Transmutable Explorations

Author: Jason

  • ScaleBlaster Review

    ScaleBlaster Review

    Every home that I’ve ever lived in has had hard water.  There are pros to having hard water, but there are also many cons.  The cons have led me to investigate ways of mitigating hard water, but this also has additional drawbacks.  I recently purchased and installed a ScaleBlaster.  Read on for my ScaleBlaster review.

    Why Care About Hard Water?

    Hard water tends to be high in calcium and magnesium.  Even though these usually make water taste better, they pose many problems when used in a home water system.  Most noticeable are limescale deposits on water fixtures.  This is visibly unsightly, but also leads to damage and a decrease in efficiency to the overall water system.  Hard water makes dissolving soaps more difficult.  This can make showers unpleasant and over time, can lead to damage to the fibers in the clothes that you are laundering using this water.  The lingering, unsightly residues are really the thing that I hate most about hard water.

    Mitigating Hard Water

    The most common way of mitigating hard water is through the use of a water softener.  A water softener is an appliance that uses ion exchange to replace calcium/magnesium ions with sodium ions.  Sounds great, right?  Well, this exchange of ions results in water that doesn’t taste as good.  Also, if you’re trying to avoid added sodium in your diet, you’ve now created a whole new mechanism for it to get into your body.  Many of the places where I’ve experienced hard water, I never really did anything to mitigate it and just dealt with the associated problems.

    The first home that I purchased had a water softener.  I liked not having the visible telltale signs of hard water, but I quickly got annoyed by having to replenish the ‘salt’ in this water softener on a regular basis.  I also noticed that the quality of my homebrew was drastically decreased.  Hops and malts were muted and the mouthfeel of my frequently brewed recipes was ‘off’.  Before this, I hadn’t really given much thought to water chemistry during my brew days.  After a bit of research and getting my ‘post-softener’ water tested, it was clear that this was likely the cause of my brewing woes.  I had one water tap that was pre-softener and I started using that for all of my brewing.

    My current home also came with a water softener.  One of the first things I did was setup the ability to completely bypass it so that with the flip of a few valves, I could have unadulterated water at any tap in the house.  This information will come in handy later.  When brewing, or filling my hot tub, I’d make sure to completely bypass the softener as well.  I still had that annoying problem of having to constantly load the softener with salt and thought that there had to be a better way.

    My ScaleBlaster Review

    Searching around for alternatives, I eventually discovered the ScaleBlaster.  I had my doubts, but finally pulled the trigger when there was a sale on one at Costco.

    What is the ScaleBlaster?

    The ScaleBlaster is a Made in the USA ‘electronic descaling device’.  You install it early on the incoming water line.  This install involves wire wrapping your water pipes in a very specific manner, hooking this wire up to the ScaleBlaster and then plugging the ScaleBlaster into a regular electrical outlet.  The device than produces an oscillating electronic field that changes the calcium molecules.  This causes the ions to precipitate or collide with each other, to the point that they no longer deposit and just come out the other end of your pipes.

    This sounded very interesting.  Technically, it wasn’t softening the water.  My water would still taste great.  I could brew with it.  Best of all, no need to reload with salt!  The ScaleBlaster promised to eliminate the visible problems of hard water.  Even better, it claimed that the alteration of the calcium ions would also allow the water to remove pre-existing scale deposits from my pipes and equipment.

    How did I test?

    Since the ScaleBlaster isn’t actually softening the water, I couldn’t test my water before and after to see how well it works.  Instead, I turned off the water softener for a few weeks before install.  I then took note of how the scale built up on my water fixtures.  Another great visual indicator came from my sprout growing process.  For growing sprouts, you need to run cold water over the top of the tray several times a day.  With the softener off, the top of the tray had noticeable scale development in between waterings.  Now that I had a few objective measurements in addition to the subjective ones, I was ready to begin.

    The Plan

    My plan was to install the ScaleBlaster, bypass the water softener and let it operate for two weeks in this state.  After this time, I was going to do a deep clean of all the fixtures and surfaces to remove the scale.  Then, I would run things for another two weeks and see how things compared to running without the water softener.

    Installation

    Installing the ScaleBlaster was straightforward, but fairly involved in order to make sure everything was perfect.  The biggest issue was the wire wrapping.  It took the better part of an afternoon to properly do the wire wrapping.  This was mostly because I was working in a tight space and had a difficult time perfecting a method to easily manipulate the several feet of wire that needed to be wrapped.  I placed the ScaleBlaster downstream of my existing water filter as recommended in the instructions.  This also allowed me to plug the ScaleBlaster into the same electrical outlet

    Conclusion

    It took a few days, but subjectively, I felt that the ScaleBlaster was working.  Long before doing the ‘deep clean’, I noticed that I was no longer seeing evidence of scale on my sprout trays.  After doing the deep clean, things actually stayed clean.  One annoying issue did develop though… a few toilets in my house started emitting a high frequency whine.  This usually occurred while water was running in other parts of the house.  We discovered that a slight jiggle of the bits inside the tank usually stopped this, but it would regularly come back.  Eventually, I did a deep clean of all components in the tank and this seems to have resolved the issue.

    So is the ScaleBlaster worth it?  It’s been over a month and I haven’t put the original water softener back into rotation.  I’ve read reviews online and some people with very hard water did not seem to have the same experience as me and either returned the ScaleBlaster or used a water softener in conjunction.  Personally, I’m happy with the current setup and knowing that I can easily add the water softener back into the mix if I need to do so.  Have you used the ScaleBlaster?  I’d love to hear about your experience and how you deal with hard water issues.

  • Viome Review

    Viome Review

    More and more research points to the importance of the gut microbiome on many areas of health.  In my quest for improving my fitness, I was hitting plateaus that I suspected could have been related to a least than ideal gut microbiome.  I didn’t want to blindly start trying to ‘improve’ something that I wasn’t completely convinced was lacking, so I started looking for ways to confirm my suspicions.  That’s when I came across Viome.  Read on for my Viome Review.

    What is Viome?

    Viome is an AI-powered health insight platform that bases it’s recommendations on analyzing your gut health.  They offer several different tests that you can choose from with corresponding levels of detailed insights.  Like many of these platforms, they offer a personalized supplement regime based on your results.

    The Tests

    Viome offers three tests in order of increasing cost and number of health scores analyzed:

    Gut Intelligence™ Test – Stool only test

    Health Intelligence™ Test – Stool and blood test

    Full Body Intelligence™ Test – Stool, blood and saliva test

    How it Works

    The samples for all of the tests can be collected at home… no lab visit required!  The instructions for doing so are detailed and presented in a way that makes it easy for anyone to accomplish.  Everything for collecting the samples is included in your kit.  Once you receive it, you need to register it via the mobile app or the website.  You can then collect your samples and send them back to Viome with the included prepaid package.  Your results will then appear in the app within 2 – 3 weeks.  While waiting for your results, you’ll need to complete a series of questionnaires which are used to inform your results.

    The Platform

    Unlike many of these platforms, both the mobile app and website contain the full suite of tools and is also laid out in the same fashion.  The main sections include: Home, Nutrition, Scores, Shop and More.

    Home

    The ‘Home’ section is basically a dashboard that contains bits of information from all of the other sections.  You’ll get a daily ‘superfood’ recommendation and can see the details of your personalized supplement formula.  This section also contains your overall health profile which highlights the number of scores that ‘need improvement’.  You will also see a listing of your ‘Avoid foods’ and ‘Superfoods’.  Finally, there are links to relevant webinars and blog posts.

    Nutrition

    This section is subdivided into two: Your Foods and Your Supplements.  Foods are personalized to your results and labeled Superfood, Enjoy, Minimize and Avoid.  Clicking on individual superfoods and Avoid foods will show information about why you should include/exclude them, along with links to relevant published research.  The list of Supplements are based on the personalized supplement that Viome recommends for you.  Each supplement is displayed with the amounts to be taken per day.  Clicking on each one provides some background information on what the supplement does, identifies the ‘Scores’ that the supplement should positively impact and provides links to published studies on the supplement.

    Scores

    Scores shows your Health, Functional and Pathway Activities scores.  Health scores are for very broad things like Oral Health or Gut Health.  Functional scores represent things like Breath Odor and Metabolic Fitness.  Pathway Activity scores are for biochemical reactions that produce beneficial or harmful molecules.  Each of the scores is a numerical number with a range that represents Not Optimal, Average or Good scores.  Clicking on a score provides a brief overview of what the score represents, provides links to any relevant published studies and allows you to ‘Share’ the results via email.  Many of the scores also show the relevant percentage of Viome users who share scores in that range.  You can read much more about Viome Scores here.

    Shop

    Self explanatory… from this section, you can purchase your personalized supplement formula and additional tests.  Like many of these services, one test isn’t usually enough.  You’ll want to repeat the test after making changes to your nutrition to see if you’re improving your non-optimal scores.

    More

    This section contains your settings, questionnaire results and the ability to download your results.  There are also links to blog posts and videos that you can reference for collecting samples and interpreting your results.

    Viome Review

    I opted to go for the Full Body Intelligence™ Test.  This is Viome’s most comprehensive and consists of more than 50 Health Scores based on a Stool, blood and saliva sample.  Collecting all the samples was very straightforward and not as horrifying as it might sound at first glance.  I

    Results

    It took closer to 3 weeks until I got my results, but it gave me plenty of time to complete all of the questionnaires.  I was definitely surprised by many of my results.  The most notable surprises for me included:

    • Significantly differing biological age score compared to those that I’ve observed from other services.
    • A large number of my ‘Avoid’ foods were categorized as such in order to improve scores that I’m not convinced that I really have an issue with based on other testing and asking unbiased third parties.  Many of these foods just happen to be things that I eat often and LOVE.
    • Confirmation on many of the supplements that I was already taking based on other testing results.
    • Confirmation on some of the issues that I expected to have which led me to use the Viome test in the first place.

    Supplements

    It’s clear that the whole platform and results are very much tailored to encourage you to purchase the personalize supplement stack.  I’m not a fan of the ‘shotgun’ approach to supplementation, so I’m not really the target market for this type of product.  Looking at the details however, leads me to believe that the approach to personalization used by Viome seems to be better than many of the other services that I’ve used that do this.

    Areas for Improvement

    For the most part, Viome did provide a lot of valuable information and was a good starting point for investigating ways of mitigating some of the issues that led to me discovering this platform in the first place.  There were a few things that I did not like:

    Inconsistent Scoring

    A few of my scores did not have a numeric value.  It just said that I was in the ‘Not Optimal’ range.  I’m a numbers guy, so if I’m going to invest the effort into taking multiple tests and work on ‘improving’, I need to be able to see that number improve from test to test.

    Rationale

    The foods labeled ‘Minimize’ and ‘Enjoy’ did not have any rationale for doing so.  I’m ok with this for those in the ‘Enjoy’ category, but I’d like to know more about why I should minimize others.  Is it because of one of the scores that I legitimately feel is in a not optimal range? or is it because of one of the ones that I disagree with Viome’s analysis?

    For the foods/supplements that have rationale behind them, it was great to see why they were recommended and what scores that are meant to impact.  What would be even more valuable for me, is the ability to navigate from the scores that I want to optimize and see all of the recommendations for doing so.

    Potential Bias

    Almost everyone that I’ve spoken to that’s done this test has seen something that I’ve noticed.  Many of the foods that they eat most frequently and enjoy show up in their minimize/avoid lists.  Often there isn’t a rationale tied to an obvious non-optimal score for why this is so.  This may indicate some bias based on how these foods impact your microbiome.  I’m interested in seeing how these recommendations evolve with subsequent tests while experimenting with removing or continuing to use these foods.

    Conclusion

    Overall, I’m glad that I used Viome and I look forward to seeing it evolve in the future.  Compared to other similar services I’ve used, Viome is much more nutrition and supplement focused.  Using Viome for identifying non-optimal scores and nutritional solutions for addressing them was great.  It’s important though to use this as a starting point for your own research.  There are many lifestyle choices that can also be used to address many of these scores.  Focusing on a holistic approach to improving these is probably best long term.  Have you used Viome?  If so, I’d like to hear about your experience.  If you’re interested in trying Viome for yourself, use this link for a discount on your tests!

     

     

     

     

  • Sauna Protocol and Benefits of Sauna Use

    Sauna Protocol and Benefits of Sauna Use

    Fairly early on in my journey toward better health, I kept running into all the research touting the benefits of sauna use.  None of these prescribed a specific sauna protocol, but noted that there seemed to be many benefits that correlated with regular use of sauna.  Sauna use wasn’t really foreign to me.  I had traveled to Ukraine where it was a part of the culture.  Some Russian-American friends of mine had also introduced me to the ‘Banya’.  I always sort of dreamt about having my own traditional sauna, but the cost and other considerations just always made it seem so impractical.  Would I really use it often enough?  How would I find the time to incorporate it into my schedule?

    Traditional vs Infrared

    Research started to show the mechanisms of action for why sauna seemed to have such positive health benefits.  Most of this was done using a ‘traditional’ Finnish style sauna.  These are often wood fired and include steam.  I kept looking into what it would take to build and maintain one of these and kept deciding that it was too much for me to take on.  A spa that I went to for my regular massages had an infrared sauna and I started to add that into my routine.  I noticed that my massage seemed to be much more effective when I started with a sauna session.

    An infrared sauna is different from a traditional sauna in that they are ‘dry’ saunas.  No steam is used.  Instead of the air being heated via convection, these saunas used near and far infrared to heat your body directly.  In addition to the lack of steam, these saunas stay at much lower ambient air temperatures compared to a traditional sauna.  More and more people were using infrared saunas, but it was unclear if these had the same health benefits.

    Eventually, studies started to show that infrared saunas not only conveyed many of the same benefits as traditional saunas, but in some cases, provided even more!  At this point, I started to seriously investigate this style of sauna.  During 2020, I ended up purchasing and constructing one that my research showed was one of the best models available at the time.

    What are the Benefits of Sauna Use?

    So what was I trying to accomplish with regular sauna use?  Originally, I wanted to use it as a recovery tool.  I was hoping to ‘destress’ and heal my sore joints and muscles from upping my workouts.  I had known from my use at the spa that it seemed to be very effective at this.  While researching infrared saunas it seemed that this was likely due to the ability for them to lower inflammation.

    There were also numerous studies touting the cardio protective effects of frequent sauna use.  Lowering my blood pressure was something that I also was very interested in doing… Especially through ways that did not involve pharmaceuticals.  There was conflicting information early on about using infrared sauna for detox purposes.  It seemed reasonable though, that if were causing you to sweat, it was likely helping in some ways with this.  More recently, research into sauna’s ability to raise human growth hormone production has been very appealing in terms of taking my workouts to the next level.

    There are many other benefits of sauna use, but these were the main ones that initially interested me.  Many research papers now have been focusing on how sauna upregulates the production of Heat Shock Proteins and the cytoprotective benefits that they convey.  It seems like regular sauna use is one of the best things you can do in order to create a better healthspan.

    My Sauna Protocol

    Initially, I just sat in my sauna and listened to music or podcasts.  Soon I was spending between 20 and 40 minutes 4+ times a week in there.  My productivity obsessed mind started to preoccupy itself with other ways that I could be making the most of this time.  Moving my meditation practice to coincide with sauna time was a natural progression, but I quickly developed a sauna protocol that I follow just about every time I use it.  This protocol centers around a few central themes:

    • I want to make the most of the time that I spend in the sauna.
    • Most of the time, I want my session to focus on maximizing my recovery.
    • I want to enhance the benefits of my work out.  To me, this is still focused on losing fat, while maintaining/building muscle.
    • I want to make the most of any detoxifying benefits that the sauna provides.

    With all of this in mind, my sauna protocol begins even before I turn on the sauna.

    Before Sauna Protocol

    With very few exceptions, I almost always workout before I use the sauna.  Most days, I work out in a fasted state.  On days that I don’t, I still make sure I’m at least 2 hours fasted before using the sauna.  This is so that I can go in with lower blood sugar levels and to help maximize fat burning.

    About 30 minutes before I get into the sauna, I drink a large glass of water loaded with the following supplements:

    • Taurine
    • Trimethylglycine (TMG)
    • TUDCA
    • Niacin
    • Artichoke Extract
    • Liquid Zeolite

    Along with this pre-sauna drink, I take a few capsules of Calcium D-Glutarate, and liver supportive herbs.  Milk thistle has become one of my favorites for this.  The purpose of most of these items is to get my liver in a state where it’s a toxin processing machine.  The others are for binding toxins for excretion later.  The TMG is because I’m a poor methylator and optimal methylation is important for great liver functioning.  The niacin should be taken in an amount that is just large enough to induce a flush response in you.  This helps to liberate toxins from your fat tissue.  Side note for anyone looking for a great place to buy supplements… check out my link for BulkSupplements on my affiliate page for a discount!

    During Sauna

    Once I’m in the sauna, I continue to hydrate.  Some days I’ll sit in the sauna starting at 80 degrees F while it warms up.  Most days, I’ll wait to enter the sauna until it’s over 150 degrees inside.  There is research that shows different benefits using both of these approaches.  Warming up with the sauna seems to convey more noticeable tissue related benefits.  The higher temperatures encourage heat shock protein production and is a cardio mimetic.  This also more closely approximates what is seen in the traditional sauna studies.  Either way, I’m staying in the sauna for at least 20 minutes and most of the time go for 30 minutes plus a cool down period.

    I still listen to music/podcasts while in the sauna.  Depending on the day, I may do a meditation practice or some stretching/yoga during this time.  Most days a breathwork routine is also included.  This is either Kapalabhati or Nadi Shodhana pranayama.

    After Sauna Protocol

    When the sauna ends, the protocol continues… sometimes I’ll prepare a cold plunge for as soon as I’m finished.  Most days, I’ll just hop in a shower.  It’s important to get all of the excreted toxins off your skin.  If I don’t do a full cold shower, I always end with a few minutes of cold.  Studies have shown this hot/cold contrast to impart even greater benefits.  Note that it’s very important to always finish with cold.  No matter which option I choose, I drink another glass of cold water with added electrolytes.  I drink this with either activated charcoal or chlorella (more binders).

    Additional Benefits

    So is all of this ‘worth it’?  I still use the infrared sauna 4+ times a week.  My biomarkers related to the items I was looking to improve with sauna have all trended in the right direction.  Based on before and after readings using my BPM Connect, my blood pressure was lower.  I’ve also noticed some additional benefits.

    It Feels Great

    The sauna/cold plunge combination just generally makes me feel like a million bucks.  My overall mood has improved dramatically since I’ve started using the sauna.  It’s guaranteed that no matter how I go into the sauna, I’m going to feel better when I leave.

    Improved Sleep

    I’ve noticed (and Oura confirms) that my sleep is much better.  This is especially true if I use the sauna later in the day.  Something about the raise in body temperature about 2 hours away from bedtime that really makes me sleep great.

    Better Skin

    After months of following this sauna protocol, I continually had people that have known me for years comment on how great my skin looks.  When strangers find out my actual age, they often say the same.  Since I don’t really do any thing that’s focused on improving the look of my skin, I attribute all of this to the sauna.

    Heat Tolerance

    This has been most noticeable on my backpacking excursions.  I used to dread hiking in the heat of the summer, but it doesn’t really bother me anymore.  In general, I never really liked doing anything outdoors in the heat.  I can tolerate the heat much more now.

    Improved Immunity

    There’s no doubt that I’ve had fewer colds since I’ve started using the sauna.  When I did get sick, the duration has been shortened compared to prior years.  Recently, I’ve started using the sauna multiple times a day for shorter periods if I feel a potential cold coming on.  This seems to have had a positive impact on the course of any illness.

  • Examine.com/Examine+ Review

    Examine.com/Examine+ Review

    I often get a common set of questions after making new ‘Health’ posts or reviews. “How do you research publications related to what you’re writing about?”  “How do you determine the experiments you conduct in order to reach your goals?”  Part of the answer to both of these questions is: Examine.com/Examine+.  Read on for my Examine review.

    What is Examine.com?

    What exactly is Examine.com?  Their mission statement states it very simply.  “Examine analyzes and summarizes the latest scientific research to help you be healthier.”  In reality, Examine.com is the largest database of nutrition and supplement research on the internet.

    How is Examine Organized?

    Examine.com’s main structural element is 25 broad health categories.  Within each of these health categories there are several conditions, interventions and outcomes.  All of these items as well as individual research paper titles are indexed and searchable.

    Categories

    Each Category page is the top level grouping keeping all related FAQs and studies in one place.  Categories mostly exist to make navigating Examine.com easier.

    Conditions

    Conditions can be actual diagnosed health conditions (Hypothyroidism) or goals (Increase Focus).  Goals can exist in multiple categories.

    Interventions

    Interventions are anything that can be tested in a trial.  This is often a specific supplement or practice.

    Outcomes

    Outcomes are specific measurable pieces of data in trials that are used to measure if a specific intervention works.

    What do I like about Examine.com?

    Some things that I love about this organization approach include:

    • It allows you to easily cross reference interventions so that you can easily see which conditions/outcomes each one may impact.  I use this to tweak my own routines based on how something that might be positive for one condition could be detrimental for another.
    • By cross referencing outcomes that have been positive for conditions, you can hypothesize other interventions that might work that don’t currently have published research on them.
    • With awareness of all the conditions that you suffer from that require improvement, you can easily rule out and create a prioritized list of the interventions that are likely to be most effective for you.

    But the organization isn’t the only thing that I like about Examine.com.

    Transparency

    Each piece of information provided on Examine.com references the sources that it is gleaned from.  Opinions are stated as such.  Studies that are missing crucial information that the reader should be aware of are clearly identified.  Anyone who isn’t clear on why this is so important should checkout the extensive reasoning from Dr. Peter Attia.

    Freely Available

    Even before I became a lifetime Examine+ member, I was making extensive use of Examine.com.  This is because all of the information contained in its database is freely available.

    Independence

    Examine.com does not accept funding from outside sources.  Their revenue is not dependent upon pageviews or products sold.  This allows them to avoid sensationalism and maintain a reasonably unbiased viewpoint.  Examine started because it was impossible to find this information in this format at the time.  Examine derives all of their funding from Examine+.

    What is Examine+?

    Examine+ is the unlock of everything on the Examine.com site.  While all of the FAQs are free and you can access most of the database for free, an Examine+ membership allows you to take your research further.  With an Examine+ subscription you unlock the following additional features:

    Supplement Guides

    Plain language information on supplements that cut through all the hype.  Lists the supplements that are likely to work and which ones don’t have the research backing or may be harmful for different conditions.  All referenced to the studies where the information came from.

    Examine Database

    Examine+ also fully unlocks the power of the Examine Database.  All the deep linking between the organizational features and search capabilities are at your fingertips.  All interventions list every tested outcome without the need to go searching on your own.  The same is true for conditions.  They are now linked to all relevant interventions contained in the database.  While you could find much of this same information with the free product, this is an enormous time saver.

    Personalized Research Feed

    With Examine+ you can also create a personalized research feed that contains summaries of all new summaries related to the health categories that are of interest to you.  This allows you to keep an eye on the latest research so that you can reevaluate any action that you may have taken based on prior information.

    Examine Review Conclusion

    Since I mentioned that I am an Examine+ user, it’s probably clear that I feel favorably about this product.  The reality is that I’ve been using Examine.com/Examine+ as my ‘top of the funnel’ research tool for years.  I really haven’t found anything better that works for me.  If you liked what you read in this Examine review and aren’t already using it, try it out!  Interested in becoming an Examine+ member?  I’d appreciate it if you used my link to sign up.

     

  • SelfDecode Review

    SelfDecode Review

    In many of my ‘Health‘ related posts, I write about how just about everything I do is informed with data.  This data comes in many forms, wearables, blood work, subjective feeling.  The best experiments that I’ve done usually start with hypotheses that arise out of research that I’ve done related to DNA analysis.  I’ve tried many of the existing DNA analysis services, but my favorite has been SelfDecode.  This is my SelfDecode DNA Review.

    I started using SelfDecode because I came across one of their blog posts.  Like many health related blogs, much of the information was high level and generic, but in this case, there were direct references to Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPS) and how they related to the information provided.  I also noticed that if you signed up to use the SelfDecode DNA platform, there was a promise that you could ‘see’ this blog post tailored toward your specific genetic predisposition.  This was very appealing to me.  It didn’t take long for me to decide to give it a try.

    What is SelfDecode DNA?

    Even though the blog posts are what initially drew me in, the SelfDecode platform consists of several components.  Obviously DNA analysis is a crucial piece.  SelfDecode also has a Labs, Lifestyle Analyzer, Action Plan and (more recently) Ancestry section.  I’ve used all of these except for the Ancestry section, so I’ll leave that out of my review.

    DNA

    I started using SelfDecode by uploading one of my existing DNA files that I already had on hand.  SelfDecode also provides their own DNA testing service, but it’s not required to use most of their services.  This is the main reason why I haven’t used SelfDecode’s Ancestry features as it requires using SelfDecode’s DNA testing kit.  The SelfDecode DNA section is subdivided into a set of reports and the blogs that I mentioned before.

    Reports

    The reports are further subdivided into Health, Disease, Traits and Biohacker.  Health reports are high level summary reports related to broad areas of health like Inflammation, Gut Health, etc.  Disease Reports are related to specific diseases.  In order to ‘unlock’ Disease Reports, you need to schedule a consultation with a medical professional to discuss them.  Trait Reports are related to your likelihood to have certain characteristics.  What color hair are you most likely to have?  Are you an extrovert or introvert, etc.  Finally, the Biohacker reports are related to more unconventional topics and/or studies that are of lower quality.

    From the main report subsection, you can filter reports based on things like ‘highest risk’ or ‘most recently updated’.  Each report is listed with its name, a summary of what it covers, when it was last updated and a graphic that shows at a glance if your genetic data is potentially a cause for concern based on the collected information.  From this overview card, you can also add reports to your ‘favorites’ for easy access in the future.

    After clicking on the summary, all reports show the supporting data and your results based on your genetics.  This contains links to overviews of each related Gene and SNP along with your specific genotype.  Each report also contains a ‘next steps’ section which has your lab work (if anything related has been uploaded), any lifestyle data that you’ve entered and recommendations tailored to your results.  You can click on any of the recommendations to add them to your Action Plan.  This section also includes links to any related reports and blog posts.  You can also generate a PDF that contains your specific results.

    Blogs

    The Genetic blogs are categorized loosely based around the Health Reports.  From this section, you can narrow down the blogs based on category or search for a specific term to find the items that are of interest to you.  Each post is written by a different subject matter expert on SelfDecode’s team.  They all follow a similar format.  First they identify the gene(s) and SNPs involved in the subject of the blog post.  Just like in the reports, your specific genotype is identified in a personalized section of the blog post.  Most blogs also include diet, lifestyle and supplement recommendations that you can consider if you suffer from the issue described in the post.

    Labs

    The Labs section of SelfDecode allows you to input your lab work and view your results over time.  Inputting lab work is as simple as uploading a PDF of your results and SelfDecode does a pretty good job of importing everything correctly from there.  In the results viewer, anything considered out of range is identified and you can easily view past results.  This information is also surfaced in any relevant reports when you are viewing your ‘next steps’.  This is great because you can see if the biomarkers that you need to be concerned about based on your genetics are actually out of range or if the lifestyle/supplement choices that you are following are having a positive impact.  SelfDecode also allows you to shop and schedule lab work from this section if you aren’t already testing them via other means.

    Lifestyle

    The Lifestyle Analyzer asks you questions about things that you are currently doing and your medical history.  Based on this, and your SelfDecode DNA analysis, it presents cards that show your relative risk for several different medical conditions.  When you view the details for each of these items, there are links provided to relevant reports and blogs.  At any point in time, you can retake the lifestyle assessment for each of these conditions.

    Action Plan

    The Action Plan contains a summary of all of the recommendations that you’ve added to it from your DNA reports.  For each item in your action plan, you can click on it to see a summary that contains the potential issues that this item can help you address.  If your Action Plan includes supplements, you can actually create and purchase a custom supplement formulation from SelfDecode (I have not done this yet).  There is also a Meal Plan builder in this section.  This is a relatively new feature and I have not used it extensively.  The Meal Plan builder allows you to plan a week’s worth of meals with a limited list of foods that SelfDecode feels is optimized for you.

    Recommendations

    If you don’t actually add recommendations from your reports to your Action Plan, you can still see all of your recommendations sorted by how often they occur in your reports in the Recommendations section.  Just like in the Action Plan, you can see the same summary from here.  You can also add recommendations to your Action Plan from this section.  In the My Supplement sub section you can generate and purchase your supplement formulation.  This is the same functionality that is exposed under your Action Plan.

    SelfDecode DNA Review

    If you’re a regular reader of mine, it’s probably not a secret that SelfDecode is my favorite DNA analysis platform.  I honestly use this product multiple times a week and have discovered so many that things that have had a noticeable benefit on my health because of the information contained here.  The DNA reports and blog posts are really some of the most informative out there and they are constantly adding new information.  They provide the perfect level of summary information with links to dig deeper into the data used to create the summaries.  I quickly purchased a lifetime subscription based on this information alone.

    I also use the Lab Analyzer, mostly because it adds so much more to the reports.  The Lab Analyzer is not as good as InsideTracker‘s, but then InsideTracker’s DNA component is laughable compared to SelfDecode’s.  I’ve been uploading all of my lab results to both products as they tend to complement each other nicely.

    I don’t use the Action Plan.  That’s mostly because the Recommendations section works well for me.  I’m also not much of a fan of subjectively tracking lifestyle behaviors.  The main reason for this is that the effort required to do so isn’t worth it if I don’t have a mechanism to go back and analyze past data and its impact in the future.  I prefer my current approach of using Oura to do this, but even this can be improved upon.

    Additionally, I haven’t purchased any of SelfDecode’s add on projects.  I’m not a fan of combined supplements and already have several places that I love where I purchase single formulations.  I’ve been getting custom lab work done since before I started using SelfDecode, but I plan on evaluating the cost competitiveness of this item in the future.

    Conclusion

    I think the DNA reports and customized blog posts alone are worth the $599 lifetime subscription.  If SelfDecode continues the pace of innovation that I’ve seen since I’ve been a member, it pays for itself within a few short years.  If you’re interested in using any of SelfDecode’s products, let me know as I occasionally get discounts that I can pass along.  I’d also like to hear from you if you have used any of their lab work or supplement services!