Serious health conditions often develop silently, building up in your body without obvious symptoms. You might feel fine until problems suddenly appear.
Blood tests provide an early detection method for these conditions. They reveal to you what’s happening beneath the surface, long before you would notice anything yourself. You have the opportunity to act, lower your risk, and in certain situations, completely undo the harm because of that early realisation.
A blood test can identify these ten silent health conditions early on, before they worsen.
1. Heart Disease
The majority of heart attacks may seem unexpected. They are the culmination of years of subtle change; including inflammation, cholesterol imbalance, and clogged arteries.
Early indicators of cardiovascular risk can be found in blood tests such as high-sensitivity CRP, lipoprotein (a), ApoB, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. These markers can help you understand what’s happening inside your arteries, even if you’re young and healthy.
2. Type 2 Diabetes and Insulin Resistance
Type 2 diabetes, one of the fastest growing chronic diseases, doesn’t develop overnight. Your body may struggle to regulate blood sugar levels and high insulin, for years before a Diabetes diagnosis is made.
Fasting insulin, fasting glucose and HbA1c levels in the blood can help detect issues and thwart progression to a Diabetes diagnosis early.
3. Fatty Liver Disease
One in three adults suffer from Fatty liver disease also known as Metabolic Dysfunction Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD). MASLD is often asymptomatic until inflammation or scarring of the liver occur.
Regular evaluation of liver function and metabolism can help detect disease and assess liver damage. Liver function tests, such as ALT, AST and GGT are key tools for diagnosis. With early detection, MASLD can often be reversed through lifestyle changes.
4. Kidney Disease
Your kidneys can lose a significant amount of function (up to 50%) before symptoms of renal impairment appear or blood tests show an elevated creatinine, urea or reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). This makes routine testing essential as kidney disease can progress silently.
With early detection, lifestyle changes (such as controlling blood pressure and diabetes) and medications; kidney disease can slow and in some cases partially reverse damage, improving function and delaying progression.
5. Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies
Vitamin and mineral deficiency, though often overlooked, can cause significant symptoms like low energy, brain fog, weakened immunity and poor sleep. These deficiencies are easy to miss because their symptoms mimic other conditions, but once identified are often treatable with dietary change and supplementation. Early detection and treatment can restore nutrient levels and improve overall health.
Typical ones that appear on a blood test are:
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin B12
- Iron
- Folate
- Magnesium
6. Thyroid Disorders
Your thyroid is a gland in your neck with a massive role in keeping you feeling and functioning at your best. It produces hormones that control your energy, metabolism, mood and body thermostat. When it is not functioning properly you might feel exhausted, foggy, anxious and temperature sensitive; symptoms that are easy to brush off with stress and age.
Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) can leave you feeling sluggish, cold and gaining weight, while hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) might keep you up all night, anxious and with heart palpitations. These conditions often slowly manifest but with a thyroid blood panel that measures Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), free T4 and free T3, identifying these conditions early and managing them correctly can improve your health significantly.
7. Anaemia
Anaemia occurs when your blood doesn’t have enough red blood cells or haemoglobin to carry oxygen around your body. This may leave you feeling exhausted, short of breath, dizzy and pale. A blood panel checking blood cell counts, iron levels and B12, can identify anaemia and 2 of the most common causes.
Intervening with lifestyle changes and supplementation can make a big difference
8. Chronic Inflammation
Chronic inflammation is a silent disrupter, fueling serious diseases like heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and liver disease. Frequently imperceptible high sensitive CRP (hs-CRP) and fibrinogen can reveal the inflammatory stress the body is under.
Reduction in early inflammation can reduce the impact of current illness and prevent future disease as well as slowing the aging process.
9. Hormonal Imbalances
Hormonal imbalance can be quite profound at times. Shifts in oestrogen and testosterone disrupt your sleep, mood, libido, energy and focus for men and women. Low testosterone can sap your energy levels and interfere with genitourinary and sexual wellbeing. Oestrogen changes of perimenopause and PCOS can cause innumerable symptoms.
Monitoring hormonal levels and improving them through lifestyle, diet and medications can have a significant impact on overall health.
10. Certain Cancers
There are certain early markers of cancer development that can arise in the blood. These are not diagnostic markers but part of the screening and risk stratification that occurs when doing a full health check.
Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is used to alert us for changes in prostate health. Cancer antigen-125 (Ca125) is used for some gynaecological cancers. These two markers are not exhaustive measures in the diagnosis process but are markers to help guide us to radiological screening and/or specialist opinion.
Why Blood Testing Matters
Being proactive in your health is the key to early detection and therefore management, even cure of certain diseases. The aforementioned list of diseases are mostly preventable and reversible but only if you look for them. Manifestation of symptoms can be a late presentation to the disease process and we do not have to wait to become ill to address the issues.
By being proactive about our health we have the opportunity to put quality life into our years.
References
- Echelon Health – Top 10 Health Conditions Private Health Checks Can Detect Early
https://www.echelon.health/top-10-health-conditions-private-health-check/
- European Journal of Preventative Cardiology – Lipoprotein(a) and Cardiovascular Risk
https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/eurjpc/zwae378/7900651 - American Diabetes Association – Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes
https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/46/Supplement_1/S1/148215 - National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases – Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) & NASH
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/liver-disease/nafld-nash#:~:text=Print%20All%20Sections-,Definition%20%26%20Facts,with%20fat%20in%20your%20liver.
- Kidney Health Australia – What is kidney disease
https://kidney.org.au/your-kidneys/what-is-kidney-disease - Australian Bureau of Statistics – Australian Health Survey: Biomedical Results for Nutrients, 2011–12
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/health-conditions-and-risks/australian-health-survey-biomedical-results-nutrients/2011-12 - The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners – Thyroid Disease
https://www1.racgp.org.au/getattachment/ba7e8d21-bf74-4e96-9b9b-1811279c27e3/Thyroid-disease-Using-diagnostic-tools-effectively.aspx - Harvard Health Publishing – Inflammation: A unifying theory of disease
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/inflammation-a-unifying-theory-of-disease
- Endocrine Society – Hormones and Endocrine Function
https://www.endocrine.org/patient-engagement/endocrine-library/hormones-and-endocrine-function - Cancer Council Australia – Early detection and screening
https://www.cancer.org.au/cancer-information/causes-and-prevention/early-detection-and-screening