Which Laboratory Performs the Testing?

How the laboratory work is handled

Most of the Measura suite is performed in the office with non-invasive equipment. Where blood work is part of the plan, it is drawn at the same visit and processed by a clinical laboratory.

What is drawn, and why it is not a fixed block

Panels are selected to the clinical question rather than ordered as a standard bundle. Someone being assessed for burning feet needs glycemic markers and vitamin B12; someone being assessed for a stalled nutrition plan needs insulin, glucose and a lipid particle analysis. Ordering everything on the menu produces incidental findings that generate work and answer nothing.

The laboratory panels page lists the available groups.

The markers a standard annual panel usually leaves out

  • Fasting insulin, alongside glucose and hemoglobin A1c. Insulin rises for years before glucose does, so measuring only glucose describes a late stage of the process.
  • C-peptide and fructosamine, which characterize the same process differently.
  • Inflammatory markers including high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, ferritin and homocysteine.
  • Lipid particle analysis and oxidized LDL rather than total cholesterol alone.
  • A full thyroid panel — free T3, T4, reverse T3 and TSH, rather than TSH in isolation.
  • Vitamin B12, red cell magnesium, zinc and the omega ratio. B12 deficiency alone can produce both neuropathy and cognitive change, and it is correctable.

Fasting, and why it is enforced

Glucose, insulin, triglycerides and every index derived from them are shifted by a recent meal. The fasting state is documented rather than assumed, because a non-fasting sample reported as fasting is worse than no sample. Water is allowed and encouraged.

Draw time is recorded too. Cortisol, testosterone and thyroid markers all vary through the day, so a comparison between two draws at different times is not really a comparison.

If you already have recent results

Bring them. Recent outside laboratory work is reconciled rather than duplicated wherever it answers the same question. That is one of the more common ways to shorten a visit.

How the blood work is read

Against the in-office measurements, not separately. An abnormal sudomotor result with a low B12 points somewhere quite specific; the same result with a raised hemoglobin A1c points somewhere else. Neither on its own tells you which. How to read your report.

Related reading

Medically reviewed by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP, medical director of Measura. Last reviewed .