Advanced Bloodlabs and Interpretations for Immunometabolic and Hormonal Health

Overarching Description:

Modern laboratory testing offers far more than isolated data points—it provides a window into the interconnected systems that drive health, resilience, and chronic disease risk. In this five-part advanced series, leading experts Dr. Lara Zakaria and Dr. Carrie Jones explore the latest science and clinical application of nutrient status, inflammation, thyroid physiology, cardiometabolic function, and perimenopausal health through a systems-biology lens. Participants will learn how to identify meaningful patterns across biomarkers, connect findings across physiologic systems, and uncover early indicators of dysfunction before more advanced disease develops. Grounded in current research and clinical practice, each session translates complex laboratory data into actionable insights that support more personalized, precision-focused care. The series also highlights how structured clinical pathways and advanced interpretation frameworks can help practitioners apply these findings more efficiently within everyday practice, supporting improved patient engagement and long-term outcomes.

Advanced Nutrient Testing

Dr. Lara Zakaria, PharmD, MS, CNS, CDN, IFMCP

Are your clients running low on the very nutrients that power energy, focus, and resilience?

Nutrient deficiencies are more common than most clinicians realize, and while sometimes they show up as one dramatic lab result, they can also appear as a pattern – subtle shifts in nutrient markers that can quietly affect energy, cognition, immune function, mood, and overall health. This session helps clinicians uncover that pattern.

We’ll explore how to interpret the Essential Nutrients Panel through a practical clinical lens, using biomarkers such as the CBC (with differential and platelets), vitamin D, iron/TIBC/ferritin, vitamin B12, RBC folate, RBC magnesium, zinc, and plasma vitamin B6 to identify where nutrient insufficiency may be contributing to symptoms. In addition to mastering each nutrient on its own, you’ll learn how to connect them into a more meaningful story about what the body needs – and where more personalized support may be warranted.

Learning Objectives:

• Interpret key nutrient biomarkers and understand their role in supporting energy, cognition, immune function, and whole-body physiology
• Recognize common deficiency patterns across markers such as vitamin D, iron studies, vitamin B12, RBC folate, RBC magnesium, zinc, and plasma vitamin B6
• Apply nutrient data to guide more personalized nutrition and supplementation strategies in clinical practice

Advanced Inflammation Tracking

Dr. Lara Zakaria, PharmD, MS, CNS, CDN, IFMCP

Is your client inflamed—and would you actually know from their labs? Inflammation doesn’t always scream. More often, it whispers—across multiple markers, subtle shifts, and patterns that are easy to miss if you’re only looking at labs in isolation. This session trains you to spot those signals.

We’ll walk through how inflammation reveals itself across core labs you’re already running—like the CBC (with differential and platelets), hs-CRP, homocysteine, OmegaCheck, comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP), iron panel (iron, TIBC, ferritin), and ESR—and how to interpret them together to uncover what’s really going on beneath the surface. By the end, you’ll move beyond surface-level interpretation—and start using labs as a clinical narrative, not just a checklist.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize patterns that distinguish acute vs. chronic inflammation across multiple biomarkers
• Identify early, often-overlooked signals of metabolic and immune dysregulation
•  Use everyday labs to uncover upstream drivers of chronic symptoms, from nutrient imbalances to immune activation

Advanced Thyroid Panels

Dr. Lara Zakaria, PharmD, MS, CNS, CDN, IFMCP

Thyroid symptoms are common. Clear answers are not. Are the real clues hiding beyond a standard thyroid panel?

Many clients present with fatigue, weight changes, constipation, hair loss, low mood, or brain fog—yet a “normal TSH” can leave the deeper story missed entirely. This session helps clinicians move beyond the standard thyroid panel and interpret thyroid function with the nuance it deserves.

We’ll walk through the Essential Thyroid Function Panel, including the Thyroid Panel with TSH, Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3, thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin antibodies, selenium, and iodine, to uncover patterns that can easily be overlooked when testing is too limited. You’ll learn how to recognize issues such as poor T4-to-T3 conversion, autoimmune thyroid activity, and upstream nutrient-related imbalances, and how inflammation and other physiologic stressors can shape the thyroid picture.

Because the key question isn’t just “is TSH in range?”

It’s: is thyroid hormone being produced, converted, and used effectively—and what might be interfering with that process?

Learning Objectives:

• Interpret a comprehensive thyroid panel beyond TSH alone, including Free T4, Free T3, and Reverse T3
• Recognize clinically meaningful patterns such as impaired conversion and autoimmune thyroid disease using thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin antibodies
• Understand how upstream factors—including nutrition, stress, and inflammation-related influences—can affect thyroid function and clinical decision-making

Identifying Potential Future Indicators of Cardiometabolic Dysfunction

Dr. Lara Zakaria, PharmD, MS, CNS, CDN, IFMCP

Insulin resistance and cardiometabolic dysfunction can begin approximately 10 years before a patient is diagnosed with diabetes. It starts with subtle shifts—small changes in glucose regulation, lipid patterns, liver function, inflammation, and nutrient status that, when viewed together, reveal a much bigger story. This session teaches you how to see that story early.

We’ll break down the Comprehensive Cardiometabolic Panel, integrating biomarkers such as the CBC, CMP, hemoglobin A1c, insulin, standard lipid panel, ApoB, lipoprotein (a), NMR lipoprotein fractionation, hs-CRP, homocysteine, OmegaCheck, and uric acid, alongside key nutrient and thyroid markers like vitamin D, iron studies, B12, RBC folate, RBC magnesium, Free T4, Free T3, and TSH. You’ll learn how to interpret these markers together to uncover early dysfunction—before it progresses into more advanced disease.

This session builds on foundations in nutrition, inflammation and thyroid assessment to help you recognize patterns that emerge across systems—and what risk is quietly building over time? By connecting glycemic control, lipid metabolism, inflammation, nutrient status, and thyroid function, this session equips you to move from reactive care to earlier detection and more precise, prevention-focused intervention.

Learning Objectives:

• Interpret key cardiometabolic biomarkers—including A1c, insulin, lipid panel, ApoB, lipoprotein (a), and NMR fractionation—in the context of overall metabolic health
• Identify early, often-overlooked patterns of dysfunction across glucose regulation, lipid metabolism, and inflammation (hs-CRP, homocysteine, OmegaCheck)
• Connect cardiometabolic findings to upstream contributors, including nutrient status and thyroid function (vitamin D, iron studies, B12, RBC folate, RBC magnesium, Free T4, Free T3, TSH) to guide more proactive clinical decision-making

Advanced Perimenopause Labs: A Systems-Based Approach to Midlife Women’s Health

Dr. Carrie Jones, ND, FABNE, MPH, MSCP

Perimenopause is more than fluctuating estrogen. It’s a dynamic endocrine and metabolic transition that may influence sleep, mood, cognition, body composition, insulin sensitivity, and cardiometabolic health years before menopause officially occurs. Research suggests the menopause transition is associated with important cardiometabolic and physiologic changes that may affect long-term health outcomes in some women.

In this advanced clinical webinar, Dr. Carrie Jones will explore how clinicians can select and interpret biomarkers that may help uncover physiologic patterns contributing to common midlife concerns, including fatigue, brain fog, sleep disruption, cycle irregularity, and metabolic changes.

Using the Hormone Health Panel within Journeys, attendees will learn how hormone, thyroid, metabolic, inflammatory, and nutrient biomarkers can be evaluated through a connected, systems-based lens to support more personalized clinical assessment.

What You’ll Learn

• Which biomarkers may provide additional insight during perimenopause
• How hormone shifts during midlife may influence metabolism and broader endocrine function
• How nutrient status may intersect with hormone signaling and metabolic health