Health Library / Lifestyle
This content is for education only and is not medical advice. I'm a fitness coach, not a physician. Talk to your doctor before starting any medication, hormone, supplement, or new exercise program, especially if you have a medical condition or take prescriptions.
Someone shows me a lab report at the gym about once a month, points at a number highlighted in red, and asks what it means.
I tell them the same thing every time, and it's going to be the theme of this whole module: I can tell you what that marker measures. I cannot tell you what yours means. Those are genuinely different jobs, and the second one requires your history, your medications, your family background, your other results, and a license.
What I can do is make sure you walk into the appointment knowing what to ask for, because the default physical often doesn't include some of the most useful things, and you don't get what you don't request.
Standard cholesterol testing gives you total, LDL, HDL and triglycerides. Most people have seen these.
The one worth knowing about that you probably haven't been offered is
ApoB. Standard LDL tells you roughly how much cholesterol is being carried. ApoB counts the particles doing the carrying, and it's the particles that get into the artery wall. Two people with identical LDL can carry very different particle counts, and the one with more particles carries more risk. It's increasingly used by cardiologists and it's cheap.
Lp(a) is worth testing once in your life. It's largely genetic, it doesn't move much with diet or exercise, and it's a risk factor that runs in families and goes undetected for decades. Once is enough — you either carry it or you don't. If you've got heart disease running in the family, ask.
A1c reflects your average blood sugar over roughly three months, so it can't be gamed by eating well for two days before the draw. That's precisely why it's useful.
Fasting glucose is the common one, and on its own it's a lagging indicator — it often stays normal for years while things drift. Fasting insulin frequently moves earlier, and asking for it alongside glucose gives a much better picture of where you actually are. It's not always standard. Ask.
The most common quietly missed explanation for the whole "I think it's my hormones" symptom cluster. Fatigue, weight that won't move, low mood, cold, brain fog, hair changes.
TSH is the usual screen. A fuller picture includes the actual thyroid hormones and sometimes antibodies. If you've got that symptom list, this deserves a proper look before anyone talks to you about testosterone.
Covered in modules 1 through 3, so briefly: testing has to be done right — morning, and repeated for confirmation in men — and interpreted by a physician who's looking at more than one number. A single reading in isolation is close to meaningless.
Vitamin D, because it's common to be low even here, and it matters for bone. Ferritin and a full blood count, which catch anemia and iron problems — a frequent and very fixable cause of "I'm just tired." Kidney and liver panels, standard, and remember creatine can nudge your creatinine reading, so mention it. PSA for men, a conversation to have with your doctor about whether and when, because there's genuine nuance in that one.
Inflammatory markers like hs-CRP, as one more piece of the cardiovascular picture.
Get a baseline while you're healthy. A single reading tells you far less than a trend, and a number that's technically in range but has moved steadily in one direction for six years is information you can only have if you started collecting it.
Take the actual results home. Ask for the numbers, not "everything looked fine." Ranges vary between labs, "normal" is a statistical band rather than a target, and you want the history.
And then — this is the part I mean sincerely — let your doctor interpret them. Not a forum, not a chart you found, not a clinic whose revenue depends on finding something to treat, and not me. An out-of-range value can be meaningless, or it can be the most important thing in your year, and telling those apart is exactly the skill you're paying them for.
Bring good questions. Then listen to the answer.
Last updated September 30, 2026