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The 7 Performance Areas You Need to Fix for a Healthy Life

The optimal functioning of the human body is dependent on 7 aspects. We call them Performance Areas. Performance areas are tangible indicators of your health that indicate how well your body is functioning. The 7 health performance areas include:

  • Energy: Our bodies require energy for every single process. Insufficient energy can cause you to feel exhausted all the time. You may not be able to complete basic activities without feeling worn out. To truly thrive, energy is a core requirement.
  • Sleep: A lack of sleep will make you lethargic. Sleep allows your body and mind to recover from daily wear and tear. Without enough sleep, the brain cannot function properly. For a fulfilling life, getting enough sleep every day is essential.
  • Mood: Mood is the current state of your mind. Your mood can affect everything from your self-confidence to your work and your relationships. A bad mood can cast a shadow on your day. Conversely, the right mood can make everything about your day better.
  • Immunity: This performance area is about your body’s ability to stave off infection and fight off sickness. Having low immunity would put you out of action as it could cause frequent bouts of sickness.
  • Fitness: This is a measure of your physical health. Being physically fit and healthy can empower you to conquer your daily tasks without feeling exhausted at the end of the day and recover faster.
  • Cognition: Cognition is the ability to take in information from the surroundings and make sense of it. Poor cognitive health can get in the way of performing everyday activities efficiently. Healthy cognition is key to a good life.
  • Metabolism: This is the process through which your food converts into energy. The rate of metabolism is important to be energetic throughout the day. A healthy metabolism can assist you in your journey for an optimally healthy life.

We believe that these 7 areas form the bedrock upon which you can build a life with optimum health. Let’s explore ways you can improve your performance by diving deeper into each area.

Table of Contents

How can you improve your performance areas?

Understanding your current health is the first logical step. Although there are several ways for evaluating performance, only a few of them provide functional results. Blood tests are a definitive test of your body’s functioning.

However, standard lab blood tests have some shortcomings. ElevateMe goes beyond standard blood tests.

For starters, standard blood tests use reference ranges to evaluate results. We use optimal blood ranges so that your scores are in comparison with the healthiest of individuals.

Second, standard blood tests are hard to decipher. At ElevateMe, we show the impact of your blood tests on your performance areas. That way you know that Vitamin D and LDL Cholesterol play a part in your energy levels. Your blood tests now have context.

The ElevateMe Health App makes clear associations of your blood biomarkers with performance areas.

Last but not least, our health algorithm gives you hand-picked recommendations to help improve your health. All recommendations to improve performance areas can be broadly put into three groups: Lifestyle, Nutrition, and Supplements.

The ElevateMe Health App intelligently creates personalised action lists across lifestyle, nutrition, and supplements for you to take action right away.

Let’s take a closer look at each of the 7 performance areas and learn how we can measure, track, and improve them.

In this article, we have included a small sample set of all the recommendations ElevateMe’s intelligent health algorithm makes. Your recommendations will be personalised based on your blood test results, health goals, and lifestyle information.

Energy

We burn roughly 2000-2500 calories a day1. Your body needs to be working efficiently to produce this energy from the food we eat. If it doesn’t, you will feel exhausted.

It’s normal to feel a little tired occasionally. However, if you are exhausted quite often, there’s probably an underlying issue – and the solution isn’t more sleep. Many lifestyle and medical factors can have an impact on our energy levels.

How do we measure energy?
Testosterone2, total protein3, cholesterol4, triglycerides4, vitamin D5, vitamin B126, folate (vitamin B9)6, and iron are the blood biomarkers that influence your energy levels. Our at-home blood test checks the levels of these biomarkers and your results contribute to your energy score.
How can you improve your energy?

Lifestyle: Regular exercise almost guarantees a boost in your energy levels7. It also reduces the chances of developing chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

Nutrition: To improve your energy levels for the day, consider boosting your diet with iron-rich foods such as leafy green vegetables, dark chocolate and oatmeal. Consuming iron-rich foods improves iron (ferritin) stores and levels8. A cup of leafy greens contains up to 36% of the daily iron you need. This will ensure optimised oxygenation of the blood and improved energy levels.

Supplements: Krill oil is a known natural supplement that boosts energy levels9. It is packed with DHA, EPA and Astaxanthin, which keep the neurons in your brain and your central nervous system working at their best.

Sleep

Research has shown that sleep can reduce stress levels10. It allows the body and brain to recover during the night. A good night’s sleep can ensure that you wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and alert for the day. The processes that take place during sleep promote healthy brain activity and the maintenance of good overall health.

How do we measure sleep?

Sleep is affected by testosterone2, protein3, bilirubin11, ALT11, GGT11, ALP11, vitamins D5, B126, B96, glucose12, and iron levels of the body9. Additionally, the presence of inflammation within the body has an impact on sleep too13. We check the levels of all these biomarkers with our at-home blood test checkup. The results then go through our health algorithm to generate your sleep score.

Wearables such as fitness bands and smart rings can also track your sleep. The ElevateMe health app will incorporate this information in a future update. This will allow us to be more precise in tracking your sleep and providing personalised recommendations.

How can you improve sleep?

Lifestyle: One of the best ways to improve your sleep is to exercise. Exercising can improve all elements of sleep and can help in reducing symptoms of insomnia.

Nutrition: Consider consuming more healthy fats in the form of olive oil, avocado and line caught fatty fish (mackerel, sardines, tuna, salmon and trout)14. Fatty fish are rich in omega-3 healthy fats, which are essential for optimised nerve, brain and heart function.

Supplements: Turmeric supplements can also help improve your sleep by reducing levels of the stress hormone cortisol15. Turmeric contains antioxidants and also enhances blood circulation.

Mood

Good emotional health allows you to cope with stress and issues that are a normal part of life. You can form strong relationships and feel confident about yourself.

It is important to notice and understand your own thoughts and emotions because they have an impact on your performance.

How do we measure mood?

Mood tends to be fickle. But it is a byproduct of emotional health. To gauge your emotional health, our at-home blood test kit checks for a few select biomarkers. Testosterone2, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)16, cortisol17, ALT11, total protein3, and vitamins6 are the biomarkers that affect your emotional health.

Our health algorithm combines the results of these tests to calculate your mood score. This score is a quantification of your emotional health on the basis of biomarkers that are known to impact brain chemistry.

How can you improve your mood?

Lifestyle: Aerobic exercises are proven to help with anxiety and depression18. A combination of aerobic exercise along with meditation and yoga works wonders for your emotional wellbeing.

Nutrition: In general, diet plays quite a major role in the production of hormones and chemicals that control emotional wellbeing. On the basis of your dietary preference, one of the recommendations that our health algorithm makes to improve your mood is drinking green tea in the mornings. Green tea contains L-theanine which promotes calm and relaxation by reducing the stress hormone cortisol19.

Supplements: Consider taking an ashwagandha supplement20. Ashwagandha is extremely effective at reducing stress levels in the body. It is also beneficial for immune support and enhancing memory function. Ashwagandha is also known to provide a boost to your mood so that you can seize the day.

Immunity

A good immune system is the first line of defence against harmful substances, and pathogens that could make you ill. Illness is an undesirable pit-stop on the path to optimum wellness.

How do we measure immunity?

Our at-home blood test checks the levels of biomarkers like cortisol17, total protein3, and vitamins D, B12 and B96. These biomarkers can have an impact on your immune system and together, they provide a snapshot of your body’s overall immunity. Their levels are used by our health algorithm to generate your immunity score.

How can you improve your immunity?

Lifestyle: The time you go to sleep is very important to the quality of sleep and performance during the day. Ensuring your sleep time falls within the same hour period each night can support your circadian rhythm and ensure optimal performance whilst minimising stress hormones. Aim to go to bed within a consistent window each night.

Nutrition: Consider boosting your diet with more Mediterranean foods14. Olive oil is the primary source of healthy fat in the Mediterranean diet, alongside fatty fish — such as mackerel, sardines, tuna, salmon and trout. Mediterranean foods are rich in omega-3 healthy fats, which are essential for improving your immune response.

Supplements: Another way to help you improve your immune system is by considering a vitamin C supplement21. Vitamin C is necessary for the growth, development and repair of all body tissues. Vitamin C is involved in many body functions, including the formation of collagen, absorption of iron, improving the immune system, and wound healing.

Fitness

Perhaps the most identifiable trait of an optimum life is fitness. And it’s a valid association. Fitness levels have a direct impact on the rest of the performance areas. Fitness is usually the first performance area of your life that you take control of when you begin your journey towards optimum wellness.

How do we measure fitness?

There are numerous ways to measure fitness. As of now, we use blood test data to find out how fit you are. Our at-home blood test checks for biomarkers like testosterone2, cortisol17, DHEA sulphate, protein content3, liver health11, vitamins6, glucose12, inflammation (CRP)13, and iron levels9.

One step in the ElevateMe future roadmap is to factor in data from your wearables. A combination of blood test data and wearable data would provide the most accurate picture of your fitness each day.

How can you improve your fitness?

Lifestyle: Routine exercise is an obvious requirement for fitness. Running, jogging, and other forms of moderate physical activity should be included in your daily routine. It is important to stay hydrated after each workout, and consume foods with a good amount of protein in them.

Nutrition: Try changing your diet that will help you achieve your fitness goals. Make sure you’re getting the right amount of calories and are fuelling your body with whole grains for sustained energy release22.

Supplements: Consuming iron-rich foods23 is normally enough to maintain healthy iron stores and ferritin levels in most people. If you are unable to obtain enough iron through your diet, you may want to consider an iron supplement. Our health app will choose the right type and dosage of iron supplements for you according to your health data.

Cognition

The ability to think rationally, learn new information, and make quick connections between different ideas is nothing short of a superpower. Cognition enables you to remember, use reason, make decisions, and use language to communicate. With perfect cognition, you won’t have any trouble thinking, learning, or remembering. And being smart, to an extent, is a conscious choice.

How do we measure cognition?

Our at-home blood test checks for the biomarkers of vitamin B126 and folate6 which are important for the production of red blood cells which carry oxygen around the body.

How can you improve your cognition?

Lifestyle: Being physically active – through regular exercise, household chores, or other activities – has many benefits on your cognitive health. Studies have shown that exercising increases the size of the brain structure, which is important to memory and learning24.

Sleep is important too. It optimises cognitive functions like memory, attention, and alertness, reduces anxiety and regulates mood. Aim to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night to sharpen up your cognition.

Nutrition: In general, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, fish and poultry are all part of a balanced diet. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil play important roles in brain function and development25. 

Supplements: Krill Oil is packed with DHA, EPA and Astaxanthin, which keeps the neurons in your brain and your central nervous system working at their best, meaning you’ll be smarter, faster, and generally perform better9. Taking a Krill oil supplement can help improve your cognition.

Metabolism

You’ve probably heard people blame their weight on a slow metabolism, but what exactly does it mean? In simple terms, metabolism is the internal process by which your body expends energy and burns calories.

It works around the clock to keep your body moving, even when you’re resting or sleeping. Metabolism is the process that converts the food and nutrients you eat into the energy your body requires for all life processes.

How do we measure metabolism?

ElevateMe’s at-home blood test will check for testosterone2, thyroid-stimulating hormone16, protein content3, bilirubin11, ALT11, GGT11, ALP11, and HbA1c levels12. Using the results, your personalised health app will provide you with a better picture of how your bloodwork impacts your metabolism.

How can you improve your metabolism?

Lifestyle: Fuel up with water26. Your body requires water to process the calories you intake. Your metabolism rates may slow down if you are even mildly dehydrated. Try drinking a glass of water before every meal to stay hydrated.

Nutrition: Eating more often can help your metabolism rates. Your metabolism slows down27 between meals when you eat large meals with long intervals between them. A small snack every 3 to 4 hours keeps your metabolism in harmony with your energy requirements.

Supplements: The body manufactures SAMe (S-adenosylmethionine) for converting specific chemicals into different chemicals. SAMe increases the levels of the most powerful anti-oxidant in the body called Glutathione. Glutathione can protect the liver against toxins, harmful chemicals and oxidative stress in the body. SAMe supplementation28 can improve your metabolism.

ElevateMe and You

Blood tests are a terrific way to tell if you’re in good health. With the help of our intelligent health algorithm, we offer personalised action plans that best suit your needs. After only a few weeks, you’ll see a difference in your blood test results.

ElevateMe is much more than just a fitness and health program. With the help of our performance categories, we not only cover a wide range of markers for your wellness but also provide you with a detailed picture of how one or more of these performance areas affect your well-being.

This is why your ElevateMe health app is completely tailored to you, allowing you to feel in charge of your health. We at ElevateMe want to offer you a head start on your path to true optimal health by integrating all of these components of your health and utilising our intelligent technology to understand how they are connected.

Sign up for an ElevateMe health plan today to get started on your journey to an optimum life.

Take this free health quiz to get your health score and check if you are performing at your absolute best. Also get free personalised health advice based on your score.

Did you know? 

Personalised preventative healthcare, where patients get a proactive rather than reactive approach towards preventing health issues, has been found to significantly reduce serious illness.

Take an ElevateMe blood test today to capture 21 blood test insights and track your sleep, fitness, energy, metabolism, cognition, mood, and immunity.

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References

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13. Mullington, J., Simpson, N., Meier-Ewert, H. and Haack, M., 2010. Sleep loss and inflammation. Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 24(5), pp.775-784.

14. Petersson, S. and Philippou, E., 2016. Mediterranean Diet, Cognitive Function, and Dementia: A Systematic Review of the Evidence. Advances in Nutrition, 7(5), pp.889-904.

15. Prasad, S. and Aggarwal, B., 2021. Turmeric, the Golden Spice. [online] Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92752/> [Accessed 8 July 2021].

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19. White, D., de Klerk, S., Woods, W., Gondalia, S., Noonan, C. and Scholey, A., 2016. Anti-Stress, Behavioural and Magnetoencephalography Effects of an l-Theanine-Based Nutrient Drink: A Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Trial. Nutrients, 8(1), p.53.

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23. Burden, R., Morton, K., Richards, T., Whyte, G. and Pedlar, C., 2014. Is iron treatment beneficial in, iron-deficient but non-anaemic (IDNA) endurance athletes? A systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 49(21), pp.1389-1397.

24. Erickson, K., Voss, M., Prakash, R., Basak, C., Szabo, A., Chaddock, L., Kim, J., Heo, S., Alves, H., White, S., Wojcicki, T., Mailey, E., Vieira, V., Martin, S., Pence, B., Woods, J., McAuley, E. and Kramer, A., 2011. Exercise training increases the size of the hippocampus and improves memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), pp.3017-3022.

25. Dyall, S., 2015. Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and the brain: a review of the independent and shared effects of EPA, DPA and DHA. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 7.

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Performance areas elevateme

Written by Abhishek Majumdar

I'm an English Language and Linguistics student at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Learning from my time as a writer for my University's Journal I've decided to swim in the deep end put my passion for writing, my knowledge, and my keen interest in wellbeing, performance, and health to good use.

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27/07/2021

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