What Getting Tested Taught Me About My Own Health

Turns out I'm gluten intolerant. Who'd have guessed, given I pretty much survived on pasta and pastries throughout university. I've spent the last five years deliberately bulking and cutting, and genuinely believed I understood how my own body responded to food as well as anyone could. Which raises an obvious question: how do you actually know whether you're intolerant to something if you've never been tested for it?

The X-Ray and MRI Parallel

We see a version of this pattern constantly with X-rays and MRIs. Most people only get scanned once a problem is already suspected, which means they only find answers once they've started actively looking for them. Research shows that if people were scanned routinely, even while completely pain-free, many would show significant findings anyway: wear and tear, disc prolapses, osteoarthritis, and more.

Would knowing that change how someone thinks about their own health? Probably. And the same logic applies to what's happening chemically inside the body.

Getting My Own Chemical Health Checked

After noticing some shifts in my energy and mood, I decided to see a functional health practitioner and have my chemical health properly assessed. What came back included several genuinely surprising findings, gluten intolerance among them.

How long had I actually been intolerant? Impossible to say precisely, but almost certainly for quite some time, likely well before the dips in energy and mood I'd started to notice. Since I never showed the "classic" signs, like bloating or obvious digestive discomfort, it would never have occurred to me to suspect it on my own.

The Question That Followed

That led to a second thought. If you'd asked me twelve months ago to rate my energy and mood, I'd have confidently said 10/10 and 8/10 (yes, I actually track this). So how much better could I genuinely have felt during that time, if I'd had this information sooner?

For around £150, I learned more about my chemical health, and practical ways to improve it through diet and supplementation, than I'd picked up in years of paying close attention to my own body. But information on its own isn't power. It's a bit like a gun with no one to pull the trigger, genuinely useless without action behind it. The responsibility now sits with me to actually act on what I've learned and improve my chemical health accordingly.

The Takeaway

Testing gave me something guesswork never could: a genuinely accurate starting point. It's easy to assume you know your own body well simply because you've paid attention to it for years. Sometimes, the only way to find out what you're actually missing is to look properly. If you've been feeling "fine" without ever having checked, it might be worth asking whether "fine" is really the full picture.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you have a food intolerance without noticing obvious symptoms? Yes. Intolerances don't always present with classic signs like bloating or digestive discomfort. They can show up more subtly, through changes in energy, mood, or general wellbeing over time.

Is it worth getting tested even if you feel generally healthy? It can be. Just as routine imaging often reveals findings in people with no symptoms, chemical health testing can reveal things worth knowing about even when you feel fine day to day.

What does functional health testing actually involve? It typically involves assessing markers related to diet, nutrient levels, and how your body is processing certain foods or substances, giving a more detailed picture than symptoms alone would suggest.

Why does having the information alone not change anything? Information only becomes useful once it's acted on. Knowing about an intolerance or imbalance doesn't improve your health on its own; consistent changes to diet or lifestyle based on that information do.

How long can a food intolerance go undetected? It varies significantly by individual, but it's entirely possible for an intolerance to develop and persist for years before symptoms become noticeable enough to prompt investigation.