Rosenheimer Str. 6-8, 83043 Bad Aibling, Germany · info@clinicum-stgeorg.de
Early Detection
A standard check-up finds disease after it has developed. The preventive work-up at St. George Hospital measures the risk factors, subclinical imbalances and early markers that precede it, in one to three days on the ward, with the physician who ordered the tests reading them with you.
Your annual check-up takes twelve minutes and produces one page. Everything is fine, until one year it is not. You have read enough to know that the plaque, the insulin resistance and the inflammation are there years before the event. Nobody is looking for them.
This page describes the preventive work-up within our longevity program: which panels it contains, how they draw on the hospital's diagnostics and the functional medicine work-up, and how the results turn into a plan.
A standard annual check-up includes basic blood work, blood pressure and perhaps a few cancer screenings. If everything is within range, you are told you are healthy. Laboratory reference ranges describe the population the laboratory serves; they say little about optimal function and they miss early disease processes that have not yet pushed a value past a threshold.
The hospital's preventive work-up measures what those panels leave out: cardiovascular risk beyond cholesterol, a full hormone picture, immune function, micronutrient status, gut health, toxic burden and markers of biological aging. The aim is to find the trends that lead to disease while they can still be changed, and to measure again after the change to show whether it worked.
Every sample is read by the physician who ordered it, with you in the room. Most laboratory results return within 24 to 72 hours because the laboratory is in the building, so a second test can be added the same week instead of after another appointment.
Beyond cholesterol: lipoprotein(a), apoB, oxidized LDL, homocysteine, hs-CRP, fibrinogen and lipid particle analysis. Carotid ultrasound and arterial stiffness testing look at the vessels themselves, as part of our imaging and specialist testing.
Tumor marker panels, NK cell activity as a measure of immune surveillance, circulating tumor cell analysis for those at high risk, and genetic susceptibility assessment. No single marker is read alone; the panel is read against your history and family history.
Full thyroid panel (TSH, fT3, fT4, rT3, antibodies), cortisol rhythm, DHEA-S, testosterone (total and free), estradiol, progesterone, IGF-1, melatonin and insulin: the hormones that govern energy, cognition and aging, read together rather than one at a time.
Fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, HbA1c, glucose tolerance, uric acid, liver enzymes and the components of metabolic syndrome. Many people are metabolically unwell years before diabetes or fatty liver disease is diagnosed, and fasting insulin shows it first.
Intracellular mineral analysis, functional vitamin testing (B12, folate, D, E, K), omega-3 index, CoQ10, ferritin and the zinc to copper ratio. The vitamin D and magnesium articles explain two of the deficits we find most often.
Heavy metal screening (mercury, lead, cadmium, aluminum) and an environmental toxin exposure assessment. Accumulated toxins impair mitochondrial function, hormone signaling and immune health; a raised value leads into the detox program.
Where the panels point to a functional question, for example low energy with normal thyroid values, the work-up adds functional diagnostics: heart rate variability, bio-impedance, mitochondrial and oxidative stress testing.
Cardiovascular markers such as lipoprotein(a) and C-reactive protein rest on strong evidence; immune and aging markers on moderate to emerging evidence. No trial shows that lowering an epigenetic clock or raising NK cell activity prevents disease.
The markers in the cardiovascular panel carry strong evidence. Lipoprotein(a) is a genetically determined, causal risk factor for atherosclerotic disease and aortic stenosis that a standard lipid panel does not measure, and the European Atherosclerosis Society recommends measuring it at least once in every adult (Kronenberg et al., Eur Heart J, 2022). C-reactive protein concentration is associated with coronary heart disease, stroke and vascular mortality independently of conventional risk factors in a meta-analysis of individual data from 54 cohorts (Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, Lancet, 2010). Ultrasound assessment of carotid plaque predicts future coronary events more accurately than intima-media thickness alone, which is why the carotid examination looks for plaque and not only for wall thickness (Inaba et al., Atherosclerosis, 2012). Fasting insulin and glucose give the HOMA index of insulin resistance, a model in use since 1985 (Matthews et al., Diabetologia, 1985). The omega-3 index, the share of EPA and DHA in red cell membranes, was proposed as a risk factor for death from coronary heart disease on the basis of cohort and trial data (Harris et al., Prev Med, 2004).
The immune and aging markers carry moderate to emerging evidence. In a Japanese general-population cohort followed for eleven years, medium and high natural killer cell cytotoxic activity was associated with lower cancer incidence and low activity with higher incidence (Imai et al., Lancet, 2000). DNA methylation clocks estimate age across tissues with high accuracy (Horvath, Genome Biol, 2013) and are the basis of the biological age markers in the Longevity Deep Dive.
What the evidence does not show: no trial has demonstrated that lowering an epigenetic clock value, or raising NK cell activity, reduces disease incidence, so these results are reported as markers and the plan rests on the cardiovascular, metabolic and immune findings with established treatment paths.
Your physician suggests the package that fits your history. Costs are a package price plus individual add-ons, set out in writing before you travel.
Each package runs on the ward. Blood is drawn fasting on the first morning, imaging and functional tests follow the same day, and the physician goes through the results with you on the last day; results that arrive later follow in writing. See how a stay runs, or read about costs and insurance.
Related therapies
When the hormone panel shows a deficit with symptoms to match, the hormone optimization module and bioidentical hormone therapy follow, with repeat measurement.
When markers point to a raised senescent cell burden, the senolytic protocol is offered as an individual treatment attempt decided with the patient after medical consultation.
Mitochondrial function testing informs interval hypoxia-hyperoxia training for patients whose energy production, not their hormones, is the limiting factor.
Heavy metal and environmental toxin results guide the detoxification therapies and the duration of the detox program.
A gut health screen that shows dysbiosis or an open intestinal barrier leads into the staged gut restoration program.
The individual markers, how the hospital laboratory runs them, and turnaround times.
Write to the International Office with a short family history; it requests your last results afterwards. A physician reads them before the video consultation and tells you which package fits and which markers you have never had measured.
The initial inquiry is free of charge. The International Office reviews your message and your case directly and gets back to you.
Munich Airport (MUC), about 60 minutes by car.
