Many of us set aside time to plan for our financial future, we set goals, track progress and adjust when the numbers tell us something is off. Health rarely gets the same treatment, it tends to sit in the background until something forces it to the forefront, a diagnosis, an injury, or a health scare.
That contrast was the starting point for one of the sessions at this year’s UFinancial conference, where the team from Everlab, a preventative health company, joined the stage to talk about what proactive health looks like in practice. Rather than keep the conversation theoretical, UFinancial’s Leigh Deledio agreed to walk the room through his own experience of going through Everlab’s testing process, from blood work through to a full physical and metabolic assessment.
Why proactive health is having a moment
The session opened with a simple observation that most people don’t act on their health until it forces them to. Annual checkups tend to be brief and reactive. Support programs tend to step in after a problem has already emerged. Neither approach does much to catch issues early or build a clear picture of how someone’s health is tracking over time.
Everlab’s model is built around the opposite idea: establish a detailed baseline, track it over time and use that longitudinal data to guide decisions before problems show up. The testing covers a wide range of biomarkers across areas like heart health, hormones, metabolic function and body composition, alongside physical assessments such as strength, balance and cardiovascular fitness. The point isn’t a single snapshot. It’s a trend line that a doctor can read and respond to, the same way a good adviser reads a portfolio.
One of the more interesting points raised was how much a ‘normal’ result can hide. A standard blood test might come back within range and still miss something meaningful for a person based on their history, lifestyle or genetics. Preventative testing is designed to build a more personalised picture, rather than measuring against the broad benchmark.
Leigh’s experience on the day
For Leigh, the process started with the basics, blood tests, height and weight, before moving into a DEXA scan to measure body composition and bone density. From there it was a series of physical assessments: balance tests, strength and power measures, and a VO2 max test to assess cardiovascular fitness under load. He described the VO2 max component tougher than it looked, with the incline and pace increasing steadily until he was at full effort.
What stood out from Leigh’s account wasn’t any single result, but the experience of having everything brought together in one place. Rather than separate numbers scattered across providers and appointments, the assessment gave him a single, structured view of where he stands today, and a plan for what to track and revisit over time. He noted that the value wasn’t just in the data itself, but in finally having a doctor translate that data into something actionable, a clear next step rather than a page of numbers to interpret alone.
It’s worth being clear about what this session was and wasn’t. It wasn’t a diagnosis, and it isn’t a substitute for ongoing care from your own GP or specialist. What it offered was a detailed starting point, and a structure for revisiting down the track.
The high performer trap
One thread that ran through the discussion was particularly relevant to a room full of people working in a deadline driven industry. On paper, high performers often look like they’re doing everything right, they train, they eat reasonably well, they show up. But a closer look sometimes tells a different story, particularly around sleep, stress and the kind of internal, harder to see markers that don’t show up on a bathroom scale.
Sleep came up repeatedly as one of the more overlooked levers. The research linking consistent, quality sleep to long term health outcomes is well established, and yet it’s often the first thing to go when work gets busy. It’s a useful reminder that looking “fine” from the outside and functioning well internally aren’t always the same thing, and that the habits people deprioritise under pressure are often the ones that matter most.
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Building health literacy, not just handing over data
A recurring theme was that data on its own doesn’t change behaviour. People need to understand what they’re looking at before they’ll engage with it. Concepts like DEXA scans or specific biomarkers mean very little to someone encountering them for the first time, so a key part of the process is explaining what’s being measured and why, before the testing even starts.
There was also a candid observation about engagement more broadly. Even well-designed, free health initiatives, like government screening programs delivered directly to people’s homes, don’t always get high uptake, even when the barrier to participation is genuinely low. Removing friction matters, but so does giving people a reason to act on health information once they have it.
That raises an interesting question about how differently we think about risk in other parts of our lives.
We insure against risk. Why not get ahead of it?
Most of us don’t think twice about paying to protect ourselves financially. We insure our homes, cars, income and businesses. We take out life and income protection insurance to help safeguard the wealth we’ve built and the people who depend on us. We do it knowing we may never need to make a claim, because protecting against risk is simply part of sensible financial planning.
But when it comes to our health, we often take a very different approach. Rather than spending money to better understand the risks before something goes wrong, many of us wait until there is a symptom, a diagnosis or another reason to investigate.
Preventative health testing isn’t insurance, and it can’t eliminate the possibility of illness. What it can do is provide greater visibility. Establishing a baseline, understanding where potential risk factors may sit and tracking changes over time gives you more information to act on — in much the same way that understanding your financial position helps you make better decisions about protecting it.
Perhaps that’s the more useful way to think about preventative health: not as another health expense, but as one part of managing risk. We already accept that protecting our financial future has a cost. The question is whether we should be applying some of that same thinking to the health we’ll need to enjoy it.
The takeaway
Leigh’s experience offered a useful, human way into a topic that can otherwise feel abstract or clinical. Rather than a lecture on biomarkers, it was an honest account of stepping through an assessment most of us never make time for, and coming away with a clearer picture of where he stands.
As always, this kind of testing is a starting point for a conversation with your own healthcare provider, not a replacement for one. But the broader message from the session was hard to argue with: whether it’s your finances or your health, you’re better placed to make good decisions when you’re looking at the data, rather than assuming everything is fine because nothing has gone wrong yet.
Want to learn more?
A special thank you to Dr Jared Mathai and Kyle Reynolds from Everlab for sharing their insights, and to Leigh Deledio for openly sharing his personal health journey.
If you’re interested in taking a more proactive approach to your health, visit www.everlab.com.au to explore Everlab’s services.
If you’d like to talk through your lending position after reading this, speak with one of our UFinancial team.
