The Longevity Blood Tests You Should Track (And What They Reveal About Aging)
When people ask me what has had the biggest impact on my long-term health, they often expect me to talk about supplements, workouts, or nutrition strategies. And while those absolutely matter, the real foundation of my longevity approach is something far less talked about:
Tracking the right health biomarkers consistently over time.
Because longevity is not built on guesswork. It’s built on feedback. Every year, I run a full blood panel, monitor my hormone health, and track my biological age using advanced testing. These tests don’t just give me numbers, they give me a roadmap. They help me see whether my lifestyle choices are moving me toward healthier aging… or silently working against me.
Over the years, these tests have helped me refine my routines, adjust my supplementation, and identify areas that need attention long before symptoms ever appear.
Why Blood Tests Are One of the Most Powerful Longevity Tools
Aging doesn’t suddenly appear one day. It develops slowly through changes happening beneath the surface, often years before we feel or see anything wrong. Chronic inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, cardiovascular risk factors, and hormonal shifts can all develop silently. Blood tests allow you to detect these changes early, when they are still highly reversible through lifestyle adjustments.
Instead of waiting for disease to develop, biomarker tracking allows you to:
• Understand how your body is responding to your lifestyle
• Adjust your nutrition and supplementation strategically
• Identify early warning signs of age-related disease
• Personalize your longevity protocol based on data rather than trends
For me, these yearly tests act as my personal health dashboard.
The Blood Markers to Prioritize for Longevity
While standard blood panels often focus on detecting disease, longevity testing focuses on identifying patterns that influence how well we age.
Here are the core markers I recommend you to track every year.
Metabolic Health: The Engine Behind Aging
Metabolic health plays a central role in almost every chronic disease associated with aging, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cognitive decline. One of the most important markers I monitor is HbA1c, which reflects average blood sugar levels over the past few months. Elevated levels can indicate impaired glucose control and increased risk for metabolic dysfunction.
You should also track fasting glucose and fasting insulin levels. Together, these markers help reveal how efficiently you body is managing blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. These are two key drivers of long-term health and energy stability. Maintaining strong metabolic health has been one of my own biggest priorities through protein-focused nutrition, regular strength training, daily walking, and minimizing ultra-processed foods.
Inflammation Markers: The Silent Accelerator of Aging
Chronic low-grade inflammation is strongly associated with accelerated biological aging and the development of many age-related diseases. One marker that’s good to consistently monitor is high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), which provides insight into systemic inflammation levels.
Elevated inflammation can be influenced by poor diet, chronic stress, sleep deprivation, or underlying infections. Tracking hs-CRP gives you valuable feedback about how well your recovery, nutrition, and stress management strategies are working.
Cardiovascular Risk Markers: Looking Beyond Standard Cholesterol
Heart disease remains one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, which is why cardiovascular biomarkers are a cornerstone of longevity testing. While traditional cholesterol panels are useful, I recommend you to pay particular attention to Apolipoprotein B (ApoB), which provides a clearer picture of cardiovascular risk by measuring the number of potentially harmful lipoprotein particles circulating in the blood. It’s also recommended to monitor triglycerides and HDL cholesterol, as these markers provide additional insight into metabolic and cardiovascular health.
Tracking these markers allows you to evaluate how your dietary fat intake, exercise routines, and overall lifestyle are influencing your heart health long-term.
Nutrient Status: Optimizing the Foundations
Even the best lifestyle habits can be limited if the body lacks essential micronutrients. That’s why it can be good that you check key nutrients including vitamin D, iron status, and omega-3 levels. These nutrients play crucial roles in immune health, cognitive function, energy production, and inflammation regulation.
For example, maintaining optimal vitamin D levels is particularly important for those of us living in northern climates where sunlight exposure is limited for large parts of the year. These tests can help you tailor your supplementation rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
Hormone Health: A Critical Longevity Factor for Women 40+
Hormonal balance becomes increasingly important as you move through your 40s and beyond. Subtle hormonal shifts can influence metabolism, mood, sleep quality, muscle maintenance, and bone health.
Because I’m currently in my mid-40s, I prioritize yearly hormone testing. This allows me to track changes in estrogen, progesterone, and other key hormones that naturally fluctuate during perimenopause and beyond. Monitoring hormone health can help you adjust your training intensity, nutrition strategies, and recovery routines to better support long-term balance and resilience.
Tracking Biological Age: My GlycanAge Testing Experience
One of the most fascinating tools you can use to evaluate your overall aging process is biological age testing through GlycanAge. Unlike chronological age, biological age reflects how your body is aging internally based on inflammatory patterns and immune system health. I take this test once per year to evaluate how changes in my lifestyle influence my aging trajectory.
Over time, I’ve used GlycanAge testing as a way to experiment with my longevity protocol. For example, after introducing more structured CrossFit training and increasing my sauna use, my most recent test showed a significant improvement in my biological age.
At 41, my biological age tested at 29, a result that reinforced how powerful consistent lifestyle interventions can be over time. (If you’re interested in testing your own biological age, I personally use GlycanAge and you can use my code HACKS4 for 10% off.)
Curious About Your Real Biological Age?
Chronological age doesn’t always reflect how your body is aging internally. GlycanAge measures biological age by analyzing glycan patterns linked to inflammation and immune health — two key drivers of aging.
I personally use this test every year to monitor my longevity progress and adjust my health protocol accordingly.
Use code HACKS4 for 10% off your test.
How You Can Use Your Test Results to Adjust Your Longevity Protocol
The most valuable part of testing isn’t the numbers themselves… it’s what you do with them.
Each year, I review my results to evaluate whether I need to adjust my supplementation, training, recovery, or nutrition strategies. Sometimes the changes are small. Other times, they lead to meaningful shifts in my routine. For example, testing has influenced my decision to increase protein intake, focus more on recovery strategies like sauna and sleep optimization, and fine-tune certain supplements.
Longevity is not about perfection. It’s about staying responsive and adaptive as your body changes.
Support Your Results With Research-Backed Supplementation
When my blood work highlights areas that need support, I prioritize high-quality, third-party tested supplements. One of my trusted sources is DoNotAge.org. This is a health research organization whose products are often used in clinical studies and longevity research.
You can use my code KAJSA for 10% off.
How Often Should You Track Longevity Blood Markers?
For most people, comprehensive blood testing once per year provides a strong baseline and allows you to track long-term trends. More frequent testing may be helpful when making significant lifestyle changes or addressing specific health concerns. The key is consistency! Tracking markers over time provides far more valuable insights than a single test result.
Longevity Is Built on Feedback, Not Guesswork
One of the biggest lessons these tests have taught me is that health optimization is highly individual. What works well for one person may not produce the same results for someone else. Biomarker tracking allows you to personalize your longevity strategy, helping you move away from trends and toward evidence-based decisions tailored to your body.
For me, these yearly tests have become one of the most empowering tools in my health journey. They provide reassurance when things are working well, and early signals when adjustments are needed. And perhaps most importantly, they remind me that longevity is not built through dramatic short-term changes, it’s built through small, consistent improvements tracked over time.
Final Thoughts: The Power of Knowing Your Numbers
If you’re serious about optimizing your long-term health, understanding your biomarkers is one of the most valuable investments you can make. You don’t need to track everything at once. Start with the fundamentals, build a baseline, and use your results as a guide rather than a judgment. Because the goal isn’t perfect numbers. The goal is direction. And when you consistently track the signals your body is sending you, you gain the ability to shape your health trajectory for decades to come.
