Specialty Testing Guide › TruHealth Micronutrient Testing
TruHealth is an epigenetic test from TruDiagnostic. It does not measure vitamin or nutrient levels in your blood directly. Instead, the lab reads DNA methylation patterns from a blood sample and uses statistical models to estimate where more than 100 blood markers, including some vitamins, amino acids, fats and inflammation markers, would likely fall.
That makes it a different kind of test from a standard vitamin D or ferritin blood test. It can give you a broad, pattern-level picture of your biology, but a low estimate is a prompt to check with a standard blood test, not a diagnosis of deficiency.
Key takeaways
- Every TruHealth result is a prediction made from methylation patterns, not a direct reading of the nutrient in your blood.
- Scores are shown as percentiles against a reference group rather than in the units a regular lab report uses.
- Several common nutrient concerns, such as iron, B12, folate, zinc and magnesium, are not on the published marker list at all.
- The lab itself positions the test as an add-on to standard workup, not a diagnostic tool.
- Confirm any low estimate with a standard blood test before you start high-dose supplements.
How TruHealth works: methylation, not a nutrient assay
DNA methylation is a set of small chemical tags on your DNA that help turn genes up or down. These tags shift with age, diet, smoking, body weight and other exposures, and they can be read from the white blood cells in a blood sample.
TruDiagnostic's own description says the test reads methylation at more than 1,000,000 sites in your DNA and applies those patterns to "surrogate biomarkers." In plain terms, each result is a prediction. Researchers measured real blood levels of many substances in a large group of people, then trained a model to predict each level from methylation alone.1 TruDiagnostic calls these predictions epigenetic biomarker proxies.2
So when a TruHealth report shows a score for vitamin E or LDL cholesterol, no one measured vitamin E or LDL in your sample. The score reflects how your methylation pattern compares with the patterns of people whose measured levels were higher or lower.
What the 105+ biomarkers cover
TruDiagnostic lists more than 100 epigenetic biomarkers grouped into 19 body systems, and the clinic describes the panel as covering over 105 biomarkers. The main groups are:
- Vitamins: vitamin A, several B vitamins including B5 and B6, vitamins C, D and E, choline and betaine.
- Amino acids: such as methionine, cysteine, taurine, glutamine, arginine, glycine and citrulline.
- Fats: omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, including EPA and DHA.
- Metabolic and heart markers: HbA1c, glucose, LDL and HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, ApoB, leptin and adiponectin.
- Immune and inflammation markers: CRP, IL-6, white cell counts and related ratios.
- Other groups: stress markers such as cortisol, uric acid, ketones, NAD+ related compounds, and markers linked to chemical exposures such as PFAS.
What is missing matters just as much. TruDiagnostic's published TruHealth marker list does not include iron or ferritin, vitamin B12, folate, zinc, magnesium or selenium.2 If one of those is your concern, a standard blood test is the direct route. Our guides on iron deficiency and overload and B12 deficiency risk factors explain which tests to ask for.
How accurate are methylation estimates?
The method has peer-reviewed support as a research tool. A 2026 paper in Nature Aging by Harvard-affiliated and TruDiagnostic researchers used these proxies to build an aging measure that was strongly linked with chronic disease and death in large validation groups.3 That shows the estimates carry real biological signal across populations.
How well they match one person's true level is a separate question. The main paper describing how the proxies were built was posted as a preprint and funded in part by TruDiagnostic. In it, proxies for blood metabolites, the group that holds most of the vitamin and amino acid markers, had an average correlation of 0.29 with the measured values. Proxies for routine clinical labs did better, averaging 0.41.1
A correlation in that range means the estimate and your actual level tend to move in the same direction, loosely. It does not mean one closely predicts the other. The same paper found that proxies for routine labs caught about three in four truly out-of-range results, with wide variation between panels, so some real problems are missed and some flags are false alarms.
What TruHealth can and cannot tell you
It can give a wide overview from one sample, covering patterns in nutrition, metabolism and inflammation. Some people use it as a starting map, or to follow broad change over time. TruDiagnostic notes that methylation tends to reflect a longer window than a single blood level, which moves with meals and hydration.
It cannot diagnose a deficiency, an illness or a toxicity. TruDiagnostic states that its outputs should not be the sole basis for diagnosis or treatment decisions.2 It does not tell you how much of a vitamin to take, and it does not replace the standard tests a clinician would use to confirm a problem.
Supplements are also not a shortcut to prevention. The US Preventive Services Task Force found insufficient evidence that multivitamins prevent heart disease or cancer, and it recommends against beta-carotene and vitamin E supplements for that purpose.4
How a clinician uses the results
At YoungerMeMD, specialty tests are chosen after a full assessment, and they are meant to complement your standard labs, not replace them. Standard bloodwork for patients in the Philadelphia area is drawn locally. A sensible way to use TruHealth looks like this:
- Read it alongside your history, symptoms, medicines and standard bloodwork.
- Treat a low or high estimate as a question. If the answer would change your treatment, confirm it with a standard blood test first.
- Favor food and lifestyle changes for broad patterns, and keep any supplements targeted, with a plan for when to stop.
- If you retest, look for consistent trends across several markers rather than one number moving.
Next step: cost and logistics
If TruHealth sounds like it fits your goals, our TruHealth cost guide for Pennsylvania covers the price, the assessment it attaches to and what is included. The TruHealth hub lists every article in this series.
Frequently asked questions
Does TruHealth measure my vitamin D level?
No. It reports a methylation-based estimate, shown as a percentile against a reference group. If you need to know your actual vitamin D status, the standard test is a 25-hydroxyvitamin D blood test, which reports a level in units your clinician can act on.
Is TruHealth a genetic test?
Not in the usual sense. It does not read your inherited DNA sequence or look for gene variants. It reads methylation, the chemical tags on top of your DNA, which TruDiagnostic notes can shift with diet, sleep, exercise, supplements and medicines.
How is the sample collected?
TruDiagnostic describes TruHealth as using a small finger-prick blood sample. How your sample is collected through the clinic is explained when the test is ordered, so ask our team if you have questions before you book.
Can TruHealth replace my yearly bloodwork?
No. It does not measure the values your standard panel measures, and the lab itself describes it as an add-on to standard workup. Keep your routine labs with your primary care clinician.
Related reading
This article is for general education and is not medical advice. Decisions about testing and treatment should be made with your clinician. If you have severe symptoms, call 911. For a suspected poisoning, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.
