A few simple labs can tell you a lot about your body’s terrain and how it’s functioning—long before anything shows up on a scan. These tests help you track metabolic health, which is foundational, since cancer is primarily a metabolic condition, not just a genetic one. Monitoring how your body is producing and using energy gives a far earlier picture of imbalance, long before a tumor ever develops.
- A full thyroid panel
The thyroid regulates almost every cell in the body: metabolism, oxygen consumption, energy production, gene expression, cell differentiation, etc. When thyroid function is low, cells can’t generate energy at their normal rate. This affects how the body uses oxygen, manages inflammation, and clears toxins. Over time, that energy deficit can promote “cancer metabolism” or glycolysis and makes it harder for tissues to stay balanced, respond to stress, and repair.
A full thyroid panel gives a much clearer picture than TSH alone, since issues often show up in conversion or antibody activity first. This includes:
- TSH: Produced by the pituitary; elevated levels often signal that the thyroid is underactive or the body is stressed.
- Free T3: The active thyroid hormone; drives mitochondrial respiration and energy production.
- Free T4: The storage form of thyroid hormone; must convert efficiently into T3 for optimal function.
- Reverse T3: A mirror image of T3 that binds to the same receptors but doesn’t activate them. It tends to rise during stress, illness, or fasting and can block T3 from doing its job.
- Thyroid antibodies (TPO and TgAb): Identify autoimmune thyroiditis (Hashimoto’s).
- The progesterone to estrogen ratio
This ratio reflects one of the most important hormonal balances in the body: the relationship between cell growth and cell differentiation. Estrogen stimulates growth and cell division, while progesterone stabilizes and matures tissues, helping cells differentiate and perform their proper functions. When progesterone levels drop (as they often do with chronic stress, poor thyroid function, or aging), estrogen’s effects become unopposed, leading to excessive growth signals, inflammation, and oxidative stress.
Maintaining a healthy progesterone-to-estrogen ratio is essential for breast, uterine, and ovarian tissue integrity. Low progesterone or high estrogen relative to progesterone has been linked to conditions like fibrocystic breasts, hyperplasia, and hormonally driven cancers.
From a metabolic perspective, progesterone also supports oxidative metabolism, reduces cortisol, and protects mitochondria. This ratio is a reflection of the body’s internal environment:
- Balanced energy production (via thyroid and mitochondria)
- Controlled inflammation
- Proper detoxification of estrogen through the liver and gut
Keeping this ratio in check helps ensure the body’s terrain supports stability, differentiation, and repair rather than unchecked cell proliferation.
In a healthy woman, progesterone should typically be 100 times higher than estradiol when measured in serum.
- DHEA-S to cortisol ratio
The DHEAS-to-cortisol ratio provides insight into how your body handles stress, energy balance, and immune regulation, all of which are tightly linked to cancer risk and progression.
- Cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone. In short bursts, it’s adaptive, helping control inflammation and mobilize energy. But chronically elevated cortisol suppresses immune surveillance, increases blood sugar, promotes muscle breakdown, and can contribute to tumor-promoting inflammation.
- DHEA-S (dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate) is an adrenal hormone with opposite effects. It buffers cortisol’s catabolic impact, supports immune function, and serves as a precursor for protective hormones like progesterone and testosterone. Because it’s the more stable, long-circulating form of DHEA, it provides a clearer reflection of long-term adrenal balance and stress resilience.
When cortisol stays high and DHEA-S remains low, the ratio shifts toward catabolism, tissue breakdown, immune suppression, and impaired energy production.
A balanced ratio (higher DHEA-S relative to cortisol) reflects healthy adrenal function and a terrain that supports cell repair, immune defense, and hormone balance. Testing can be done via serum, typically morning samples, to assess long-term adrenal balance. Saliva tests can also track daily rhythm, but serum DHEA-S gives a more stable baseline.
- Lactate levels
A blood lactate test measures the amount of lactic acid circulating in your bloodstream. It’s usually drawn from a standard blood sample and can be done fasting.I t’s a good way to see if your body is properly metabolizing glucose and that the mitochondria are working properly, because when cells can’t use oxygen efficiently, they convert glucose into lactate instead of fully burning it for energy. Chronically high lactate suggests a shift toward this less efficient, stress-driven metabolism, the same pattern cancer cells depend on to survive and grow.
Elevated lactate suggests the body is relying more on glycolysis (anaerobic metabolism) instead of oxidative metabolism. This is a red flag for a stressed terrain, cells aren’t using oxygen properly, and it’s a hallmark of cancer.
Typical ranges:
- Normal fasting lactate: 0.5–2.2 mmol/L
- Mildly elevated: 2–4 mmol/L (indicates some metabolic stress)
- High: >4 mmol/L (suggests significant oxygen or mitochondrial dysfunction)
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels
A CO2 (carbon dioxide) blood test, usually part of a basic metabolic panel, can give valuable insight into how well your body is metabolizing oxygen and maintaining pH balance. Although it’s often overlooked, CO2 reflects the rate of cellular respiration, how effectively your cells convert glucose and oxygen into energy.
People often think CO2 is just a waste product, but it’s not. It actually helps keep cells stable by maintaining pH balance, improving oxygen delivery, and supporting healthy metabolism.
When metabolism is healthy and thyroid function is optimal, cells produce plenty of CO2 as a natural byproduct of efficient energy production (oxidative phosphorylation). Higher-normal CO2 levels generally indicate good mitochondrial activity and oxygen use.
Low CO2 levels, on the other hand, suggest that cells are under stress and shifting toward glycolysis, a less efficient, oxygen-poor pathway that produces lactate instead of CO2, the same metabolic shift observed in cancer cells (the Warburg effect).
Maintaining adequate CO2 is essential not only for cellular energy but also for proper oxygen delivery (Bohr effect), nervous system calm, and blood vessel regulation, all factors that create a terrain less favorable to cancer development.
- Free fatty acids (FFAs)
A Free Fatty Acids (FFA) test gives insight into how the body is producing and
using energy. When the body is under chronic stress, stress hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and glucagon stimulate fat breakdown (lipolysis), flooding the bloodstream with free fatty acids. This shift usually happens when the body can’t efficiently use glucose and oxygen for energy, a hallmark of a low-thyroid, stress-driven metabolism.
- High levels of circulating FFAs can have several cancer-related effects:
- Suppress glucose oxidation (Randle cycle): FFAs block glucose from entering the mitochondria, forcing cells into a glycolytic, low-oxygen state, similar to the Warburg effect observed in cancer cells.
- Increase oxidative stress: Excess fat oxidation generates lipid peroxides, damaging DNA and mitochondria.
- Fuel inflammation: FFAs, especially polyunsaturated ones (PUFAs), activate inflammatory pathways and promote a pro-cancer environment.
- Disrupt insulin signaling: Elevated FFAs contribute to insulin resistance, which raises growth factors (like IGF-1) that stimulate tumor growth.
Monitoring FFAs can reveal whether the body is running on stress hormones or cellular efficiency. A well-regulated metabolism keeps FFAs within range because energy is being made cleanly, with oxygen, glucose, and carbon dioxide, not through constant fat breakdown. To test, a small blood sample is drawn from a vein in your arm, usually after 8–12 hours without food.
- Fasting glucose
A fasting glucose test provides insight into how well your body is regulating and
using blood sugar for energy. Glucose is the primary fuel for healthy cells, but when insulin sensitivity decreases, glucose remains elevated in the bloodstream instead of being absorbed into cells. This creates an internal environment of oxidative stress, inflammation, and excessive growth signaling—conditions that can encourage the early stages of cancer development.
Persistently high glucose also impairs mitochondrial respiration and pushes the body toward anaerobic glycolysis (fermenting glucose without oxygen), the same metabolic pattern cancer cells rely on to survive and grow. In this low-oxygen, high-lactate state, cells become less efficient at producing energy and more prone to dysfunction.
However, abnormal glucose levels don’t always mean insulin resistance or diabetes. They can also be influenced by other factors such as potassium or magnesium deficiency, thyroid dysfunction, adrenal stress, or even acute infection or inflammation. It’s important to rule out these underlying issues to get a clear picture of your metabolic state.
Monitoring fasting glucose can help determine whether your body is functioning in a calm, oxygen-efficient way or under metabolic stress. This is a fasting blood test, typically drawn after 8–12 hours without food.
I know many doctors tend to limit what they’re willing to test. If your doctor denies your request for certain labs, a helpful strategy is to ask them to document that the request was denied in your medical record. Sometimes this simple request is enough to make them reconsider, and even if not, it creates a paper trail showing you’ve taken proactive steps for your health.
If you still can’t access the tests you want, there are great direct-to-consumer options that allow you to order your own labs. Raena offers at-home metabolic panels that include thyroid, hormones, and inflammation markers. Superpower provides at-home or walk-in testing for nutrient panels, glucose, metabolic markers, and more!