speak23 Health Blog: Blood Tests, Prevention & Longevity
Welcome to the speak23 health blog! Here you'll learn everything about your health and prevention — with information on our blood tests and stool tests, like our Gut Microbiome Test. We'll keep you up to date with everything you need and want to know about your health!
03 Energy Metabolism: What Your Mitochondria Really Need
Energy metabolism is one of the 12 speak23 mechanisms of your health: it’s where your mitochondria produce the energy every cell runs on. We explain which blood tests show whether the building blocks are there, why iron matters for fatigue, what the mitochondria hype is really based on – and what has been shown to strengthen your cells’ power plants.
Preventive Health
· 11 min read
02 Atherosclerosis Risk: What LDL, ApoB and Lp(a) Reveal
Plaque in the arteries often starts forming in people who feel perfectly healthy. We explain how silent atherosclerosis develops, why LDL exposure adds up over the years, what ApoB and Lp(a) reveal, and why knowing your numbers and tracking them over time can make the difference for your arteries.
Preventive Health
· 10 min read
01 Insulin Resistance: What Your Blood Tests Reveal Early
Insulin resistance develops quietly, often years before blood sugar looks unusual. We explain what happens in your body, which blood tests give early clues, why belly fat, liver and blood lipids are part of the picture, and why insulin resistance is one of the mechanisms you can influence most through everyday habits.
Preventive Health
· 8 min read
Understanding Blood Test Results: Why Connections Matter
A single blood test result often says little on its own. Its meaning only becomes clear alongside your other markers and over time. We explain how speak23 groups your blood markers into 12 mechanisms, how metabolism, inflammation, organs and nutrients connect, and why the overall picture reveals more about your healthy years than any single number.
Blood Tests
· 9 min read
Know Your Numbers: The Values That Protect Your Heart
High blood pressure, raised cholesterol and elevated blood sugar rarely cause symptoms for years, which is why they so often go unnoticed. Around 580 million people did not know they had high blood pressure. Here are the numbers worth knowing, the ranges considered healthy, and why a number only protects you once it leads to a next step.
Blood Tests
· 8 min read
The Future of Preventive Medicine: Built for the AI Generation
Three in four Gen Z adults turn to AI before seeing a doctor, and nearly all physicians look at wearable data – yet almost none of it makes it into routine care. Meanwhile, our societies are ageing. Why preventive medicine has to be built for a new generation, and what a bridge between personal data and medicine could look like.
Preventive Health
· 6 min read
Fasting Insulin: The Lab Value That Can Reveal Diabetes Risk Years Before Blood Sugar Does
A "normal" fasting glucose doesn't automatically mean your metabolism is in balance. Long before insulin resistance shows up in blood sugar or HbA1c, the pancreas may already be working overtime just to keep that number normal. Why fasting insulin is an underused early signal — and why catching it sooner opens up years of extra runway for prevention.
Blood Tests
· 2 min read
Do We Age in Bursts? What's Behind the 44-and-60 Claim
A 2024 Stanford study described two bursts of ageing around 44 and 60. A reanalysis, co-written by the original authors, now shows the method can produce such bursts even from random data. What that means, what we really know about biological age, and why there is no deadline you can miss when it comes to prevention.
Preventive Health
· 6 min read
Supplements: What a Blood Test Can Tell You
Supplements are everywhere on social media, but whether they help depends on what your body actually needs. Why testing beats any trend, what remains of Linus Pauling's idea of individual needs, how repeat blood tests show whether a supplement is reaching your body, and why your needs change over a lifetime.
Blood Tests
· 6 min read
Measuring as a Second Chance: Why Your Own Health Data Can Teach What School Never Did
Nearly one in two adults in Europe has limited health literacy — yet data about our own bodies can make health tangible in ways that years of biology lessons alone may not. Research also shows that people who receive regular feedback on their own measurements are more likely to change their behaviour than those who don’t. What this means for prevention later in life — and why it can't replace early health education, but complement it.
Preventive Health
· 2 min read
Type 3 Diabetes: What Insulin Has to Do With Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's is sometimes called "type 3 diabetes". It isn't a diagnosis but a hypothesis about disrupted insulin signalling in the brain. What is well established: type 2 diabetes raises dementia risk by about 60%. What research knows, where it is still puzzling, and why metabolism deserves attention while we still feel healthy.
Preventive Health
· 8 min read
The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) Fundamentally Changed Our Perspective on the Human Microbiome
The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) was a groundbreaking, 10-year research initiative aimed at characterizing the microbial communities living in and on the human body and determining their role in health and disease. It fundamentally changed our perspective on the human microbiome.
Stool Tests
· 1 min read
Your cholesterol result depends on when you go for the blood draw
In women, blood markers shift across the menstrual cycle. This is well documented — it's just almost never taken into account at the lab.
Blood Tests
· 8 min read
Blood Markers from the Perspective of Healthy Longevity
Preventive medicine specialists interpret blood markers differently from acute-care physicians. The reason is quite simple: they are fundamentally asking different questions. While acute-care physicians look for existing diseases, preventive medicine specialists focus on healthy longevity.
Blood Tests
· 4 min read
The 50–70 Health Window: Use It to Gain More Healthy Years
We live longer than previous generations—but living longer does not automatically mean living healthier for longer. Studies show that many people fail to use the period between 50 and 70—a phase of life when many are still physically and mentally capable—to lay the foundations for physical and cognitive independence in later life. This is the window in which we decide how we age.
Preventive Health
· 2 min read
How Does Waist Circumference Affect Healthy Aging?
Visceral fat, which accumulates deep within the abdominal cavity, is not just an energy store but an active tissue that communicates with the immune system and other organs. What impact does this “cross-talk” have on our longevity?
Preventive Health
· 2 min read
Detecting Insulin Resistance Early: Early Warning Signs and Markers
Insulin resistance often develops unnoticed over many years without obvious symptoms. However, detecting changes in metabolic health at an early stage is important to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease and to prevent serious complications. Which early warning signs and markers should be checked regularly?
Blood Tests
· 2 min read
Why do we age?
It is quite interesting that there is no physical law in this world stating that we must age. So why do we age? Evolution and the mystery of life are capable of growing a complex living organism with billions of cells out of a single (fertilized) cell. But apparently it is not capable of the simpler task of keeping that organism healthy and alive? Does entropy always win? What happens during aging? When does aging begin, and how can it be slowed down — or perhaps even reversed?
Preventive Health
· 2 min read
What We Can Learn from the Famous Framingham Study
Why do some people develop cardiovascular disease while others do not? The famous Framingham Study has played a major role in helping us understand that cardiovascular disease does not simply occur “by chance,” but that certain measurable factors can significantly influence the risk.
Preventive Health
· 1 min read