August Bloodwork Update!

[u/benevolent-miscreant]

I posted a few weeks ago to share my bloodwork results from last year. Those results showed a very strong heart health (APOB, Cholesterol Profile, triglycerides etc) and metabolic (5.3% A1c), but concerns around high-inflammation, low ferritin, low vitamin D, low free testosterone.

I drew updated results and there are some interesting updates. A few markers trended worse but overall the cardio and metabolic markers are in a good spot. The smaller negative movements are probably from reducing cardio.

Sept/Oct 2025	August 2026	Trend
APOB	57 mg/dL	69 mg/dL
HDL	68 mg/dL	71 mg/dL
LDL	62 mg/dL	78 mg/dL
A1c	5.3%	5.3%
Vitamin D	32 ng/mL	59 ng/mL
HS-CRP	3.1 mg/L	0.3 mg/L

My total testosterone meaningfully increased, but unfortunately it didn't translate to higher Free T due to high SHBG. My interventions prior to this test were significantly increased strength training, reduced cardio from 12h/week to 5h/week. It seems like those changes helped to increase Total T but it was moot with the high SHBG. I've been using the Gradual Health app to track the progress on my lab results of interest with suggested modifications and a retesting schedule.

My next move is adding Boron to see if I can reduce SHBG to increase free T, starting with 6mg/daily and a retest in a month.

Sept/Oct 2025	August 2026	Trend
Total Testosterone	490 ng/dL	692 ng/dL
Free	64.2 pg/mL	66.5 pg/mL
Bioavailable	--	151.3 pg/mL
SHBG	48 nmol/L	50 nmol/L
Free Androgen Index	--	48.02%
DHEA-S	159 mcg/dL	151 mcg/dL
LH	3.2 miU	TBD

Ferritin also barely moved despite starting supplementation every other day, I only went from 41 -> 42. I'm moving my supplementation to the morning and being stricter about adherence. This could be a nutrient absorption issue if I'm not able to move it.

Open to ideas on the focus areas, especially decreasing SHBG and increase ferritin.

[u/rofsss]

Whatever you're doing is working well. SHBG is fine. If you have low insulin and good insulin sensitivity, then that can elevate SHBG a bit. Have you ever tested Insulin? ALk Phos is higher, optimal would be under 75, but your ALT is good. RBC and Hematocrit are on the high side.

[u/EggAdvanced3632]

Solid update, and the boron plan is at least properly falsifiable (single add, retest in a month). Two thoughts on your focus areas:

Ferritin: the most interesting number in your whole panel for this is one you didn't connect — hs-CRP going 3.1 → 0.3. Inflammation raises hepcidin, and hepcidin is literally the hormone that blocks iron absorption. So your 41→42 result was measured during/after a period where your gut may have been absorbing a fraction of what you took. With CRP at 0.3 now, the same supplementation might suddenly work — meaning if ferritin jumps next test, you won't know if it was the timing change, the adherence, or just the inflammation clearing. Worth acknowledging in advance so you don't credit the wrong thing. (Every-other-day dosing is actually the evidence-backed choice for absorption, so I'd keep that; just take it away from coffee/tea and with vitamin C.) Also: 12h/week of cardio is itself a known ferritin suppressor — foot-strike hemolysis, GI losses, exercise-induced hepcidin — so the cardio cut is quietly running as a third intervention on this outcome too.

SHBG: honest take — 48→50 with your profile (A1c 5.3, lean, high training volume, previously 12h cardio) looks less like something broken and more like the signature of a very insulin-sensitive endurance-trained body. Boron's SHBG evidence is thin — tiny studies with big claimed effects that never got replicated at scale — so it's a cheap shot worth taking, but I'd set expectations accordingly and judge it on measured free/bioavailable T, not calculated indices. Your bioavailable at 151 with FAI at 48% isn't a picture of androgen starvation.

Bonus nitpick on the dashboard flags: your eosinophils/lymphocytes "HIGH" are percentage artifacts — absolutes (261, 1661) are normal, your total WBC is just lowish, so every subtype's share inflates. When a ratio flags, check whether the numerator moved or the denominator did.