The ZRT Laboratory Blog

The balance of hormones is essential for all aspects of human health and the same plays true for athletes. Whether you are a beginner working on getting into shape and losing weight, or a seasoned veteran with many competitions under your belt, understanding your hormones and how they change with intense exercise is essential to getting as much as possible out of your training. ZRT Laboratory is launching 2 new kits that will enable athletes to track their hormones and help them better understand the changes happening to their body.…

Tags: Fitness, Athletes, Blood Spot Testing, Saliva Testing

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In today’s scary world of rapidly spreading COVID-19 infections, most individuals are hesitant to have their health care provider, or worse, a stranger at a blood draw clinic, violate their mandated social space of 6 feet to allow them to stick a needle in their vein and draw blood for testing hormones. It is understandable why during the…

Tags: Blood Spot Testing, Cardiovascular Disease, Covid19, Hormone Testing, Heavy Metals, Vitamin D, Thyroid Health, Research, Menopause, Laboratory Quality

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If there is anything the United States is lacking in the war against the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is the mass testing required to detect the virus in those with suspected cases and in asymptomatic individuals. In February the Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency, which allowed for “emergency use of in vitro diagnostics for detection and/or diagnosis of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).”…

Tags: Blood Spot Testing, Dried Urine Testing, Laboratory Quality, Serum Testing, ZRT Laboratory, Test Validation, Covid19

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It seems like there is an endless loop of stories these days about new viruses and the spread of disease. There is no doubt that as the human population increases and the space between us decreases, we will only experience more of these events in the future. While the world waits on new vaccines, one solution to slowing or preventing the spread of viruses may be something as simple as adequate…

Tags: Selenium, Essential Elements, Blood Spot Testing, Dried Urine Testing

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ZRT’s Laboratory Developed Tests - How We Bring Innovative Dried Sample Testing to MarketZRT Laboratory has been working with dried samples for over 15 years, and the number of tests we offer using dried urine and blood spot make us the world expert on dried sample validation and commercialization. ZRT Laboratory specializes in dried sample types because of their superior stability, ease of…

Tags: Dried Urine Testing, Blood Spot Testing, Hormone Testing, ZRT Laboratory

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ZRT is a company made up mostly of women. It’s not that we don’t have men working here, but 80% of our employees happen to be women. A combination of a company mostly of women, working in the health field, and having gone to medical school which tends to take away that filter that says “perhaps certain topics are off limits,” can lead to hilarious conversations like our one today on the favorite…

Tags: Menstrual Cycle Mapping, Estrogen, Progesterone, Saliva Testing, Blood Spot Testing, Menstruation

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Delivery of the bioidentical hormones estradiol (E2), progesterone (Pg), and testosterone (T) through the skin as a cream or gel (topically) has become a mainstay of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) for women and men. A plethora of FDA-approved pharmaceuticals, compounded, and even over-the-counter topical BHRT products are available. The popularity of these products lies not only…

Tags: Bioidentical Hormones, Estrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone, Dried Urine Testing, Blood Spot Testing, Serum Testing, Saliva Testing

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Here in the Pacific Northwest we love talking about the sun! We grumble about it being hidden away behind heavy rain clouds for months at a time in the winter; we delight in the first breakthrough rays in the spring, realizing our pagan longing for it, watching, as if for the first time, as everything around us wakes up from a deep slumber; we marvel at its delightful, almost intoxicating warmth…

Tags: Vitamin D, Sleep, Depression, PMS and PMDD, Metabolic Health, Melatonin, Blood Spot Testing

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I was so tired. I needed a new word for tired. I felt exhausted and incapacitated, utterly drained and hollowed out. It was like my brain and body were fading. And yet, these words are still not descriptive enough to relate how I felt. Getting out of bed felt grueling, punishing. I was 24 at the time, in my 4th year of my PhD program at Purdue University. I was newly engaged and so in love with my…

Tags: Thyroid Health, Blood Spot Testing

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Mercury is one of the most toxic heavy metals. There are numerous natural and man-made sources of mercury, but the most concerning are the ones we are exposed to daily. Mercury is known to affect the nervous, circulatory, immune, reproductive, and digestive systems, along with organs such as the kidneys, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract. Mercury primarily targets sulfhydryl groups (sulfur) and…

Tags: Dried Urine Testing, Heavy Metals, Mercury, Blood Spot Testing

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