the steps towards preventing this silent killer.

Don’t let diabetes sneak up on you

Here at Any Lab Test Now, we believe you should have the ability to take control of your health. That’s the same message being shared this November for National Diabetes Month. This year’s theme: You Are the Center of Your Diabetes Care Team. Any Lab Test Now wants to make it easy for you and your doctor to not only diagnose your diabetes, but also to treat it. That’s why we offer a wide range of options that can help you and your physician in understanding if you have the disease and make sure you are managing it properly as well.

Understanding Diabetes

Let’s start with a brief understanding of just what diabetes is. Diabetes is a group of diseases that occur when your blood glucose (also called blood sugar) is too high. That’s bad because it can begin to cause all kinds of health problems, like heart disease, nerve damage, kidney disease, even blindness. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that 30.3 million people in the United States have diabetes as of 2017. An even more frightening fact: Twenty-three percent of those people don’t even know they have diabetes!

Risk Factors and Symptoms

So how can Any Lab Test Now help? Well, we can help on two fronts. The first is diagnosis. There are a number of risk factors that could lead you down the path to diabetes. According to the NIH, some are related to your genetics, others to your lifestyle. They include:

  • Family history
  • Over age 45
  • African American, American Indian, Asian American, or Hispanic/Latino
  • Have high blood pressure
  • Have a low HDL level or high triglycerides
  • Are not physically active
  • Have a history of heart disease or stroke

Take all these risk factors into consideration as well as these symptoms as you start to ponder your own diabetes status.

  • Increased thirst and urination
  • Increased hunger
  • Unexplained weight loss
  • Fatigue
  • Blurred vision
  • Numbness or tingling in the feet or hands
  • Wounds that do not heal

It’s important to note that many people with type 2 diabetes have no symptoms, or they’re so mild that people don’t notice them. That’s one of the reasons it’s important to know the risk factors as well.

Take Control of Your Diabetes

At Any Lab Test Now, we offer a total of six lab tests designed to help you and your doctor diagnose and manage your diabetes.

  1. The Diabetes Maintenance Panel includes four tests: Complete Blood Count, Glucose-Serum, Hemoglobin A1c, and a Diabetic Urinalysis. This is an effective panel for both diabetics and for those who want to see if they have diabetes.
  2. The Diabetic Urinalysis (Microalbumin) will test for the protein albumin in your urine. It’s something that the kidneys usually filter out, so if it shows up in the results, it can alert you and your doctor to potential diabetes complications like kidney disease.
  3. The Glucose Blood Test is the most common test used to diagnose diabetes. Additionally, diabetics self-conduct this test multiple times a day to monitor their blood glucose levels.
  4. The Glucose Tolerance Test is a way to check how your body metabolizes sugar. Your blood will be collected then you’ll be given a cup of glucose to drink. After that, your blood will be collected again every 30 to 60 minutes. It usually takes up to three hours to complete the test and can confirm diabetes.
  5. The Hemoglobin A1c is useful in helping diabetics determine if their disease is under control. It’s a valuable measure of the overall blood glucose levels over a period of several months. The test can also help detect pre-diabetes and diabetes.
  6. The Insulin Lab Test can let you know if your body is producing too much or too little insulin. Too little insulin, also known as insulin resistance, is often associated with type 2 diabetes. If you have pre-diabetes, this test can be used to monitor whether diet and lifestyle changes are having a great enough impact to reverse or improve your condition.

All of these tests can provide you and your doctor with the knowledge necessary to properly treat and manage your condition. Don’t let diabetes sneak up on you. Know your risk factors and your symptoms and take control of your health through walk-in testing. Your local Any Lab Test Now location can help you do that.

Do You Know What’s Up?

Since 1995, National Health Education Week has been celebrated during the third full week of October. It is hosted by the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE), and its purpose is to increase national awareness on major public health issues while promoting a better understanding of the role of health education. This year, October 16 – 20 marks National Health Education Week.

The week’s theme celebrates “Scaling New Heights: Health educators know what’s up.” It aims to get people talking about how the role of a public health educator is changing and how modern-day public health professionals impact community health issues. From Tuesday’s Twitter discussions (Interested? Follow #NHEW at 1 PM EDT.) to Wednesday’s webinar on the importance of advocacy, the week is packed full of information and online events. Professionals are also encouraged to create and promote local events that are tied to National Health Education Week.

At Any Lab Test Now, we’re doing our part to spread the word about contemporary health issues and how health education specialists work to solve them by raising awareness on topics such as teen drug testing, increased levels of cholesterol and hormone imbalances. Like health professionals with other areas of focus, Any Lab Test Now strives daily to be a dependable and convenient resource for your health and wellness education.

We’re here to help you Take Control of Your Health®. Any Lab Test Now offers testing that will allow you to establish a health baseline through our precise lab analysis. The tests will help you uncover “what’s up” with your own health so that you can work with your doctor to feel your best each day.

We offer health solutions specifically tailored to your needs:

Women’s Health: You keep the household running on all cylinders, but are you taking care of your health? At Any Lab Test Now, we offer lab tests you need to monitor your health, including but not limited to Hormone Tests, Vitamin D Levels, Menopause Screening Panel and Hemoglobin A1c.

Men’s Health: We get it: The doctor’s office isn’t your preferred hangout spot. Any Lab Test Now takes pride in getting you in and out as efficiently as possible. Our testing includes Diabetes Screening, Testosterone Test, Micronutrient Test, Thyroid Panel and so much more.

In addition to personalized testing, Any Lab Test Now recognizes that many of our customers are faced with having no insurance or high deductibles. Our lab tests are both affordable and transparent — you know what you must pay up front instead of receiving a surprise bill later.

This October, join us in recognizing National Health Education Week by stopping in to your local laboratory testing center to discover “what’s up” with your health. It’s for the betterment of the community and the environment, as well as you and your family!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month: What Can You Do to Help Fight Breast Cancer?

Breast cancer affects us all, one way or another. Whether you have had it, know someone who has had it or know anyone worried about having it in the future, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is meant for you. Every October, people across the nation take steps to raise awareness about breast cancer and what can be done to help the millions of people affected by breast cancer every year. This year, we invite you to participate in Breast Cancer Awareness Month by getting screened for breast cancer, or encouraging someone else to do the same.

Screening Saves Lives

Over 220,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and of those women, it is estimated that about 40,000 will die from the disease. One of the best ways to fight breast cancer is to get screened for it yourself, and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Finding breast cancer early through mammograms and other screenings could reduce the number of breast cancer deaths by as much as 40 percent! Think of the lives that could be saved if you make a habit of regular breast cancer screenings while bringing awareness to others in your life as well.

If you are a woman, it is recommended that you be screened for breast cancer every year after the age of 40. However, there are reasons a woman under 40 may want to consider a breast cancer screening as well, including:

  • Having a strong family history of breast cancer.
  • Having a personal history of breast cancer.
  • Having the gene mutations BCRA1 or BCRA2.

Though it is less likely, men can get breast cancer too, with about 2,470 new cases diagnosed each year in the U.S. If you are a man with certain risk factors for breast cancer, such as a strong family or an inherited gene mutation, it is a good idea to get screened for breast cancer. If you are concerned about your risk for breast cancer, talk with your doctor about options for early detection and what you can do to lower your risk.

Schedule a Breast Cancer Screening Now

Any Lab Test Now offers several testing options for those who are concerned they may have breast cancer or simply want to become better informed about their breast health.

The Cancer Screen and Tumor Marker Panel for women is a great option for women who are concerned they might have cancer. This panel tests for the most common cancers.

If you have already been diagnosed with breast cancer, the Breast Cancer Monitoring Panel can help you and your physician monitor your cancer treatment and recovery process.

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, let’s try to beat breast cancer, one screening at a time — starting with yourself! Contact the experts at Any Lab Test Now to learn what testing options are right for you, and encourage others in your life to get screened for breast cancer, too. Remember, early detection saves lives!

Iron Deficiency

About three million of us suffer needlessly from a condition that seriously and negatively impacts our quality of life. But it doesn’t need to be that way.

The condition is called anemia. It is when your body lacks enough red blood cells to carry oxygen to your tissues. Anemia can sound frightening because it involves your blood. Yet the treatment can be as easy as changing what’s on your plate for dinner. And finding out if you are anemic can be done quickly and easily with a simple test from Any Lab Test Now! The answer to the test can help you and your doctor put you back on the path to feeling better.

Anemia Symptoms

The symptoms can often be so mild that they go unnoticed or seem like they are just “part of life.” Do any of these things sound familiar? Fatigue, weakness, pale or yellow skin, irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, dizziness or lightheadedness, chest pain, cold hands and feet, headache, irritability — these symptoms of anemia are often dismissed or ignored. Often, the fatigue becomes overwhelming. Dr. Allen Nissenson, nephrologist and professor of medicine at UCLA, says it doesn’t have to be the norm for the millions with anemia.

Nutrition and Anemia

In order to make enough healthy red blood cells, your body needs an adequate supply of iron, folate and vitamin B-12. Of course, not everyone consumes the right quantity of these nutrients. For this reason, the most common type of anemia is caused by poor nutrition, according to Dr. Nissenson. Our increasing obsession with diets — and the growing number of strict vegetarians and vegans — is adding to the problem. That’s why the Anemia Panel from Any Lab Test Now checks not only your blood count, but also your iron, folate and vitamin B-12 levels.

Whether the anemia is iron deficiency anemia or vitamin deficiency anemia, the treatment is likely as simple as supplements and a change in diet. The best sources of iron are meat, poultry and egg yolks. To a lesser extent, you can get iron from eating green leafy vegetables, dried fruits, dried beans and peas, and enriched whole-grain cereals and bread. You need to also eat foods rich in Vitamin C, like citrus fruits, to help your body absorb the iron. The dark green leafy veggies are also your best source of folic acid. You’ll only get vitamin B-12 by eating animal foods — especially meat, fish, eggs and milk. That’s a real challenge to those following a strict vegan diet.

Who is at Risk?

Your diet isn’t the only thing that can put you at risk of an iron deficiency. You may eat all the right foods but have an intestinal disorder — like Crohn’s disease or celiac disease — that keeps you from properly absorbing the nutrients you eat. Other causes of anemia include:

  • Significant blood loss
  • Heavy menstrual periods
  • Possible reactions to birth control
  • Kidney disease

Importance of Treatment

Anemia may not sound threatening, but there can be complications if you don’t treat it. In addition to severe fatigue, anemia can cause pregnancy complications. And if left unchecked too long, it can eventually lead to heart problems because the heart needs to pump more blood to compensate for the lack of oxygen in the blood. That can ultimately lead to an enlarged heart or even heart failure.

Finding out if you have an iron deficiency takes just a few days. The professionals at your local Any Lab Test Now location can help you find out if you need to take the next step with your doctor to boost your iron and change your health for the better.

Effects of Alcohol

We toast our successes. We drown our sorrows. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere! Our world is filled with reasons to pour a drink, yet even a single drink can affect your body. And too much can have a long-lasting impact that isn’t always reversible. Fortunately, it is possible to find out if alcohol is harming your body before it’s too late by taking a simple test from Any Lab Test Now.

What alcohol does

Even one drink starts to affect your body. It changes your brain – making it harder to think clearly and making coordination challenging. Long-term, heavy drinking can cause damage to learning and memory. Abstaining over several months may allow your brain to repair itself at least partially.

Your heart can also be damaged, even in just one evening of binge drinking. Long-term drinking weakens the heart muscle, so it can’t pump enough blood to the organs. The short-term result is shortness of breath, fatigue and swollen legs and feet. The long-term result can be heart failure. Binge drinking can cause the heart to beat too rapidly or irregularly – running a risk of stroke. And women are more likely to have their blood pressure go up as a result of drinking too much than men. The Alcohol Effect Panel from Any Lab Test Now tests for damage to your heart.

In addition, heavy drinking takes a serious toll on the liver, and eventually can lead to cirrhosis of the liver. Quitting won’t reverse the damage, but it will stop it in its tracks. You can get a basic screening of your liver function with the Alcohol Effect Panel from Any Lab Test Now.

The same test will point to potential problems in the pancreas, which is also severely impacted by heavy drinking. The pancreas reacts to alcohol by producing toxic substances and that eventually leads to pancreatitis – a dangerous swelling of the blood vessels in the pancreas. The effects can be managed by not drinking.

And there’s more — alcohol can increase your risk of a list of cancers: mouth, esophagus, throat, liver and breast cancers. It also weakens your immune system. For as long as 24 hours after getting drunk, you may have trouble fighting off infections as serious as pneumonia.

How do you know how much is too much?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but there are guidelines. For men, you shouldn’t have more than four drinks a day or 14 drinks a week. For women, you shouldn’t have more than three drinks a day and no more than seven drinks in a week. Those amounts are considered to be low risk. But low risk is not no risk. If you drink too quickly, have health problems or are over 65, alcohol can cause problems. For some people, any amount at all is too much.

If you are worried that you – or someone you love – does drink too much, there is a way to find out. The FAEE Hair Alcohol Abuse Test available at Any Lab Test Now can determine if someone is alcohol dependent. It uses a small sample of hair and measures the amount of a metabolite of alcohol in that hair. You can use the results of the test to talk with your doctor about what steps to take next to get help.

Having the answers about alcohol – and it’s effect on your body – can be an important step in getting and staying healthy. The medical assistants at your local Any Lab Test Now are there to help you find the right test to get you on the track to taking the best care of yourself.

Hormones and Your Health

The Connection Between an Imbalance and Weight Gain

The statistics concerning adult obesity in the United States are alarming. According to the most recent data, adult obesity rates now exceed 20 percent in all states. A diet high in fat and sugar, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle, is usually to blame. But for some people, both men and women, there is no obvious reason for the additional pounds. These people are eating healthy and getting exercise, yet they still seem to be gaining weight. In that case, there is a possibility that hormones are to blame.

Hormonal Havoc

As we age, hormone levels adjust and can cause hormonal imbalances. This can lead to a number of issues including:

  • Weight gain
  • Obesity
  • Insulin resistance
  • Metabolic syndrome
  • Diabetes

Testing your hormone levels can help explain persistent weight problems and help you avoid the associated medical issues. The first step is to purchase the Weight Management Take Home Hormone Kit at your local Any Lab Test Now location.

Taking the First Step

The Weight Management Take Home Hormone Kit is the first step to getting answers and it can be done in the comfort of your own home. You’ll have to fast for 12 hours for the results to be accurate. It consists of a simple dried blood spot test and a saliva test. Using these, the test measures bioavailable hormone levels. The kit is wide-ranging, testing in nine critical areas:

  • Estradiol (E2) – this is basically a form of estrogen. It is present in both women and men.
  • Progesterone (Pg) and Testosterone (T) – these are hormones that are found in both men and women that help regulate gender and the associated sexual functions.
  • DHEA–S (DS) – helps in evaluating your adrenal gland function.
  • Diurnal Cortisol (Cx4) – helps determine your level of cortisol, a steroid hormone released by your adrenal gland.
  • Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) – checks your body’s production of TSH, which helps regulate how your body uses energy.
  • Vitamin D (D2, D3) – low levels of this vitamin may lead to weight gain according to some studies.
  • Insulin (In) – this measures your insulin production. Insulin is produced by the pancreas and used by the body to transport and convert glucose into usable energy.
  • Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) – checks your blood glucose levels and can detect pre-diabetes.

If you’ve experienced unusual weight gain, are struggling with obesity, or are having difficulty losing weight, the cause could be hormonal havoc.

Results Put You in Control

Test results will usually take between five to seven business days after you return your specimen to the lab. Your results will pinpoint specific hormonal imbalances that can contribute to excessive weight gain and obesity. The comprehensive report also matches your tested hormone levels with reported symptoms so you and your doctor can determine what steps to take so you can achieve optimal health. It’s time to take your health into your own hands with the help of Any Lab Test Now.