Bloodwork and Programming for Male and Female Physiology

Introduction

In part three of this series, Dan Garner explained why gut health is the most overlooked functional area, why it’s crucial to nail the basics of human physiology, and how these form a foundation for personalized, bloodwork-based recommendations in the Vitality Blueprint platform. In this final installment, he explores the commonalities and differences between male and female biomarkers, how tailored interventions improve performance and health, and where individualized coaching is heading next. 

Interview

Men and women are extremely different physiologically. What are some of the main differences in how you approach reading their bloodwork and making recommendations, if any?

There are some differences in biomarkers. For example, when you are assessing fatigue and overtraining status, you look at anabolic versus catabolic activity in the body. How you look at this picture is different when looking at men compared to women. There's an established testosterone to cortisol ratio for men, but not for women. So when you're assessing fatigue and overtraining status, you might look at that ratio for men, but for women, the cortisol to DHEA ratio is more valuable. Yes, these biomarkers are different, but the picture is the same. With this in mind, the recommendations for men and women will be a bit different because they have to address the biomarkers specific to if they are a male or female. But when specific biomarkers are concerned, DHEA for example, the supplement, nutrition, or lifestyle recommendations that Vitality suggests are going to mirror each other. 

Concerning men and women, is there anything biomarker-wise that people think is important for performance that you disagree with?

A lot of that stuff about menstrual cycle periodization isn't true. Trying to perfectly adjust training and nutrition based on the precise day of your cycle or even within a specific phase isn’t a good game to play. There will be peaks and valleys, and they tend to find their way to the average by the end of the month. 

Technology is not there yet for assessing precise hormone levels daily. That's probably going to come in five to 10 years, and we'll be wearing biosensors to detect our hormone rhythms. But right now, there are optimal reference ranges for each of these hormones that don't need to be assigned to specific days of the cycle because performance is going to smooth itself out over time. 

That being said, there are some things that really do matter when looking at the differences between men and women. Iron and red blood cell status, count, and indices like hemoglobin, hematocrit, and mean corpuscular volume are going to be different. They're going to be a bit higher for men and lower for females because men produce more testosterone, which initiates erythropoiesis – the formation of red blood cells. Women, on the other hand, have a menstrual cycle which leads to iron loss. Staying on top of that is key for females, but trying to chase the exact hormonal rhythm is going to lead to a lot of false positives and won't give us a net win. 

Once they start acting on the recommended interventions, what do people begin to notice about their performance and wellbeing?

People are going to start to feel and perform better within the first couple of weeks. That’s a product of removing guesswork by doing a comprehensive analysis and being objective with biomarkers. You're not chasing an idea or following a philosophy anymore. You're following your own physiology. You can feel when you're working with your body instead of against it.

If you're just trying a new diet, then it’s not guaranteed to work. But when you do bloodwork and you identify real issues, you're improving the ROI of the energy invested into your health and increasing the efficiency with which you're improving your subjective experience of life. All those things happen when you go with Vitality because it's performance-based and objective. 

Why is it helpful to have a dashboard for the performance bloodwork platform that shows an overview of this objective data and then allows people to dive deeper? 

I want people to be able to learn as little or as much as they want about the whole process. We've consolidated upwards of 4,000 scientific references in our engine. We're also creating the first ever performance bloodwork encyclopedia. I would've killed for that 15 years ago as I had no mentors. I would've wanted a dashboard and instantaneous interpretation, in a way that my clients could adhere to with lifestyle, nutrition, and supplementation. 

Every topic has support. Biomarkers, functional areas, recommendations, everything we talk about comes with references. If you want to, you can learn more with deep dives into the research. If you don’t, it isn’t forced on you. You can just look at the bars and graphs. 

Where do you see Vitality Blueprint going in the future?

We already have thousands of happy customers, and I suspect that they will stay because they’re performing better. We’re going global this month. Our ability to reach more and more people is growing and will continue to do so. I want to make a scientific contribution. I want the industry to be a better place, and for people to live a better life without needing to read research or be a specialist. Vitality is making that a reality. 

We are constantly creating new knowledge. We are continually learning about high performers from all walks of life with a variety of aspirations. As we continue to learn from the data we are collecting and compare it to the scientific data and what we have found in our personal research, we can start to specialize and individualize our recommendations even more. This is going to help us continue to examine our performance ranges and recommendations. All of this is going to impact individuals and the industry. 

What do you find most fulfilling about this project?

I feel blessed by the ability to create something. Our algorithm team gets it because they’re creating new logic that’s weighting markers, ratios, patterns, and areas. Up to this point, it has been amazingly fulfilling to effectively help hundreds or thousands of people. Now we’re able to scale this as a gift to everybody. 

When somebody tells you they’re sleeping better or hit a new personal best and you were a part of that, it is extremely humbling. What’s even cooler is that you see the broadness of what performance really is. It’s being a better dad or husband and more productive at work. It's being able to play with your grandkids. It's unbelievably fulfilling when you can help someone like Sean O'Malley win a world title, but then when someone else can still get down on their knees and garden and they're 83 years old, that’s awesome too. 

Want to unlock your performance potential and improve your wellbeing at the same time? Get started with a personalized Vitality Blueprint plan today.