As someone looking to proactively improve health beyond societal baselines, what makes sense to do? Here is what I've learned: 1) Get a baseline panel while healthy 1) take lab tests from the same lab at the same time of day for more reliable results. 2) I wish I had a baseline at 18-20, I didn't start until 25 and I started to see issues which I regret. Figuring out the issues and what to focus on would have been significantly faster. 3) HRV provides a simple yet effective number which varies by individual but varying from one's baseline is a helpful sign to keep an eye out for other issues. [The Elite HRV app ](https://elitehrv.com/app)plus the Polar H10 which is the most accurate consumer facing tracker I could find. 2) Challenge testing: finds issues faster because it often takes stress/load to find out just how much reserve the body has. 1) [Glucose challenge ](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279331/)involves ingesting a large amount of glucose and tracking the blood sugar response. Quite helpful, in my case showing I was so well adapted that additional optimization isn't worth my time. 2) After meal biomarkers may [reveal more information than fasted tests.](https://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2017/5/as-we-see-it) 3) Cancer tests 1) [Prostate-specific antigen testing](https://www.health.harvard.edu/medical-tests-and-procedures/prostate-specific-antigen-blood-test-psa-test-a-to-z) is worthwhile to me as a man. I'm willing to chance the possibility of getting a positive result and not knowing if it is real or a false positive. 2) [GRAIL cancer test](https://www.genomemedical.com/programs/galleri-test/) has promising data so far, [but still has the issue of false positives.](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02830-1/fulltext) I'm not doing it yet, but keeping an eye out to see how the research advances and price drops. 3) The immune system is currently far more effective than any lab test for cancer detection, regularly detecting and removing [cancerous cells in most people](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/272092#Disabling-T-cells-led-to-faster-growing-lymphomas) I'm more focused on supporting this method through quality sleep, vitamin D, and 3 day fasts every couple of months. 4) Heavy metals and contaminants 1) Heavy metals testing is helpful, I felt relieved to confirm my levels were almost nonexistent. Especially because I consume large amounts of chocolate and cacao which often contains lead, cadmium, etc. Good to know that buying cacao products lab tested for purity is working. Also confirmed things like brazil nuts providing a mild excess of selenium (I was only eating three brazil nuts most days!). 1) [The test I took](https://www.quicksilverscientific.com/products/blood-metals-panel?_pos=4&_fid=89d831096&_ss=c) 2) Local water supplies may have publicly available testing to know how pure water is. Worth a quick search. 3) [I tested my water](https://watercheck.com/collections/symptom-checker) right at the well to be sure, found out that my water is hard enough to get a significant portion of my calcium RDA. 5) Measures I found most useful to keep tracking 1) Vitamin D 2) HBA1C 3) Hormones: Testosterone, estrogen 4) Ferritin, both low and high come with risks. Took substantial adjustment to get balanced. 1) Testing a carnivore diet heavy in red meat caused mine to go several times the healthy level in a couple of months even with using calcium and eggs with the meal to reduce iron uptake. 2) Vegetarian diet left me with levels on the low end, thankfully ferritin was cheap to test to figure out the right balance. 5) Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies: I found elevated levels of these antibodies which can lead to Hashimotos. Cheap test, relatively simple to figure out what to do once I knew what was happening. 1) Levels dropped since I reduced iodine, increased selenium, and kept inflammatory foods out of my diet. Interestingly increasing testosterone didn't reduce the antibodies despite being [highly impactful in a study](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jcpt.12987). 6) Places I found have the best prices on quality tests, worth shopping around as best price often varies by specific test 1) [https://hippevoshop.com](https://hippevoshop.com) 2) [https://labtestingapi.com](https://www.labtestingapi.com) 3) https://ownyourlabs.com/ 6) Gut health test to look for bacteria to match with diet and prebiotics 1) [I use Ombre ](https://try.ombrelab.com/ombre-gut-health-test/)for regular testing, they take 2-4 weeks to respond but the prices are the best I've found for quality tests. Tiny Health and Viome both use different more thorough sequencing technologies for the extra curious person. I found a specific strawberry virus so I knew exactly what was causing my strawberry plants to look unhealthy. 2) For example, I found Oxalobacter formigenes which breaks down oxalates making foods with oxalates less of a concern. 3) I put to the test a repeated concern about parasite infection causing health issues. Viome and Tiny Health both showed no concerning parasites and [a Genova lab test](https://truehealthlabs.com/product/dna-stool-test-comprehensive-gi-effects-1day/) provided a more thorough confirmation 4) Intestinal permeability [is being connected to a number of health issues](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6689735/). It is the most likely culprit of my past fatigue and autoimmunity issues. Even simple things like [a spike in stress](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24153250/) or [some fatty foods](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000291652323614X) have scientific evidence for increasing intestinal permeability. My intestinal permeability was several standard deviations above normal 1) Lactulose-mannitol test is the most practical I found for intestinal permeability and repeated to verify what I tested solved the issue. For example the stress study above used this test. [True Health Labs ](https://truehealthlabs.com/product/leaky-gut-test-lactulose-mannitol/)had the best price for a reliable test I could find. 2) Well researched Drs. including [Datis Kharrazian](https://drknews.com/functional-medicine-articles/) pointed me to Cyrex Labs [which has in depth tests](https://truehealthlabs.com/product/intestinal-permeability-test-leaky-gut-test-cyrex-labs-array-2/) that helped me narrow down what was happening. 7) DEXA scans are getting lower cost and high accuracy. I felt reassured knowing my bone density is well into the high range as this is a key factor in longevity. Visceral fat, body fat, imbalances, and muscle volume are all helpful to have checked on. 1) [I used BodySpec](https://www.bodyspec.com/r/nzSckz), the link is a referral that discounts the price.