| 🔎 PART 1/2 · A two-part series on biomarkers. Part 2 covers hormones, nutrients and biological age
Ever had a blood test come back “normal” and still not felt right?
That gap between how you feel and what a standard test shows is where biomarkers matter.
Biomarkers are the measurable signals of what is happening inside your body. And there are far more of them than any routine check-up usually examines.
Different biomarkers reveal different parts of your health. Some show how your heart is functioning. Others reflect your metabolism, organ health, immune system, inflammation, or nutritional status.
“There are hundreds of them,” says Dr Niko Mihic, Axo Longevity’s Chief Medical Officer and Medical Supervisor at Real Madrid. “You can’t pick one.”
The goal is not to test every possible marker. It is to understand which types matter, how they connect, and what they can reveal before symptoms appear.
This guide explores the main types of biomarkers, grouped by the systems and functions they speak to.
There are two useful ways to make sense of them.
The first is by how they are measured:
This tells us where the information comes from.
But the more useful question is often, "What does that information tell us about your health?"
A cholesterol result and a blood pressure reading are both biomarkers, but they reveal different things about what is happening inside your body. One may help us understand how fats are being transported through the bloodstream. Another tells us about the pressure being placed on your arteries and heart.
And no single biomarker tells the whole story.
That is why, for the rest of this guide, we group biomarkers by the systems they help us understand, from metabolic and cardiovascular health to organ function, inflammation, and nutrition.
Looking at them this way makes it easier to see not just what each number means but how different signals connect to build a fuller picture of your health.
What they tell you: How efficiently your body manages energy, and what may be influencing your long-term risk of heart and blood-vessel disease.
Metabolic and cardiovascular health are deeply connected. Poor blood-sugar control, insulin resistance, inflammation and abnormal lipid levels can all increase strain on the cardiovascular system.
The most familiar metabolic markers are glucose and HbA1c. Glucose captures blood sugar at a single point in time, while HbA1c reflects average levels over the previous two to three months. Fasting insulin and HOMA-IR can add an earlier view of how hard the body is working to maintain that balance.
For cardiovascular health, LDL cholesterol remains a standard measure, but it is only part of the picture. ApoB measures the number of cholesterol-carrying particles associated with atherosclerotic risk, while Lp(a) can reveal an inherited risk factor that may not appear on a routine lipid panel.
Together with blood pressure and hs-CRP, these biomarkers provide a broader view of metabolic and cardiovascular risk than any single result can offer.
What they tell you: Whether your body is dealing with inflammation that is helping you recover, or inflammation that may be increasing long-term health risk.
Inflammation is not inherently harmful. In fact, you need it.
“Inflammation is critical to your survival,” says Dr Niko Mihic, Axo Longevity’s Chief Medical Officer. “Acute inflammation is absolutely critical. It’s necessary. It’s not a bad word.”
That short-term response helps the body fight infection, repair tissue and recover from injury.
The problem begins when inflammation persists.
“The problem is when it becomes chronic, where your body overreacts to it or keeps it around going for too long,” Dr Mihic says. “That becomes detrimental in every respect.”
This is where biomarkers become useful.
hs-CRP can help detect low-level systemic inflammation, while homocysteine adds insight into cardiovascular and cognitive risk. Other measures, including ESR and fibrinogen, can provide further context around inflammatory activity.
No single result explains inflammation on its own. But together, these biomarkers can help distinguish a temporary immune response from a pattern that deserves closer attention.
What they tell you: How effectively your liver and kidneys are processing substances, filtering waste and supporting the body’s day-to-day function.
The liver and kidneys do much of the body’s essential clean-up work. The liver processes nutrients, alcohol and medications, while the kidneys filter waste from the blood and help regulate fluid and mineral balance.
For liver health, the main biomarkers include ALT, AST and GGT. These enzymes can rise when liver cells are under stress or damaged, making them useful indicators of liver health and, in some cases, metabolic strain.
For kidney health, creatinine is one of the most widely used biomarkers. It is a waste product filtered from the blood by the kidneys. Creatinine is also used to estimate eGFR, which gives a broader indication of how efficiently the kidneys are filtering blood.
Taken together, these biomarkers can help identify changes in organ function before they develop into more obvious health problems.
The right biomarkers depend on the picture you are trying to build.
Routine check-ups usually cover a limited set of measurements. They can be useful, but they often leave gaps between different systems and how those systems influence one another.
That is where broader testing becomes more valuable.
A change in glucose can mean something different when it appears alongside shifts in insulin, liver function or inflammation. Looking at those results together can reveal patterns that are easy to miss when each biomarker is read on its own.
A comprehensive panel gives you more context around what is changing, how different systems may be connected, and which areas deserve closer attention.
The biomarkers in this guide are only part of the picture. Axo Longevity measures more than 100 across every major system, reads them against optimal ranges rather than just "normal", and turns your results into a personalised plan built around you.
Explore Axo Longevity's biomarker panel →
It depends on how you group them. By what they measure: molecular, physical, and imaging. Clinically, the FDA and NIH define seven types by how they are used. For everyday health, the most useful grouping is by body system, as in this guide.
Start with HbA1c, ApoB, hs-CRP, and basic liver and kidney markers. These cover the systems where early changes matter most.
Metabolic biomarkers show how you manage blood sugar and energy. Cardiovascular biomarkers show the health of your heart and blood vessels. They are closely linked and often read together.
For most people, once a year is enough to track trends. The value is in how a number changes over time, not a single reading.
Most of them, yes. Axo Longevity measures over 100+ biomarkers from a single blood draw and turns the results into a personalised plan built around you. Blood pressure and imaging scans are done separately.
The information contained in this article is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your lifestyle or medical monitoring.
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