Institute For The Future

Nutrients—here, there, everywhere—and for sale

 

 

The range of vitamin supplements available at your neighborhood pharmacy—let alone at a specialty store—can be overwhelming.  BodyBio is a service designed to help you navigate this myriad of choices.  At first I was kind of skeptical (as frequent readers know I often am), but I really liked this image:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to explore further.  The more time I spent on the site, the more intrigued I became.  I am always curious about direct-to-consumer tests that promise to help people make healthier decisions.  The BodyBio Report purports to do just that in terms of revealing what nutrients our bodies are in need of.  Its purpose is: "To provide a superior method for each of us to be able to obtain specific nutrient knowledge as to what supplements we actually need --- as opposed to --- GUESSWORK."

 

 

 

 

 

Originally BodyBio was a research group dedicated to finding out which nutrients had the ability to improve the biomarkers (analytes) of a standard blood test. Matching the respective nutrient to each biomarkers and building the BodyBio Data Base was a monumental task. The research is ongoing because medical studies are being conducted and published world wide every day. Organizing the data and putting it into a usable format was, and is, the chief function of BodyBio. Originally, the end goal was to help doctors to treat their patients through Evidenced Based Nutrition. The effort of trying to improve each biomarker of an individual’s blood test may be the best way to make a positive impact on the entire body. Quite simply, if your biomarkers are healthier… then you are healthier, and what better way to improve health than with those nutrients your body requires based on your personal blood test?

 

 

 

 

 

BodyBio relies on the same basic blood tests—such as a chemistry panel and a CBC—your doctor does to assess your health, but the company says it interprets them more tightly.  Rather than looking to see whether your numbers fall within an accepted range, BodyBio wants to see that your results are right in the middle of the range because "the midpoint is the healthiest number."  

 

 

 

 

The report you get back from BodyBio first graphically depicts how far off your numbers are from the desired middle of the range.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The report explains that the bar graphs on the left show how the person's results differ from what is considered “optimal” which is represented by the “0” line. Lower results are to the left of “0”, the higher results are to the right.  The length of the bar represents how low or how high the results are, how far they are from the midpoint (the “O” line). The percentage of that difference also appears in the “% Status” column. The column right after “% Status” indicates if results are high by a red "H", low by a red "L", or within a normal range by a green "Box."

 

 

 

 

In this partial view of a sample report, John Doe's Basophil Count and High Denisty Lipids (HDL) are particularly low; the latter even falls into the red zone. Some of the values are almost, but not quite, too high and nearly in the yellow zone to the right (Chloride and Low Density Lipids (LDL), for example).

 

 

 

 

In reponse to this assessment, BodyBio provides the consumer with a "Personal Nutrient List."

 

 

 

This report lists the nutrients that the BodyBio program identified as potentially beneficial to your health based on your blood chemistry data. Below each nutrient is a general overview of that nutrient’s activity in the maintaining good health. To the right of the name of each nutrient are stars * . The more stars that appear, the more important it may be for you to increase your total daily intake of that nutrient. To the right of the stars are abbreviates of the names of those tests that were either low or high which correlate to that nutrient. Below the nutrient’s description is the amount of the nutrient recommended to you to increase in your daily diet and supplementation based on your blood chemistry data results.

 

 

 

In the following series of partial screenshots, you can get a sense for how BodyBio explains to a consumer what he needs to do bring his nutrient profile into balance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to admit that I have a sneaking suspicion I am not getting enough B vitamins in my diet, and I haven't talked to my doctor about it.  So getting a report like this might validate my concerns and perhaps influence me enough to remember to take my multivitamin horsepill every morning. 

 

 

 

 

What the report doesn't provide—and what I would like to know—is what foods I should eat more (or less) of in order to reach my desired nutrient levels without popping pills.  And therein lies the catch.  I had briefly forgotten that BodyBio is in the business of selling supplements, including B Complex vitamins and even Evening Primrose Oil. Ah, a tad of skepticism has returned.