Which Health Tests Are Worth It

A test only helps if the result changes what you do. Most of the popular ones can't clear that bar.

5 steps · ~30min · tick as you go

5 steps

  1. Blood Panels: What's Worth Knowing

    Learn the reference-range arithmetic that makes wide panels produce alarming results by chance.

  2. Whole-Body MRI Scans: Why No Society Recommends Them

    See why ~95% of asymptomatic people have a finding and why no society recommends whole-body screening.

  3. At-Home Test Kits, Rated

    Tell a useful home test (one thing, one action) from a personalised report that is a sales funnel.

  4. Heart Age Calculator

    Use the numbers that genuinely inform cardiovascular decisions.

  5. Grade the Claim

    Grade testing and screening claims, and see whether you now ask what a result would change.

How this works

Nothing here is gated and nothing is new: every step is a page or a calculator already on the site, and you can jump straight to any of them. The order is the contribution, along with the last step — a round of Grade the Claim, because reading something and being able to judge it later are different skills, and only the second one survives the week.

Ticks are saved on this device. Claims you meet in the check come back on a spacing schedule, and what you know keeps the tally.

Written and reviewed by Mathew Beale, MSc Biotechnology, University of Reading.

Last reviewed: