The Blood Work Every Man Should Get
Most men walk into their yearly check-up and get the same generic labs: cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure, and a basic chemistry. That’s not enough. If you want to perform, think clearly, and age like a machine built to last, you need a deeper look under the hood. Modern men deserve modern labs — not 1980s medicine.
I’ve worked with hundreds of men who felt “off” — tired, foggy, losing drive — yet their doctors told them everything was “mostly normal.” No, “mostly normal” is not optimal. It means average… and average men today are overweight, inflamed, and sluggish.
Here’s the blood work that actually matters so you can start taking a real lens to your health.
1. Full Chemistry
Start with the basics, but get the complete version:
CBC (Complete Blood Count): checks your red and white blood cells — vital for oxygen delivery and immune readiness.
CMP (Comprehensive Metabolic Panel): gives insight into liver, kidney, and electrolyte balance.
Fasting Glucose, Insulin, and HbA1c: together reveal early insulin resistance long before diabetes shows up (DeFronzo, 2009).
2. Lipid and Cardiovascular Markers
Heart disease is still the number one killer of men, yet most panels stop at “LDL.” That’s like judging a war by one soldier.
ApoB: the strongest single marker of atherosclerotic particle load (Sniderman et al., 2019).
Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)]: genetically determined and a hidden driver of early plaque (Tsimikas, 2017).
ApoE Genotype: influences your body’s response to dietary fats and alcohol (Mahley & Rall, 2000). This is a predictor of potential neurological issues down the road.
HDL, LDL, Triglycerides, and Total Cholesterol are necessary.
3. Inflammation
Chronic, low-grade inflammation quietly ages every system in your body.
hs-CRP: the gold-standard marker of vascular inflammation (Ridker, 2016).
Homocysteine: elevated levels damage arteries and correlate with cardiovascular and cognitive decline (Refsum et al., 1998).
4. Hormones
A man’s vitality runs on hormones. Without testosterone, motivation, muscle, and mood all fall.
Total & Free Testosterone — both matter and free T is what actually provides the benefits of testosterone.
SHBG and Estradiol (sensitive assay) — balance is key; too much or too little estrogen affects libido, fat storage, and mood.
DHEA-S, LH, and FSH — help you identify whether the problem is testicular or pituitary in origin (Bhasin et al., 2018).
Cortisol (AM): gives a window into stress physiology and adrenal rhythm.
5. Thyroid
The thyroid drives metabolism, mood, and energy.
TSH, Free T3, Free T4 — the essentials.
Reverse T3 if fatigue and sluggishness persist despite “normal” labs (Peeters et al., 2017).
6. Nutritional Status
Your body can’t build strong tissue without the right raw materials.
Vitamin D (25-OH): low levels correlate with testosterone deficiency, poor immunity, and low mood (Holick, 2007).
B12 and Folate: essential for red blood cells and neurological health.
Ferritin, Iron/TIBC: screen for anemia or iron overload.
Magnesium (RBC preferred): critical for over 300 enzymatic reactions — including testosterone production (Cinar et al., 2011).
Optional: Zinc and Copper for deeper micronutrient profiling.
The Takeaway
You can’t optimize what you don’t measure. Blood work is your battlefield intelligence — the data that keeps you from guessing. Once you have it, you can train smarter, eat better, and live stronger.
Average medicine keeps men surviving.
Heroic medicine helps men thrive.
If you want to start managing your blood work, health, and training better, join The Brotherhood or reach out to me directly at jackson@drjacksontaylor.com.
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References:
Bhasin, S. et al. (2018). Testosterone therapy in men with hypogonadism: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 103(5), 1715-1744.
Cinar, V. et al. (2011). Effects of magnesium supplementation on testosterone levels of athletes. Biological Trace Element Research, 140(1), 18-23.
DeFronzo, R. A. (2009). From the triumvirate to the ominous octet: a new paradigm for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Diabetes, 58(4), 773-795.
Holick, M. F. (2007). Vitamin D deficiency. New England Journal of Medicine, 357(3), 266-281.
Mahley, R. W. & Rall, S. C. Jr. (2000). Apolipoprotein E: far more than a lipid transport protein. Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, 1, 507-537.
Peeters, R. P. et al. (2017). Thyroid hormones and aging. Endocrine Reviews, 38(5), 414-440.
Refsum, H. et al. (1998). Homocysteine and cardiovascular disease. Annual Review of Medicine, 49, 31-62.
Ridker, P. M. (2016). From C-reactive protein to interleukin-6 to interleukin-1: moving upstream to identify novel targets for atheroprotection. Circulation Research, 118(1), 145-156.
Sniderman, A. D. et al. (2019). Apolipoprotein B particles and cardiovascular disease: pathophysiology and clinical utility. European Heart Journal, 40(32), 2550-2560.
Tsimikas, S. (2017). Lipoprotein(a): novel target and emerging biomarker. European Heart Journal, 38(22), 1630-1632.
