Last updated on January 2, 2026
A relatively new company Superpower contacted me and offered a free lab trial to test their platform. Considering it had been quite some time since I had a blood test, I jumped at the chance.
As usual, after practicing what I preach, things were looking pretty good. And of course, there was still room for improvement. This article, and the one to come, will dive into those results, the good and the bad, so you can learn from it.
About Superpower
Superpower is a prevention-focused health subscription that combines 100+ biomarker blood tests, a clean results dashboard, and a team of artificial intelligence and human care into what they call a “health super-app.”
For approximately $199 per year, members receive a comprehensive annual lab panel, personalized health score and biological age, and ongoing guidance on nutrition, training, sleep, supplements and optional prescriptions. It’s an attractive option if you want deeper, more proactive insight into your health than a typical annual physical.
It’s cheaper than similar comprehensive labs, probably because they produce and monetize specific supplements as a result of your results. In addition, additional tests beyond the basic membership panel and workshop are offered for an additional cost.
You can learn more about Superpower here.
Privacy issues
There are some potential issues that I would be remiss not to mention. Superpower’s model depends on gathering vast amounts of sensitive data – labs, medical history, wearables, even genetics – and the company itself is not a HIPAA-covered provider.
They may also use and sell de-identified data for business purposes. Before signing up, it’s worth reading the privacy policy, consent forms and terms carefully to make sure you’re really comfortable with how your data is used and shared.
It gave me some pause, but I finally decided to use them. Besides, I post at least some of my health data publicly anyway, as I have done for years.
Overview of my lab results
The blood test was a simple draw done at a local Quest Diagnostics office. A few days later, I had my test results.
I came back 10.3 years younger than my actual age.
Additionally, they provide a Superpower rating, which is calculated by the number of bios you have in the optimal, normal, and out-of-range zones.
They also deliver an overall report card in different key areas. Straight A and B for me.
As you can see, most of my areas were doing great, with some just needing some work. I won’t dive into everything here, but I will focus on two different areas. There are additional tests for gut health and toxin exposure, but I didn’t run them at this time, so no results. (I recently did a very comprehensive toxin test which you can read about here.)
My hormonal health
Since hormones are a huge part of what we do at Lost Empire Herbs, I’ll start here.
I wasn’t feeling well going into this test. I was coming off a little sickness brought on by international travel, with higher than normal anxiety, as my father ended up in the hospital just a few weeks before this test and we were figuring out his end of life care. These are just some of the major stressors going on in my life at test time.
In other words, I felt far from optimal. However, my numbers came back pretty consistent, with some (consistent) exceptions.
If you’ve read any of my previous lab results articles (like this one or this one ), you’ll see a pattern start to emerge.
Using AI Chat for SHBG
This is something new that I found quite interesting and useful with Superpower. They have AI chat available, so essentially, you can ‘talk’ to your lab results to better understand them.
For example, I asked the conversation about my high SHBG and the chances of it being genetically driven, to which he replied:
In test after test, I have seen high SHBG numbers as shown in this picture. I have literally never seen normal SHBG numbers in any of my tests. Although there may be some other cause, based on my brother having high SHBG numbers, I believe genetics is the main driver there. This screenshot shows five previous tests with high SHBG.
That just means it’s harder to get great free testosterone for me. But as long as the total testosterone is high enough, in the optimal ranges, I still come across pretty good.
However, I see this and know there is some room for improvement. I may delve into the research once again and update the two SHBG articles I’ve done to see if I can actually lower that number despite genetics.
I also plan to be a little more consistent with using pine pollen tincture, Tongkat Ali, and nettle root, three herbs with some evidence of lowering SHBG.
The health of my immune system
One of the things that came back and looked really bad was my immunity as represented by white blood cells.
As it says in the possible causes, a recent viral illness can cause this. As I just had a cold and was bouncing off it, I attribute these numbers to it. So I was far from my best, and I think these numbers represent that.
However, this also seems to be a pattern from before, so I’m not 100% sure.
As I wrote before, “Slightly below reference ranges. White blood cell count is a sign of inflammation in the body. Neutrophils fight infection. If it’s too low, I might not be able to fight off infections well. But I’m wondering if it’s low because of all the different herbs I’m taking, like mushrooms and elderberry, that might be “taking over the body”?
The superpower recommendations
Based on your results, they make a series of recommendations on their platform. These include actions and lifestyle supplements.
Here’s an example from the “Strengthening Immune Defense” goal as a result of the white blood cell count.
In this case, none of these recommendations seem that helpful to me.
Envelop
I will cover one more area, iron and related biomarkers, in my next article as I want to do more research on this. It has also come up as a pattern for me in blood tests over the years. Be on the lookout for that next week.
I have shared this article for two reasons. First of all, let me give you an inside look at my health. I think leaders should lead from the front, and by that I mean without hypocrisy. Like the fat doctor, if my numbers were terrible, then health wouldn’t be worth listening to, right?
Second, to give you an inside look at Superpower if you want to use a new service. Again, you can learn more on their website here.
