You’ll spend December auditing the profit & loss margins down to the last penny. But when was the last time you audited yourself with that same rigor? Before the year closes, your FSA dollars disappear, and you tell yourself January is when you’ll finally deal with it. Stop the excuses and run these 10 labs.
Why do these panels matter now?
Your FSA dollars expire December 31st, whether you use them or not. Even if you’re not doing these with FSA, no better way to start the year than with a clear picture of what’s happening within so you can keep building your legacy in the best possible health.
Always consult your physician to interpret results and determine what, if anything, requires follow-up. Ten labs in one appointment can give you the kind of information that provides deep insight into your wellness for a clear path forward. Here’s what each one actually tells you.
Apolipoprotein B (ApoB)
This number predicts cardiovascular risk more accurately than standard cholesterol tests. Standard panels can look fine while ApoB tells a deeper story. It’s something worth catching before another year of “normal” cholesterol numbers gives you false comfort.
Fasting Insulin
This lab catches metabolic dysfunction years before glucose numbers move. By the time blood sugar looks abnormal on a standard panel, insulin resistance has usually been building for several years prior. This is the early warning your annual physical isn’t giving you.
High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP)
This is your inflammation baseline and the marker driving everything else on this list. Chronic low-grade inflammation from a stressful Q4 doesn’t announce itself, so you’ll have to go looking for it.
Full Thyroid Panel (TSH, Free T3, Free T4)
Fatigue, weight changes, mood swings, and brain fog are all three markers that trace back to your thyroid more often than people expect. If you’ve chalked up this year’s exhaustion to “just being busy,” this panel will either confirm that or tell you it’s something else entirely.
Vitamin D
This mineral is almost universally deficient in winter, especially if your last vacation with real sun exposure was in July. It affects far more than bone density. Your immune function and mood both depend on it, and by December most of the country is running low.
Homocysteine
This overlooked marker for cardiovascular and cognitive risk almost never makes it onto a standard panel. It’s cheap to test, easy to correct, and rarely checked unless you ask for it by name.
Cortisol (AM and PM)
This tells you whether your stress response is still working or just running on empty. A year of back-to-back closes and travel either builds resilience or burns it down. Note that labs prefer certain time windows for this test. Usually between 7 am and 9 am. Confirm with your doctor.
DHEA-S
This is an early signal on the aging and stress-resilience axis. It tends to decline under sustained high demand, and, between year-end and family commitments, Q4 is peak sustained demand for almost everyone reading this.
Ferritin
Low iron stores mimic burnout so closely that people spend months treating the wrong problem. If you’ve felt drained all quarter and assumed it was just the workload, this test settles it.
Omega-3 Index
The most directly actionable panel on this entire list. Most people are lower than they’d guess, and unlike almost everything else here, you can move this number somewhat quickly.
