>Annual checkups are a weight check, blood pressure, a few questions, maybe a blood panel if you're lucky
This isn't my experience. Every time I've gone in for an annual check, the doctor has either suggested that I get or asked if I would like a blood panel. Maybe you should try another doctor.
In my experience, a blood panel doesn't cover everything typically. My A1C, Insulin, and fasting Glucose levels are all within normal range, but actually I have insulin resistance, likely genetic that wouldn't appear in my general panel for at least two or three more decades. This is common in people whose family history includes poverty or subsistence farming. I'm glad I have the resources to address this while I'm still a young professional with no children of my own to manage and full healthcare benefits including out-of-network, but I had to find my own specialists to investigate what was going on with me.
Why would a genetic tendency towards insulin resistance be correlated with a family history of poverty or subsistence farming? Is there any research on that? Which specific genes are involved? Which tests were used to diagnose your insulin resistance?
I don't know the details. This was just something that I was informed after I was speaking to a specialist about a separate issue at a world-class medical campus, who happened to also be studying the effects of insulin on the thing I was actually there to get examined and after some testing and calculations that are more used in research than clinicals.
