What a baseline usually includes
A baseline is a health snapshot taken while you feel fine. Most cover a broad blood panel, body composition, a fitness test and a detailed history. The real value comes later, when you retest and can see which way your numbers are moving.
Think of it like a photo of your health. One photo shows how things look today. Two photos a few years apart show what's changing, and that's usually the part worth knowing.
Broad blood panel
One blood draw that checks heart, blood sugar, hormones, inflammation, liver, kidneys and more. Expect a few numbers just outside the normal range. Most of them mean nothing.
Cash price: $50 to $1,000
DEXA scan
A low-dose X-ray that measures your fat, muscle and bone density, including the fat around your organs.
Cash price: $65 to $249
VO2 max test
Measures how well your body uses oxygen while you exercise hard, on a bike or treadmill with a mask on.
Cash price: $100 to $675
History and the basics
Blood pressure, your family history, your medicines and how you feel day to day.
Biological age test
Estimates how fast your body is aging from a blood or saliva sample. Interesting to track, but it is still a research tool, and different tests can disagree.
Executive physical
A full day of tests in one place, often with imaging, a stress test and a doctor review the same day.
Prices that clinics publish on their own websites, across all the cities we cover. Prices change, so confirm with the clinic.
Checkups in Chicago, by the numbers
The rate of yearly checkups in Chicago is about the same as the national rate. In Chicago, 77.5% of adults saw a doctor for a routine checkup in the past year, compared with 76.9% nationally. That leaves roughly 1,480,000 adults across seven counties who haven't had a routine checkup in the past year.
By county
| County | Yearly checkup | Cholesterol checked (past 5 years) | No health insurance (ages 18 to 64) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cook | 77.5% | 87.9% | 11.8% |
| DuPage | 78.5% | 88.8% | 7.2% |
| Lake | 76.9% | 88.2% | 9.2% |
| Will | 77.5% | 87.7% | 9.1% |
| Kane | 76.2% | 87.0% | 11.6% |
| McHenry | 77.4% | 88.0% | 7.9% |
| Kendall | 76.8% | 87.5% | 8.8% |
| Chicago | 77.5% | 88.0% | 10.7% |
| United States | 76.9% | 86.2% | 11.0% |
Source: CDC PLACES, 2023 county estimates. Chicago = Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane, McHenry, Will and Kendall counties, weighted by adult population.
longevityclinicshub.comA yearly visit with your regular doctor covers the basics, including blood pressure and cholesterol. The tests above add more markers if you want a fuller picture.
