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What labs should you get on your annual physical?

Writer's picture: Peter YuPeter Yu

Are you only getting the same 5 labs drawn every year?


Do you feel tired, have pain, or can't focus, but your doctor keeps telling you your blood work is "normal"?


Usually, there are only 5 labs drawn at your normal primary care practice for your annual physical. These include a CBC, CMP, Lipid panel, A1c, and maybe a TSH.


These 5 labs are helpful, but they certainly aren't complete in understanding what's going on in your body. For example, why aren't there labs that show inflammation included in your yearly bloodwork?


At Peak Health Direct Primary Care, we are intentional about drawing meaningful labs that we can take action on to improve your quality of life. We do this by gathering a better understanding of what's going on in your body.


Let's focus on inflammation for a bit. We all know someone who is struggling with swelling, chronic pain, always feeling tired, brain fog, and just feeling grumpy? I mean, if your body was always under attack, you'd probably feel the same way too, right?


Let's go over some labs that show if you have inflammation or not. Keep in mind, this isn't an exhaustive list, and these aren't likely to be drawn at your normal primary care practice either.


CRP: This might be the most common inflammation marker drawn, but most are just checking for a general CRP. We like to check something called a hs-CRP. That little "hs" stands for high sensitivity. That means a normal CRP could show as "normal," but the hs-CRP could catch inflammation that's more subtle and going on inside your arteries that you wouldn't want to miss.


ESR: If CRP isn't the most commonly drawn inflammation marker, then this one is sure to be it. This ESR lab is slower to change than a CRP and is more commonly seen elevated in autoimmune issues. Know anyone with one of those? Unfortunately, it seems to be all too common these days, but that's a blog for another time.


Lp-PLA2: Remember when you left that tool outside only to find it rusted the next day? Well, that rusting was caused by a chemical process called oxidation. Your cholesterol particles can "rust" too. When they do, it causes inflammation inside the artery that will elevate your levels of Lp-PLA2. So if you're worried about inflammation inside the arteries, this is a good one to have checked.


Uric Acid: While known for causing gout, high uric acid levels can also contribute to whole-body inflammation. It's also been linked to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.


Ferritin: Ferritin stores iron in your cells for when you need it, but it also rises in the presence of inflammation. What's the key takeaway here? If you have normal iron levels but high ferritin, consider inflammation.


Homocysteine: Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood. This level can rise with inflammation, oxidative stress, and cardiovascular risk. If it's high, then we may start looking at B-vitamins and a detox pathway called methylation.


Like I said, this is anything but an exhaustive list of labs that can indicate inflammation. We draw most of these on our annual physical exams. You might ask why, and that's because we want to know if your body has inflammation. It's that long-term or chronic, low-grade, not very obvious inflammation that can wreak so much havoc on your body down the road. Catching it early is optimal for a better, healthier quality of life.


If you found this helpful, do us a favor and send it to a friend, subscribe to our blog, and come see us at Peak Health Direct Primary Care, located in Denver, CO, on the beautiful South Pearl St.


Sign up for a discovery call by heading to our website: https://peak-health-direct-primary-care.hint.com/signup/membership/contacts?= (We collect payment information but we won't charge you unless you no call, no show the discovery call).

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