Standard Blood Tests and Healthy Aging: Lipids, Glucose and More

What this page covers

Before any "longevity panel," there are ordinary blood tests that clinicians already use. This page explains what the common ones measure, what U.S. guidance says about who is tested and when, and what trials of general check-ups found. It does not interpret anyone's results and does not give target numbers to aim for. Evidence labels: established, mixed, insufficient evidence. Education only.

The routine tests

Cholesterol and lipids

MedlinePlus says the right cholesterol level for you may depend on your age, family history, lifestyle and other heart disease risk factors. [1] It gives general testing intervals: younger adults every 5 years, men 45 to 65 and women 55 to 65 every 1 to 2 years, and people over 65 yearly, with more frequent testing for people at higher risk. [1]

The 2026 American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association dyslipidemia guideline retires and replaces the 2018 cholesterol guideline. [7] A large pooled analysis of people followed for vascular disease found that lipid assessment could be simplified to total and HDL cholesterol or apolipoproteins, without needing to fast. [8] For ApoB and lipoprotein(a), see ApoB, Lp(a) and advanced lipid testing.

Label: established as a clinical risk measure for heart disease; whether more testing than guidelines suggest helps healthy people live longer is insufficient evidence.

Blood sugar

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes in adults aged 35 to 70 who have overweight or obesity. [9] For adults with a normal first result, it says screening every 3 years may be a reasonable approach. [9] MedlinePlus lists commonly used A1C bands: below 5.7% normal, 5.7% to 6.4% prediabetes, and 6.5% or higher diabetes, but adds that the ranges are only a guide and what is normal for you depends on your health, age and other factors. [2] More background is in prediabetes, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Kidney, blood count and thyroid

These tests answer clinical questions: how kidneys filter waste, whether blood cells are in expected numbers, and how the thyroid is signaling. MedlinePlus cautions that an eGFR is not a perfect test and may not always reflect kidney damage. [5] It also notes that an abnormal blood count does not always mean a condition that needs treatment. [4] Results are read together with symptoms, history and often repeat testing, which is why a clinician, not a chart, should interpret them.

Do general check-ups help people live longer?

A Cochrane review of 17 randomized trials (15 with outcome data, 251,891 participants) of general health checks in adults found they have little or no effect on total mortality, and the authors concluded general health checks are unlikely to be beneficial. [10] The review excluded geriatric trials and defined health checks as screening for more than one disease or risk factor, so it does not say that individual tests recommended for specific people are useless. [10] Age-targeted prevention advice, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's statements, is built on specific tests for specific groups. The Task Force, for example, says the evidence is insufficient to recommend for or against starting a statin for primary prevention in adults 76 and older. [11]

Label: individual guideline-based tests: established for their stated purposes; routine "everything panels" for healthy people: insufficient evidence of longevity benefit.