I was a little anxious waiting for the results. In early November, I had blood drawn into eight small vials. I provided a urinal sample, too. Everything then headed to a lab so I could then find out how healthy I was. As someone who rides his bikes a bunch, and who generally feels pretty good, what did have to worry about, really?
Well, to be honest, I hadn’t been riding my bikes as much as I regularly do. A mix of injury and “life/work stuff” had kept me out of the saddle for most of the summer. I definitely wasn’t paying close attention to my nutrition, enjoying whatever delights Thanksgiving and Halloween had had to offer. And throw in a weekend cocktail or two, maybe three, into the mix. I’m in my late 40s—an age in which it doesn’t take long for health markers to turn.
The company that was going to provide me with insights into the state of my body was NiaHealth. It’s an Edmonton-based startup that can analyze your biological data, and then offer guidance to help keep you healthy. At the moment, in its early development, it tends to attract fit folks looking to optimize their fitness and health, but its application can be much wider. For people who want greater depth and discussion about their health—whether it’s around diet, cardio, gut, even emotional well-being—NiaHealth has the means. What I had signed up for, what I wanted to test, was a variation of the company’s Plus program. It includes a look at biomarkers related to the heart, liver, kidneys, bones and blood, and one virtual consultation with a clinician who would go over the results of the tests and advise me on my next steps.
The test results surprised me, in both good and, well, not-so-good ways. The challenging news, of course, is more interesting. It also has insights that can help you, my fellow cyclists, especially those of you who like to ride hard a lot.
Before my blood and urine sample were taken, I filled out NiaHealth’s detailed questionnaire about my medical history, as well as my family’s. I also patched in years of data from Garmin. I’m actually pretty diligent with keeping both Garmin and Xert up to date with all my activities. NiaHealth is also able to grab data from Fitbit, Oura, MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, Ultrahuman, Suunto, Peloton and with Apple Watch in beta upon request. For me, a notable absence is Coros, but you can send in a request to have NiaHealth look into adding your device.
A week after the collection, I got a text. It was…
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