Biomarkers · NuShape × Soho House
Know Your
Numbers
Biohacking without biomarkers is flying blind. These are the numbers that give you a real-time picture of what's working inside — blood, hormones, inflammation, metabolic health. Most people have never seen most of these. Most doctors never test for them.
Jessica Charles
Founder · NuShape
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You cannot optimise what you cannot measure. These numbers are not for anxiety — they are for agency. Each one is a lever you can actually pull.
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Essential Bloodwork
The Numbers That Matter Most
Dr. Peter Attia's framework for longevity medicine — laid out in detail in Outlive — begins with biomarkers. Not symptoms. Not feelings. Numbers. His argument: the diseases that kill most people in the modern world (cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, neurodegeneration, cancer) develop silently over decades before becoming diagnosable. The window of meaningful intervention is long, but only if you're measuring. Tap each to go deeper.
Vitamin D3 (25-OH)
Optimal: 60–80 ng/mL
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Most people are deficient. D3 is not really a vitamin — it's a steroid hormone precursor that regulates immune function, calcium metabolism, mood, and gene expression. Standard "normal" ranges (30+ ng/mL) are set to prevent deficiency disease, not for optimal function. Aim for 60–80. Supplement D3 always with K2 — D3 drives calcium into circulation, K2 directs it into bone and away from arteries.
↑ Most commonly deficient biomarker globally — even in sunny climates
HbA1c + Fasting Insulin
HbA1c <5.4% · Insulin <5 µIU/mL
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HbA1c measures average blood glucose over 90 days. Fasting insulin is more sensitive still: elevated insulin (above 5–7 µIU/mL) indicates insulin resistance years before glucose rises to "diabetic" levels. This gap — between insulin resistance and a normal glucose — is where metabolic disease silently develops. Attia describes this as the most important thing to test and the thing most standard care misses.
↑ Most important metabolic biomarker pair — rarely tested together in standard care
hs-CRP (High-Sensitivity CRP)
Optimal: <0.5 mg/L
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The primary systemic inflammation marker. Standard CRP only detects infection-level inflammation. hs-CRP detects the chronic low-grade inflammation associated with cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and all-cause mortality — often present for years before symptoms appear. Elevated hs-CRP responds to dietary changes, cold therapy, sauna, omega-3s, and sleep improvement.
Ferritin + Iron Panel
Women: 30–100 ng/mL · Men: 50–150 ng/mL
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Ferritin is the storage form of iron and also an acute-phase reactant — elevated ferritin can indicate either iron deficiency (low energy, poor recovery) or systemic inflammation. Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in women worldwide. Too much stored iron drives oxidative stress and is associated with cardiovascular disease in men.
Free Testosterone + SHBG
Context-dependent · Always request free T, not just total
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Total testosterone is almost meaningless in isolation — most may be bound to SHBG (sex hormone-binding globulin) and biologically unavailable. Free testosterone is what the body can actually use. Low free T in women drives fatigue, libido loss, and poor muscle recovery. In men, it's the primary indicator of andropause. Gary Brecka's work on methylation and hormonal function connects MTHFR gene variants to both SHBG elevation and suboptimal testosterone utilisation.
Thyroid Panel
TSH: 1–2 mIU/L · Free T3 · Free T4 · Anti-TPO
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TSH alone is an inadequate thyroid test — it only measures the pituitary signal, not what the thyroid actually produces. A full panel includes Free T3, Free T4, and anti-TPO antibodies (Hashimoto's screening). Subclinical hypothyroidism is extremely common and underdiagnosed. Note: chlorine and fluoride in unfiltered tap water directly disrupt thyroid receptor function — another reason the clean water conversation matters.
↑ Chlorine and fluoride (unfiltered tap water) disrupt thyroid receptor function
Homocysteine
Optimal: <7 µmol/L
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Elevated homocysteine is one of the strongest independent predictors of cardiovascular disease, stroke, cognitive decline, and all-cause mortality — and almost never tested in standard care. It rises when B12, B6, and folate are inadequate (the methylation pathway). A methylated multivitamin typically normalises elevated homocysteine within weeks. This single number may be the most important most people have never seen.
↑ May be the most important number most people have never seen
◈ The Attia Framework
Dr. Peter Attia's Outlive argues that the central failure of modern medicine is treating disease after it manifests rather than preventing it decades earlier. His "Medicine 3.0" framework starts with comprehensive biomarker testing — not to find disease, but to find the conditions that create it, years before it becomes diagnosable. Most of these tests are available privately for a few hundred euros and should be done annually.
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Wearable Biomarkers
What You Can Track Daily Without a Lab
Real-Time Biofeedback — No Lab Required
HRV — Heart Rate Variability
The variation in time between heartbeats. Higher HRV = better autonomic nervous system health, better recovery, lower chronic stress. Tracked by Oura Ring, Whoop, Apple Watch. A single daily number that reflects your overall nervous system readiness — and the most accurate leading indicator of overtraining, illness, and burnout before you feel them consciously.
Resting Heart Rate
Long-term trend more important than single readings. Declining resting HR over months indicates improving cardiovascular fitness. A sudden rise often signals illness, overtraining, or poor sleep before you feel it. Peter Attia tracks resting HR as one of the five key longevity metrics — alongside grip strength, VO2 max, muscle mass, and metabolic health markers.
Sleep Architecture
Total sleep time is a poor metric. Deep sleep (slow-wave) and REM duration are what matter. Poor deep sleep disrupts growth hormone release, immune function, and cellular repair. Poor REM disrupts memory consolidation and emotional regulation. Track these, not just total hours.
Blood Glucose (CGM)
Continuous glucose monitors (Levels, Nutrisense, Dexcom) reveal your personal glucose response to food, stress, sleep, and exercise in real time. The same meal can produce dramatically different glucose curves in different people. 30–90 days on a CGM teaches you more about your metabolic health than years of standard care.
Your body has been keeping these numbers for years. The only question is whether you've been looking.
Devices That Support Your Numbers
NuShape · Cellf · Red Light + PEMF
Red Light & PEMF Devices
Support HRV, hs-CRP (inflammation), and recovery — trackable with your wearable
nushape.com
