You don’t have to wait until something is “wrong” to start understanding your health. No membership, no insurance. HSA and FSA accepted.
In bloodwork, “normal” ranges are built from the middle 95% of results in a reference group of people without known disease. In other words, “normal” just means average. Average and Way Better are two very different things.
A few examples of what “normal” can miss
Example values. Reference ranges typically follow the CLSI EP28 standard (central 95% of a reference population). Optimal targets are set with provider guidance.
Every marker in your blood is a clue about how one of your body’s systems is working.
But more tests don’t automatically mean more answers. The value comes from testing what matters: the markers that show where you stand, catch what’s quietly changing and point to what you can act on.
Tap a system to see what it tells you.
Your labs should catch what’s changing early,
and give your future self a head start.
Knowing what to look at is just as important as looking.
Meet Charlie. He never skips his yearly physical, and his fasting glucose always comes back normal.
Same blood draw. One more marker. Charlie could have had years of warning, and years to change course.
Charlie is an illustrative example. Chart based on long-term patterns described in the Whitehall II study (Tabák et al., The Lancet, 2009).
Lab testing has become a numbers game. 100 markers. 140. 160+. But a bigger number doesn’t necessarily mean deeper insight.
39 of the values in a typical “100-biomarker” panel can come from just three routine lab orders.
A complete blood count, metabolic panel and urinalysis are important parts of a health workup, and we include them where they belong. But each one produces multiple individual results, so the advertised “biomarker count” can grow quickly before a single advanced or specialized test is added.
So we stopped asking, “How many can we test?”
And started asking, “What will this tell you?”
We prioritize markers that can give you something meaningful to work on.
If the result wouldn’t change what happens next, more data isn’t necessarily more useful.
We look for markers that can reveal where your health may be heading, not just what has already gone wrong.
The name of a biomarker only tells you what was tested. It does not tell you how well it was measured.
For the markers that matter most, we choose testing methods designed to give a clearer, more precise picture of what is actually happening. Two panels may list the same marker and still deliver very different levels of insight.
Better testing is not always about measuring more. Sometimes it is about measuring better.
Testosterone is a hormone made mainly by the testes in men and by the ovaries and adrenal glands in women. The "free" portion is the small share that isn't attached to a carrier protein, so it can enter your cells and actually do its job.
Fuels energy, muscle, bone strength, sex drive, mood and red blood cell production. Low free testosterone can show up as fatigue, low drive and slow recovery, even when total testosterone looks normal.
Women make a much smaller amount, but it still matters for energy, libido, mood, muscle and bone. Levels drift down with age, and levels that run high can point to conditions like PCOS.
In men, roughly 44% of circulating testosterone is bound tightly to SHBG, about 54% loosely to albumin, and only about 2% is free (Dunn et al., JCEM, 1981). Calculated free T plugs total T, SHBG and albumin into an equation, which can drift from measured values when SHBG runs high or low. Equilibrium dialysis separates free hormone across a membrane and measures it directly. It is the reference method.
Picture 100 people at a concert. About 98 are stuck in their seats. Only about 2 are on the dance floor, and those 2 are the ones doing the work. Most panels guess how many are dancing based on the size of the crowd. We walk onto the floor and count them.
Estradiol is the main and most powerful form of estrogen. It acts on nearly every tissue in the body, from bone and blood vessels to the brain and skin.
Men make estradiol mostly by converting testosterone. They need it for strong bones, libido and heart health. Too little and too much both cause problems, which is why an accurate number matters, especially on testosterone therapy.
Runs the menstrual cycle and protects bone, heart, brain and skin. It rises and falls through the month, then drops sharply at menopause, which drives hot flashes, sleep changes and faster bone loss.
Immunoassays rely on antibodies that can cross-react with structurally similar steroids and metabolites, and their accuracy drops at the low concentrations typical of men, children and postmenopausal women. An Endocrine Society position statement recommends mass spectrometry for low estradiol (Rosner et al., JCEM, 2013). LC-MS/MS identifies molecules by exact mass and fragmentation pattern.
A standard test finds estradiol the way you'd spot a friend in a crowd by their jacket. That works fine until a few other people show up in the same jacket. Mass spectrometry checks fingerprints. When levels are low, like in men and women after menopause, those look-alikes can make up a big share of the "result."
ApoB is a protein on the outside of every particle that can carry cholesterol into your artery walls. One particle, one ApoB. That makes it a head count of the particles that build plaque.
Heart disease tends to show up in men about a decade earlier than in women, so knowing your particle count early gives you more years to act.
Estrogen helps keep ApoB lower before menopause. After menopause, ApoB and LDL often climb, which is a big reason heart risk rises for women in midlife.
Every atherogenic particle (LDL, VLDL, IDL and Lp(a)) carries exactly one apolipoprotein B molecule, so ApoB is a direct particle count. When ApoB and LDL-C disagree, which is common with insulin resistance, high triglycerides and type 2 diabetes, risk tracks more closely with ApoB (Sniderman et al., JAMA Cardiology, 2019).
Cholesterol is cargo. It rides through your blood in delivery trucks. Traffic jams (plaque) depend on how many trucks are on the road, not how much each one carries. LDL cholesterol weighs the cargo. ApoB counts the trucks. Two people can carry the same cargo in very different numbers of trucks.
Your thyroid is a small gland at the front of your neck that sets the speed of your metabolism: how fast you burn energy, how warm you feel, how quickly your heart beats and how clearly you think.
Thyroid problems are less common in men, so they're easy to miss. A slow thyroid can look a lot like low testosterone: tired, heavier and low on drive.
Women are 5 to 8 times more likely than men to have thyroid disease (American Thyroid Association). It often shows up around pregnancy and perimenopause, when symptoms are easy to blame on other hormones.
The thyroid releases mostly T4, a prohormone. Deiodinase enzymes in tissues convert it to T3, the active hormone, or to reverse T3, which is inactive. TSH reflects what the pituitary senses, so free T4 and free T3 add the downstream picture. TPO antibodies can reveal autoimmune thyroiditis (Hashimoto's) years before hormone levels change.
TSH is the thermostat on the wall. Free T4 is the fuel in the tank. Free T3 is the fire actually burning. Reverse T3 is a damper that turns the flame down. Checking only the thermostat doesn't tell you whether the house is warm.
A single “normal” result can hide what the pattern shows. A few examples:
Living longer is only part of the goal. The bigger question is how well you feel and function along the way. That’s why testing is only the beginning.
Know where you're starting from.The actual numbers, on a date, that everything after this gets measured against.
A number is a fact. A trend is a story.Your labs, protocols, habits and (soon) wearables on one timeline, so when a marker moves you can see what moved it. Your provider sees the same picture.
Suggestions made from your own data.Movement, food, community and treatment guided by your provider, pointed at what your numbers and your week are telling you.
Then test again. It’s a cycle, not a finish line.
Slow recovery and short sleep are the pattern. Everything below is aimed at that.
Swap tomorrow's hard session for a 40 minute zone 2 walk. Keep the steps, drop the strain.
Finish dinner by 7pm and add a plate rich in magnesium: leafy greens, pumpkin seeds, salmon.
Build a nighttime routine for your mind. Wind down, quiet the noise and protect your sleep, alongside members building the same habit.
Free · open nowSaved for your next appointment: six weeks of slow recovery and short sleep, next to your labs, so your provider can see the trend and adjust your protocol if it’s warranted.
Reviewed at your appointmentFourteen panels, drawn at Quest, results in your member portal.
Nutrition, fitness, movement, mindset and people rooting for you.
Your labs, protocols and habits on one timeline, with suggestions made from your own data.
Sleep, recovery and movement from the device you already wear, next to your labs.
One draw gives you a clear baseline. Every test after that shows what’s changing, so you can act years before “normal” stops being true.
Illustration only. Your markers, timing and results will be your own.
You can’t track what you never measured.
4 quick questions. About 30 seconds.
Find the one that fits your goals, then schedule your Quest Diagnostics appointment at checkout. Your provider will send the lab order directly to Quest, so everything is ready when you arrive.
| Way Better Labs | Function Health | Superpower | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Membership required | No | Yes | Yes |
| How you pay | Once, per panel | $365 a year | $349 a year |
| Lowest price to get started | $99 | $365 | $349 |
| Choose only the panel you need | Yes | One bundle | One bundle |
| Retesting | Any panel, whenever you choose | Limited to what the membership includes | Limited to what the membership includes |
Competitor pricing from their public websites, September 2026. Retest timing and markers are set by each membership plan.
Tap any card to flip it.
Order online. No membership, no insurance, nothing to cancel later.
A short form so your provider can order your test. It takes a couple of minutes.
Pick a time at a Quest Diagnostics location near you and check out.
Your results arrive in your patient portal in 3 to 10 days.
One blood draw gives you a clear baseline. Every test after that shows you what’s changing, so you can make better choices for the decades ahead.
Better data. Better context. Better decisions.
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