TECH UP YOUR CHECK-UP!
3D-PRINTED VITAMINS, AT-HOME URINE SAMPLES AND BLOOD TESTS BY POST. ESAT DEDEZADE TEST-DRIVES THE EVERYDAY HEALTH TECH THAT’S TAILORED TO YOU
IT’S impossible not to get swept along by the health hype train these days. It’s running through your social media feeds, it’s on the TV and it’s following you around the web, serving as a painful and perpetual reminder that your affinity for junk food probably isn’t best for your insides.
We can all relate to being bombarded with products and gadgets that want to make us healthier, better, faster and stronger, as the world seems hell-bent on Daft Punking our bodies, and that’s no bad thing – as long as you look in the right places. There’s a lot of snake oil and empty promises out there so we’ve handpicked a bunch of health tools that primarily focus on delivering benefits specifically tailored to your body and its needs.
BUILD YOUR OWN VITAMINS
Company Nourished will 3D-print edible vitamins customised to your specific goals and deliver them to your door each month. You kick things off by answering a short questionnaire that focuses on your ailments and main health objectives. My aim was to concentrate on losing weight while improving focus and memory. The end result is a rather tasty, multicoloured fruit pastille-like treat that has lots of different layers. My tailor-made stack includes milk thistle for liver care (handy for combating overzealous lockdown cocktail sessions), beta glucan for the immune system and white kidney
bean extract for appetite suppression. It sounds like a disgusting mash-up of flavours but it’s actually rather tasty, bursting with a juicy fruit flavour and natural sweetener. You’ll still need a healthy diet, exercise and sleep for best results but at least this offers an easy way to munch down on supplements you wouldn’t normally include in your diet. At £40 a month, it’s pricey but it beats swallowing tasteless dystopian capsules.
get-nourished.com
BREATHALYSE YOUR FOOD
Your breath can do more than tell you how many drinks you’ve knocked back. It can actually indicate what foods may or may not agree with you, and help you pinpoint culprits behind any digestive issues you might be having. Enter the FoodMarble AIRE, a £149 gadget that resembles a miniature vape pod. Breathe into it after eating individual food items or meals and it will let you know if you’ve had anything that’s incompatible with your digestive system.
It sounds far-fetched but the science behind it is sound. When food isn’t fully digested in your gut, bacteria breaks the remainder down. This releases small amounts of hydrogen in your blood, which is then transferred to your breath via your lungs. The higher the reading, the more incompatible something is. In my case, it turns out I’m not suited to the carbohydrate inulin that’s found in onions and garlic but I’ll be damned if I’m giving up either of those. For those with severe dietary symptoms, though, this could be a game-changer.
BLOODY BRILLIANT
Thriva is a service that lets you post blood samples via a prepaid kit (starting at £26) to a Care Quality Commission-approved lab for analysis before a qualified GP takes a look at the results and provides personalised comments online. The various tests range from iron and testosterone levels for energy, to liver function, sleep markers, thyroid results and more. You can subscribe to tests every three months or once a year, although people with an aversion to blood might not be too keen. That’s because you’ll need to pierce your finger with a sterile metal lancet. The bark of the needle was far worse than its tiny bite. It takes a few days for online results to arrive, and proved genuinely useful. It turns out my vitamin D levels needed a boost and I have a mildly fatty liver, which means I may need to cut back on the Old Fashioneds. Sigh.
thriva.co
URINE TROUBLE
If eyes are the window to the soul, then urine is the gateway to your health. It’s not as romantic, granted, but it is true. Your wee can reveal a lot about your health – and now you don’t need a home laboratory to analyse it.
Elosia is a subscription service that sends you test strips that reveal different colours depending on the contents of your urine. The strips can detect your hydration, pH, nutrition, vitamin C, ketones and electrolyte levels, providing a useful overview of your general health. Scan the strips with your smartphone camera and the accompanying app, and you’ll be presented with an overall wellness score and a detailed breakdown of the different components.
It’s a handy way to make small but important changes, such as drinking more fluids to prevent dehydration and taking supplements to help boost your immune system. You can grab four strips a month for £16.50, which drops down to £8 a month if you commit for a whole year.