How to Use Bloodwork to Understand Inflammation and Movement Quality

By guest writers and friends of The Ready State, Andy Galpin’s and Dan Garner of the Vitality Blueprint: a performance bloodwork company that is defining best practices in the emerging arena of bloodwork as a tool for human performance.

Blood delivers oxygen, nutrients, and hormones throughout the body, essential for every muscle, organ, and physiological system to function. As it circulates the body, markers are picked up and left behind telling a story about our body’s health and performance. By closely examining these biomarkers, we can gain deep insights into how well our body is functioning and identify any issues or constraints that may exist.

In a previous post, we introduced the concept of “performance bloodwork” in detail with guest writers from our friends over at Vitality. We covered the use of bloodwork as a tool for enhancing performance rather than detecting diseases, and we highlighted the concepts of constraint theory, biomarker selection, and performance interpretation.

In this blog, we will apply the principles of performance bloodwork to a specific area of physiology: inflammation and movement quality in the body.

Inflammation and Movement Quality in the Body

Everyone in the TRS community knows that mobility and inflammation management are crucial for performance as well as general quality of life. For optimal function and quality of life, mobility must be maintained through effective movement patterns, while inflammation must be controlled to prevent injury and support effective recovery. These processes are influenced by numerous factors, including joint health, muscle flexibility, and the body’s inflammatory response to diet, stress, and training.

You can support your body’s mobility and manage inflammation using practices like those contained within our on-demand Mobility Coach App that promote flexibility, mobility, and joint health.

Optimization of the body’s inflammatory response can lead to better performance day-to-day as well as ensure maximum benefit from mobility-enhancing practices and anti-inflammatory strategies like those at TRS.

How To Measure Your Body’s Mobility & Inflammatory Status

For a complete picture of mobility and inflammation management in the body, Vitality Blueprint utilizes 20+ specific biomarkers within an individual’s bloodwork. By monitoring these biomarkers, you can gain valuable insights into your body’s inflammatory status and mobility potential.

Today, we’re highlighting two of these biomarkers that you can monitor to gain a better understanding of your mobility and inflammation status. These biomarkers can be requested as part of standard bloodwork or found through OTC lab testing or guided tools like Vitality Blueprint.

• Marker 1: C-Reactive Protein

• • What is this marker and what role does it play in understanding resilience?
    • CRP is a protein produced by the liver in response to inflammation. It is a marker of systemic inflammation and can indicate the body’s response to stress, infection, or injury.
  • What is the impact of a high/low status of this marker on movement and mobility?
    • High Status: Elevated CRP levels indicate acute or chronic inflammation, which can impair muscular recovery, cause joint pain, and decrease overall resilience.
    • Low Status: Low CRP levels are generally a sign of low inflammation, indicating better movement quality, recovery capacity, and resilience.
  • Target Range
    • Women
      • Normal: 0-3 mg/L
      • Optimal: 0-1 mg/L
    • Men
      • Normal: 0-3 mg/L
      • Optimal: 0-.55 mg/L
  • How to improve
    • If your C-Reactive Protein status comes back above the optimal range, you may experience adverse effects limiting your movement quality. Try these practices:
      • Adhering to a Mediterranean-style diet has been shown to positively affect C-reactive protein.
      • Ingestion of omega-3 fatty acids has been shown to reduce C-reactive protein.
      • Research has shown that multiple training models have elicited positive results. Follow a structured training program that exerts your body through multiple resistance and aerobic intensities at least four times per week.
      • Curcumin supplementation has been shown to decrease C-reactive protein

• Marker 2: ESR (Erythrocyte sedimentation rate or Sedimentation Rate-Westergren)

• • What is this marker and what role does it play in understanding energy systems?
    • Erythrocyte sedimentation rate is an indication of inflammatory activity in the body.  Red blood cells, or erythrocytes, clump together when protein levels increase in the blood as a result of inflammatory conditions. 
  • What is the impact of a high/low status of this marker on energy systems?
    • High Status: High sedimentation rate can stem from physiological factors such as inflammation and tissue damage, as increased levels of certain proteins cause red blood cells to clump together and settle more quickly. From a nutritional perspective, factors like excessive intake of inflammatory foods may also contribute to elevated sedimentation rates.
    • Low Status: Low sedimentation rate is generally considered a sign of good health. It is related to physiological factors affecting blood viscosity and protein concentrations, which can be influenced by liver and kidney function.
  • Range
    • Women
      • Normal: 0-40 mm/hr
      • High performance: 0-10 mm/hr
    • Men
      • Normal: 0-30 mm/hr
      • High performance: 0-5 mm/hr
  • How to improve
    • If your ESR status comes back above the optimal range, you may experience adverse effects limiting your movement quality. Try these practices:
      • Omega-3 fatty acids (from fish or flaxseed) and blueberries help reduce inflammation, which influence ESR.
      • Address and effectively manage stress
      • Regular physical activity, including low impact exercise, is associated with lower sedimentation rates.
      • Curcumin supplementation is associated with lower sedimentation rates.

Digging in on these biomarkers and others within your bloodwork can provide insight and guidance towards how to reduce inflammation in your body and boost movement quality and mobility.

Utilizing the right reference ranges is important when making evaluations to ensure you seek understanding from a performance perspective rather than as a benchmark versus the general population or a screen for disease.

What’s Next?

You can dig deeper on performance bloodwork with Vitality Blueprint, and you can use the framework we’ve covered together to turn your routine bloodwork into a performance tool with more insight.

As a company and a community at The Ready State, we love learning from our close friends (and vice versa!). If you’re interested in more information about What Blood Work Can Tell You About Your Performance, read part I of this blog post by Vitality Blueprint founders and close friends, Andy Galpin and Dan Garner.