A New Way to Track Health From the Inside Out

Basic Baseline

I tried out the Basic Home Kit ($49), which allowed me to safely and easily prick my finger at home and send a blood sample off to the folks at InsideTracker — all materials for sealing and shipping were included, and the instructions were very easy to follow. Which, you know, is always handy when you’re pricking your finger and sending off blood — you really don’t want to have to go back over the instructions and keep trying, right?

A few days later, I was able to review my results online. The basic kit measures cholesterol and triglycerides, which I’d recently had measured through my doctor’s office, and the results were very much in line with what I had done at the lab — slightly elevated cholesterol (thanks a lot, genetics). The biggest difference there was that, at the doctor’s office, my family history was taken into consideration and, therefore, my doctor was not concerned, while my InsideTracker results pretty much just told me my levels were outside the normal range.

Basic vs. Advanced Home Kit

The suggestions were also in line with the handouts from the doctor’s office — eat more oatmeal and whole grains, swap saturated fats for unsaturated fats, and up the fiber. So, I can definitely see the benefit in the Basic Home Kit for someone who wouldn’t otherwise get the tests done at her doctor’s office, but if you’re like me and check your cholesterol every year or two, it’s really not going to change your life.

But wait! There’s more. (Seriously.)