Thriva Personalised Home Health Test Review
Ever had an inkling something is wrong but your GP won’t listen? Take control of your own health and do a personalised home health test from Thriva. Thriva offer various easy to do blood tests for all aspects of your health but I tried out their personalised testing service created around my personal health needs.
Who are Thriva?
Thriva are a home health testing service who send you easy to use blood test kits in the post. There’s no doctor appointment or needles required, and your blood is analysed in the same accredited labs as on the NHS. Your results are emailed to you in 48 hours along with interpretation and recommendations from a doctor. If there are areas which need improving over time, such as cholesterol or iron levels, you can get a subscription where you’ll be sent a new test at set intervals to retest and see what’s improved.
The tests are really easy to do, as lancets are supplied to make a small fingerprick and you collect your blood sample in the tube provided. Then pop your blood samples in the post in the prepaid post bag supplied.
I’ve tried Thriva tests before, a basic one here and the female hormone one here.
Why a Personalised Test?
There are literally thousands of possible health tests available Worldwide, from checking vitamin levels in your body to hormones, and things like cholesterol, blood pressure, blood fat levels, bone density, gut bacteria……. Yet most of them are highly irrelevant to you. They can be seriously expensive when ordering them privately too, yet the NHS are pushed for time and money so your GP won’t test you for much unless you’re really ill, unfortunately.
Sometimes it’s the little, not quite so life-threatening things that really make life better, easier and more enjoyable. Such as less bloating, more energy, getting rid of adult acne or uncomfortably heavy periods. Often the causes of these are simple and not serious, and very easy to correct. But without testing, you can’t ever really say for sure what the issue is.
What Thriva has done is curate a system that devises which tests are most appropriate for you, based on your current health, any previous test results if applicable, and whatever health goal you want to achieve, such as less stress, more energy, better sleep, better digestion or skin etc.
How to order your personalised health test
- go to Thriva.co
- If you’ve taken a Thriva test before, log in, as this will bring up your personal information and previous test results. In fact these will also be used to calculate what would be best included in your personalised test too, as some things may need retesting to see if they’ve changed.
- Whether you’ve logged in or not (in the instance you’ve never done a Thriva test before), hover over the ‘Products’ on the top menu bar and you’ll see listed all the various Thriva tests including the ‘Personalised Build Your Own’.
- You’ll be asked a few simple questions and will be presented at the end with a recommendation of what they should test you for, related to your current health and goals.
- Use code FITMUM15 to get 15% off your test.
My Recommendations
I chose sleep as my goal. I’m generally in pretty good health (I think) as I eat well most of the time, get regular exercise, walk a lot, get fresh air and sunshine and meditate at bedtime. But still, I’m a terrible sleeper!
I saw a meme recently saying Sagittarius’ will ‘sleep when they’re dead’ and this is so true for me!
So with this being a persistent weak spot and the opportunity to improve it right in front of me, I jumped at the chance. Speaking of chance, things generally don’t happen by chance – it’s all data and science and there’s a reason for everything, even if you can’t figure out what it is. Maybe my lack of sleep is due to something that can be measured in a blood test?
The recommended markers I was told to test are:
- Vitamin B9 & B12 (needed to convert food into energy)
- CRP (C reactive protein, a marker of inflammation)
- Free testosterone profile (even women have some testosterone, and need the right amount)
- HbA1c (blood sugar)
- Advanced Iron Profile (not enough iron = fatigue)
- Vitamin D (regulates mood)
Personalised test prices depend on what’s recommended for you and will range from £30 to £130 but you can edit the selection and remove tests you don’t think you need, and this will reduce the price. The system is designed by health professionals though so if it were me I’d take their advice.
My Results
The majority of the tests came back absolutely normal, so I’m not iron or vitamin D deficient, my testosterone levels are normal, and I have very low inflammation which is great!
Unfortunately the HBA1C (blood sugar average over a few months) couldn’t be tested as the blood had clotted in the tube. It can happen, maybe I didn’t shake the sample well enough so the anti-clotting liquid couldn’t mix in well.
The only thing that came up too high (which is rare, it’s more likely low) is B12, most likely from unnecessary supplements.
What’s really interesting is that a while ago I was sent a vegan vitamin supplement which I thought I may as well use (B12 is what vegans need to take as it’s only found in animal products). Except I’m not vegan and except for dairy (intolerance) eat plenty of animal foods. It looks like the supplement has been putting my over the ideal range after all, but this will return to normal upon stopping the supplements.