Baseline Health Metrics Are Often Overlooked

I see people on GLP-1s, on statins, on blood pressure meds. I almost never see their baseline first. That is not a criticism of the clinicians involved. It is just how the system was built. You come in with a symptom, you leave with a prescription. The question of what the underlying numbers looked like before treatment started, before the drug changed anything, gets skipped. And then six months later nobody knows if it worked. Or how much. Or whether the dose is still right. Casey Means points out that very few US adults have all five basic metabolic markers in range without medication. Five markers you can get at a standard annual checkup. Fasting glucose, triglycerides, HDL, waist circumference, blood pressure. Most people are not in range, and the ones who are on medication to get there don't count. So the metabolic problem is almost universal, and it is largely invisible until something breaks visibly. That's where a baseline matters: to have something to compare against. Before a GLP-1, the minimum I think makes sense is fasting insulin, HbA1c, C-reactive protein, liver and kidney function, lipids, thyroid and sex hormones, and body composition by DEXA. A wearable for HRV and sleep if possible. A CGM if you can get one. Labs can change before weight does, and if you're not watching, you might miss it. The goal is not to gatekeep access to these drugs. It is to know what broke first, so you know what you are actually treating, and whether the treatment is working. A CGM gives you up to 35,040 glucose readings a year, per Good Energy. An annual blood draw gives you one. There is a lot happening between those data points that a baseline helps you interpret. Predictive medicine starts before the prescription, not after the weight changes. What does your baseline look like right now, before anything is prescribed?