Category Archives: Health Stories

5 Reasons Why WellnessFX Is Better than Your Annual Physical

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Diagnostic medicine is dramatic. Doctors are expected to be detectives and to solve health crises with extremely limited time and information. Yet we are conditioned to believe that a visit to our doctor is the  only way to address our health.

WellnessFX challenges that belief. Here are five reasons why:

1.      Comprehensive diagnostics

Doctors typically test only a handful if any biomarkers at an annual physical.

WellnessFX tests 30 – 125 different health markers depending on the package, focusing on all of the conventional red flags as well as more subtle indicators of ill health. Our Baseline package includes advanced lipid profiles, inflammation biomarkers, vitamin D levels, comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP), thyroid panel, and newer cardiovascular health markers..  WellnessFX Premium package includes screenings of genetic markers for the effectiveness of common medications, hormones indicative of reproductive and athletic health, , and types of fats in the blood that develop in clogging and can determine the best nutrition for your body. WellnessFX utilizes the most advanced laboratory testing techniques available.

WellnessFX gives you and your practitioners more data with which to work.

2.      Customized health management programs

With their limited time as well as insurance constraints, doctors are forced to just follow general guidelines when assessing your health. Thinking about the individual is not usually feasible, as doctors may not have enough time with your or enough information about you to create a personalized health plan.  They often have to focus on disease, with most of the diseases they focus on being preventable.

WellnessFX practitioners have the benefit of not being constrained by time and insurance.  They take the time to get to know you inside and out (literally), and design a personalized health and wellness plan for you that reflects your needs and goals. The WellnessFX practitioners can work around your schedule, allowing you to avoid waiting rooms and travel time. Blood samples can be taken from your home or office.

WellnessFX appreciates that health and wellness is the opposite of “one size fits all.”

3.      Consistent monitoring

Only 20% of Americans get their annual physical, and those that do still only typically see their physician annually. Yet dramatic changes to health and wellness can take place within weeks.

Consistent monitoring adds depth to the comprehensive diagnostics that WellnessFX offers.  Initial blood test results provide an important baseline assessment of your overall health – the starting point of your journey. WellnessFX then utilizes a Health Dashboard to visually represent your health and track improvements. It provides an easy-to-understand diagram that displays key metrics and markers. Follow-up tests at set intervals then help you and your practitioners track your progress and tweak your program based on what works for you.

WellnessFX helps you monitor your health consistently, rather than sporadically.

4.      Education

How many times has your doctor handed you a prescription rather than explaining how and why you might be feeling sick? Studies show from a third to a half of patients do not understand their prescriptions, and significant portion of those are therefore not compliant.

After performing screening tests and devising a personalized health and wellness plan, your WellnessFX practitioners teach you how to interpret the test results in line with your history and your symptoms.  Your Health Dashboard provides a breakdown of the different organ systems, markers and nutrition information from your diagnostics. You can research any points of interest using the wealth of information on the WellnessFX website and blog, and through speaking with your WellnessFX practitioners.

WellnessFX provides you with the tools and knowledge you need to take control of your own health and wellness.

5.   “Well” care rather than “sick care”

We are conditioned to visit our doctor when we get sick. Sometimes we even wait until our symptoms are severe. At that point, both we are in reactive mode – attempting to limit damage and heal as quickly as possible

WellnessFX services allow you to understand potential risks and how to modify your lifestyle to restore your wellbeing – before symptoms become severe.  Numeous studies show the most successful, and cost-effective, care for disease is to prevent them from even occurring. Addressing your health challenges now, and employing preventative care, can significantly improve your quality of life today and in the future.

WellnessFX helps you be well and healthy on a day-to-day basis, and to troubleshoot any health issues which may crop up in your life.

CONCLUSION

At WellnessFX, we believe that the best way to effect meaningful change in health and wellness is through:

  • comprehensive diagnostics personal to you;
  • customized programming from health professionals;
  • consistent monitoring; and
  • education from integrative health experts

We give you the tools needed for you to optimize your health. Join us now and explore your full health and wellness potential.

Travel & Maintaining Healthy Habits

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Planning a getaway can often be a stressful endeavor that requires a lot of time and careful coordination. While piecing together the logistics of travel is one thing, we worry that taking a trip also means taking a break but from our normal, healthy routines. Sometimes we find that when we take time off from our day-to-day lives, the “vacation” mentality takes over completely: we eat too much, we drink too much, and we potentially let our healthy habits slide.  However, taking the time to travel and break routines is necessary, and can be done without the added stress of disrupting your healthy lifestyle.

Next time you’re traveling, try these simple tricks to help stay on track:

Plan ahead: Nothing revives the mind, body, and soul like getting in touch with nature. Outdoor activities are often readily available and tend to be either free or low cost. Do some research about the terrain you will be on and contact your hotel’s concierge to arrange travel options to and from your activities. If working out outside is not an option where you are going, call a local gym and ask about their visitation policies. If you have everything figured out before you arrive, you’ll be much more likely to actually DO something once you get there.

Eat smarter: Make reservations ahead of time at restaurants that cater to your dietary needs. Once you have it on your itinerary, you can plan your day around it and not risk eating badly because of poor planning. Confirm with the hotel that there will be a refrigerator in the room, then commit to having the first stop on your trip be to the grocery store or local market. If you do not have access to a refrigerator, no excuses! Prepare for the busy day ahead by purchasing food to take with you each morning. Healthy snacks such as fruits and nuts will prevent that low-sugar crash and will carry you through to your next healthy meal.

Hydrate: Dehydration can lead to low energy and feelings of hunger, both of which will hinder your ability to stay on a focused regimen. You are going to get busy and you are going to be out of your element, but this does not mean you have to be thirsty. Bring a reusable bottle with you wherever you go and get into the habit of keeping it filled. Drink a glass of water as soon as you sit down at your table for a meal. Staying hydrated makes all the difference when it comes to healthy living, so there is never a reasonable excuse to let it slide just because you’re on vacation.

Let someone else do it for you: Whether your passion is ocean kayaking or mountain retreats, there are many organizations around the world that offer group trips. Spending a little extra cash to join a group activity takes some of the “thinking” out of it, and might be just what you need to guarantee a successful trip. With someone to guide you, you are sure to come back better, faster, and stronger than before you left.

Most importantly, allow yourself to have fun. Making the extra effort to prepare for your trip will go a long way. With a solid plan in place, you’ll feel healthy, energized and ready to take full advantage of your well-deserved vacation!

Ty Texidor is a San Francisco based CrossFit competitor and personal trainer, specializing in rehabilitation, sports specificity, and CrossFit style programming. She graduated with honors in 2001 with a degree in Sports Medicine, and carries numerous certifications in the field.  In 2012, she and her partner founded Destino Retreats, a company that provides hassle-free CrossFit style vacations in various locations around the world. 

Bullet Proof Exec & WellnessFX Baseline

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Our friend Dave Asprey, the Bullet Proof Executive, visited our offices the other week to discuss how thrilled he was with our new service and the implications for the life hacker and health communities. Check out the video below and Dave’s post.

Bulletproof WFX Baseline intro from Bulletproof Executive on Vimeo.

Mobility WOD Loves WellnessFX

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Thanks to Kelly Starrett, author of the incredible Mobility WOD and co-founder of San Francisco CrossFit, for publishing an in-depth look at the power of the WellnessFX platform and measuring your lifestyle and nutrition. Check out Kelly’s thoughts here and enjoy the videos of the experience below.

If you’re interested in WellnessFX in your neighborhood, sign-up here to be the first in line.

In health,

-The WellnessFX Team

INTERVIEW WITH KELLY STARRETT

BLOOD TEST CASE STUDY & WELLNESSFX WALKTHROUGH

JULIET STARRETT INTERVIEW

Guest Post: What is Wellness FX, and Why Should I Care?

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Andy Petranek is the founder of CrossFit Los Angeles. He has been inspiring people to lives of health and fitness for over 20 years. His passion for life and sport has led him in many directions – from classical music as a teenager, to the Marine Corps, whitewater kayaking, and professional adventure racing. His skills as a coach come from years spent as a student, his “beginners mindset”, and his desire to grow and learn continuously through life. He trains/coaches individuals and groups of all ages and fitness levels in nutrition, fitness, and athletic conditioning.

Do you remember your last physical?  If it was anything like mine, you spent about 30 minutes waiting for the doctor, had a PA check your vitals, had the doc with you for about 10 minutes during which he poked and prodded, looking at very general things, and asking you an entire smorgasbord of questions, most of which have NOTHING to do with your particular situation, and after drawing blood at the end of the appointment he gave you an “everything’s fine”.  MAYBE you got a call with the results of your blood test, and if you did, it lasted no longer than about 3 minutes, with either a “looks good”, or “let’s get you on Lipitor to lower your cholesterol.”  Sound familiar?

Andy Petranek not falling short at the CrossFit Games

Although your physical will possibly point out MAJOR discrepancies in your health, how does it help you take a proactive role in optimizing your health and fitness over the course of your life?  Answer… it doesn’t.  It falls short, WAY short.

Enter functional medicine.  This branch of medicine distinguishes itself from others in it’s emphasis on prevention and treating underlying causes instead of symptoms. “Functional medicine is personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease. It is a science-based field of health care.”  Personally, this is WAY more interesting to me… problem is, it’s time consuming and very expensive.

Enter WellnessFX.  As a company their mission is to empower you to take charge of your health by providing you with personalized data, giving it meaning, and then connecting you with integrative health experts who can help you interpret it.  This is all done through blood testing, laboratory analysis, and an interactive web site displaying your results.  All of this is followed by a 15-45 minute phone consultation with a doctor of your choice who specializes in reading and interpreting your results.  That last piece is KEY.  Seeing results from a lab test is one thing, but trying to figure out what to do with it / about it is quite another.  I have a hard time keeping even just a few test results and numbers straight – imagine having to interpret a battery of 30 – 125 tests!  That is EXACTLY what these doctors do… they will help you make decisions about diet, lifestyle and supplementation you might want to consider to optimize your health based specifically on your numbers.  By the way, this goes beyond “oh, just eat Paleo and take fish oil.”

WellnessFX offers several packages to suit your desired health goals and commitment. It’s truly personalized medicine designed to make you get the most of your time and effort. We’re kicking off a series of draws at CrossFit LA for anyone interested in a better way to manage your health. Join me today.

WellnessFX Launches Mobile App!

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A ‘Better Way to Manage your Health’ goes Mobile today!

We released our first app to the iOS store today which helps you build, manage and track your personal health goals. With the WellnessFX mobile app, you can research vitamins and supplements, scan supplements into your plan using a smartphone camera and then track and share your supplement plans with others. WellnessFX mobile is designed for those new to WellnessFX as well as those already using the company’s cloud-based health and wellness platform to manage their health online with advanced predictive diagnostics and personal care teams.

The app allows you to:

  • Research and understand the use of supplements through a partnership with Aisle 7, a leading source of health data
  • Quickly add vitamins and supplements to a personal plan by scanning the barcodes
  • Capture daily activities like supplement use to track progress on a health plan
  • Compare supplement use with RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) levels to track performance against guidelines
  • See and share the biomarker data from WellnessFX personal health dashboard (for WellnessFX members)
  • Share supplement plan and results to social networks

As noted by our CEO Jim Kean in our press release, we wanted to create a tool for people to effectively track and measure their supplement use as part of their individual integrative health plan. The app is a simple and powerful tool to make small changes, which accumulate over time, to better manage your health.

Download today and let us know what you think!