Inside Sports Nutrition · Bob Seebohar and Dina Griffin

What your bloodwork is missing - Ep. #226

·25 min·1 clip

Fasting glucose alone is not enough if someone has family history or fatigue.

1. Inside Sports Nutrition episode 226 focuses on blood work, with Dena Griffin and Bob Sibahar explaining what standard panels miss. 2. Dena Griffin and Bob Sibahar host the show, and both are registered dietitians and board certified specialists in sports dietetics with more than 40 years of combined experience. 3. The episode asks what blood work is really for when someone wants context, not just a red-or-green lab printout. 4. Dena opens with a client who received only total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides and became scared. 5. Bob uses that example to argue that a lipid panel is only part of the story and that context determines whether a result should trigger alarm. 6. The hosts say standard blood work often includes a metabolic panel, blood chemistry, CBC, and lipid panel, but that set is not very insightful for proactive testing. 7. They repeatedly tie the interpretation problem to people who do not have a long-standing relationship with a medical practitioner who knows their history. 8. Bob says markers are related to each other like cousins, so a single high or low result should not be read in isolation. 9. He gives examples involving red blood cells, iron, and vitamin B12, and says these values need to be cross-checked against one another. 10. The hosts say illness, infection, and recent training load can change how blood results should be read. 11. Bob says his practice is putting more weight on metabolism because he sees fasting glucose and HbA1c without fasting insulin or hs-CRP. 12. He calls fasting insulin and hs-CRP non-negotiable additions for a clearer metabolic picture. 13. Dena says clients sometimes hear that they have diabetes without those extra markers being checked. 14. Dena adds vitamin D, a full iron panel, and a full thyroid panel as examples of tests that provide more detail than a single marker like TSH. 15. Bob says he wants as much of a comprehensive foundational blood work test as possible on the first pass, especially for people over 35 or 40 and for elite athletes. 16. The hosts say blood work should be tracked over time because trends reveal more than a single date stamp, especially across years or decades. 17. Dena and Bob also discuss Omega Check, with Bob saying he wants omega-3 percentage between 8% and 12% and uses it to guide food-first or supplement decisions. 18. The conversation is calm, practical, and back-and-forth, with both hosts translating lab language into action steps. 19. People interested in sports nutrition, aging, and proactive health tracking would likely benefit from this episode. 20. People wanting a simple blood test checklist with no nuance may skip it.

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