What is in a complete blood panel?
Ask for a “complete blood panel” and you mean a full workup. No lab issues a test under that name. You get two panels, ordered together. Between them they answer less than the name promises.
Published 24 August 2026 · every quote below opens the video at the moment of speaking
The short answer
Ask for a complete blood panel and you get two tests. A complete blood count reads your red cells, white cells and platelets. A comprehensive metabolic panel measures 14 substances. They cover your kidneys and liver, your blood sugar and your electrolytes. MedlinePlus publishes the list.
That comes to 28 measurements. Three carry a number a named doctor has stated on video: fasting glucose, ALT and AST. The other 25 come back with your lab’s range and nothing else.
What is on a complete blood panel?
The metabolic half first. MedlinePlus calls this one a chem 14 or a chemistry screen. It lists these substances:
| Comprehensive metabolic panel | What it measures | Lab range and optimal |
|---|---|---|
| Fasting glucose | The sugar in your blood after a night without food. | LAB · 70–99 mg/dLOPTIMAL · 70–90 mg/dLAttia 6:34 |
| Calcium | The calcium moving through your blood — a tiny fraction of what your bones and teeth hold. | LAB · 8.6–10.3 mg/dLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Sodium | The main electrolyte controlling your body's water balance. | LAB · 135–145 mmol/LOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Potassium | An electrolyte your nerves and heart muscle depend on. | LAB · 3.5–5.2 mmol/LOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Bicarbonate | The buffer your blood uses to keep its acidity stable. | LAB · 22–29 mmol/LOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Chloride | An electrolyte that moves with sodium to hold your fluid balance. | LAB · 98–107 mmol/LOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Albumin | The main protein in your blood. Your liver makes it. | LAB · 3.5–5 g/dLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Total Protein | Albumin and globulin combined. | LAB · 6–8.3 g/dLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Alkaline Phosphatase | An enzyme found all over your body. Your liver, bile ducts and bones carry the most. | LAB · 40–129 U/LOPTIMAL · N/A |
| ALT | An enzyme concentrated inside liver cells. | LAB · 0–55 U/LOPTIMAL · under 30 U/LAttia 17:32 |
| AST | An enzyme found in your liver, but also in muscle and heart tissue. | LAB · 0–40 U/LOPTIMAL · under 30 U/LAttia 17:32 |
| Total Bilirubin | The yellow pigment left over when your body breaks down old red blood cells. | LAB · 0.1–1.2 mg/dLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| BUN | Urea nitrogen, a waste product from digesting protein that your kidneys filter out. | LAB · 7–20 mg/dLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Creatinine | A waste product your muscles make and your kidneys filter out. | LAB · 0.59–1.04 mg/dL (women) · 0.74–1.35 (men)OPTIMAL · N/A |
Now the blood count. Fourteen more lines, and not one of them has a number behind it:
| Complete blood count | What it measures | Lab range and optimal |
|---|---|---|
| White blood cells | The total number of white blood cells, your immune system's workforce. | LAB · 4–11 10^3/µLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Red blood cells | The number of red blood cells in a volume of blood. | LAB · 4.1–5.1 10^6/µL (women) · 4.5–5.9 (men)OPTIMAL · N/A |
| Hemoglobin | The protein inside red blood cells that carries oxygen. | LAB · 12–15.5 g/dL (women) · 13.5–17.5 (men)OPTIMAL · N/A |
| Hematocrit | The share of your blood volume made up of red blood cells. | LAB · 36–46 % (women) · 40–50 (men)OPTIMAL · N/A |
| Platelets | The cell fragments that form clots. | LAB · 150–400 10^3/µLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Mean corpuscular volume | The average size of your red blood cells. | LAB · 80–100 fLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Mean corpuscular hemoglobin | The average amount of haemoglobin in each red blood cell. | LAB · 27–33 pgOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration | How concentrated the haemoglobin is inside your red blood cells. | LAB · 32–36 g/dLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Red cell distribution width | How much your red blood cells vary in size. | LAB · 11.5–14.5 %OPTIMAL · N/A |
| Neutrophils (absolute) | The count of neutrophils, your most numerous white blood cell and first responder to bacterial infection. | LAB · 1.8–7.8 10^3/µLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Lymphocytes (absolute) | The count of lymphocytes, the white cells that run your adaptive immune response. | LAB · 1–4.8 10^3/µLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Monocytes (absolute) | The count of monocytes, the white cells that clear debris and mature into tissue macrophages. | LAB · 0.2–0.95 10^3/µLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Eosinophils (absolute) | The count of eosinophils, white blood cells involved in allergy and parasite defence. | LAB · 0–0.45 10^3/µLOPTIMAL · N/A |
| Basophils (absolute) | The count of basophils, the rarest type of white blood cell. | LAB · 0–0.2 10^3/µLOPTIMAL · N/A |
Tap a marker for its own page, or a time to watch the moment. Lab ranges vary between labs, so read the one printed on your own report. LAB is the range your report grades you against; OPTIMAL is what a named doctor stated on video, with the minute. OPTIMAL · N/A means we found no video where a named doctor puts a number on that line.
Which lines has a doctor put a number on?
Fasting glucose, ALT and AST. Dr. Peter Attia gives the number for each. The glucose number comes in a sentence that also names a test the panel skips:
“I generally like to see the fasting glucose below 90 milligrams per deciliter, the fasting insulin below six.”
Your lab prints a glucose range that runs up to 99. Attia draws the line at 90. A result between the two clears the lab and misses Attia’s line.
For the two liver enzymes Attia gives a single rule covering both:
“now the general rule of thumb is that you would like to see an A and ALT both below about 30 IU per liter”
The auto-caption renders spoken “AST” as a bare “A” through this passage. We quote it the way the caption wrote it.
The two enzymes have different lab ranges. Attia names 42 to 44 as the ALT ceiling at one lab, in the quote below. Labs tend to flag AST at 40. So read the range on your own report. A result in the 40s may clear one enzyme and not the other, and either way it sits above the 30. The doctors disagree about ALT too. Dr. Robert Lustig puts it lower, and says it moved:
“the upper limit of alt should be 25 when I entered medical school in 1976 the upper limit for alt was 25”
Attia holds two positions: the rule of thumb above, and a tighter number for the patients in that practice.
“so alt and ast as of now on the lab that I use the upper limit of a LT is 44 maybe 42 and ast is about 40 I think both of those are unnecessarily high and we typically like to see patients below 20 on both of those”
Three numbers on ALT from two doctors: 30, 25 and 20. The range your lab prints matches none of them. The three quotes are above, each with the time it comes from.
What does a complete blood panel leave out?
The blood count is the other half of the order, and the emptier one. Nobody we cite has stated a number on any line of it. Not the red cell measures. Not the white cell counts. Not platelets. On 17 August 2026 we read all 4,445 transcripts we hold for each of those markers. Every time, the lab’s range was the only line anyone had drawn.
Where nobody has stated a number, we print none. It also explains why the panel looks thorough and tells you so little. It exists to catch disease. Most people arrive with a different question.
The bigger gap is what neither panel measures. Our library holds 98 markers, and 25 of them carry a number a named doctor stated on video. Between them, these two panels measure 3 of those 25. The other 22 are on neither.
What can you ask your doctor about?
Here are the 22. A named doctor has put a number on every one, and tapping the time plays them saying it. What any of it means for you is a conversation with your doctor. A web page cannot settle it.
| Marker | Who put a number on it, and when |
|---|---|
| ApoB | Dr. Peter Attia 36:30 |
| Lipoprotein(a) | Dr. Peter Attia 24:31 |
| hs-CRP | Dr. Peter Attia 4:57 |
| Fasting insulin | Dr. Mark Hyman 23:23 · Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:52:32 |
| HbA1c | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:52:27 |
| Homocysteine | Dr. Peter Attia 3:35 |
| Omega-3 Index | Dr. Bill Harris 1:23:04 |
| Ferritin | Dr. Mark Hyman 7:22 · Dr. Elizabeth Boham 1:36:56 |
| TSH | Dr. Peter Attia 7:42 |
| Free T3 | Dr. Peter Attia 7:42 |
| Reverse T3 | Dr. Peter Attia 10:02 |
| Vitamin D | Dr. Rhonda Patrick 15:08 |
| Vitamin B12 | Dr. Mark Hyman 2:03:31 |
| Magnesium | Dr. Mark Hyman 11:58 |
| GGT | Dr. Mark Hyman 23:47 |
| Uric acid | Dr. Peter Attia 5:08 · Dr. Robert Lustig 21:19 |
| IGF-1 | Dr. Rhonda Patrick 30:14 |
| Total testosterone | Dr. Mark Hyman 1:30 · Dr. Peter Attia 1:26:33 |
| HDL cholesterol | Dr. Mark Hyman 11:21 |
| Triglycerides | Dr. Peter Attia 0:36 · Dr. Sarah Hallberg 22:06 |
| VLDL Cholesterol | Dr. Peter Attia 5:32 |
| PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) | Dr. Mark Hyman 13:58 |
The numbers live on each marker’s own page, next to the range labs print. Tap a marker to see both.
Who is this page not for?
Anyone who wants a test ordered. We do not order labs and we do not sell blood tests. There is no affiliate link on this page.
Anyone whose doctor ordered something else. The metabolic list above is the one MedlinePlus publishes. The blood-count list is the standard set of measures a count reports. Your own requisition may carry more lines or fewer. This page cannot know which, so it never tells you how much of your panel we cover.
Anyone looking for a verdict. Only 3 of these 28 lines carry a stated number. That tells you who has spoken on video, and nothing else. It does not rank which tests matter, and a marker nobody has named may still matter to you.
Anyone who needs medical advice. This is a record of what named people said, with the video. It is not a diagnosis and it is not a substitute for your doctor.
Common questions
Is a complete blood panel the same as a CBC?
No. A CBC is one half of it. The other half is the comprehensive metabolic panel. That one covers kidney and liver measures. It also holds blood sugar, protein and electrolytes.
How many things does a complete blood panel measure?
28 across the two panels. The metabolic panel holds 14 substances, as MedlinePlus lists them. The blood count holds the red cell, white cell and platelet measures.
Does a complete blood panel check your thyroid?
No. TSH and free T3 are on neither form, and both carry a number Dr. Peter Attia has stated on video.
Does it check iron?
No. A blood count can hint at it through the red cell measures. Ferritin, the marker Dr. Mark Hyman puts a floor under on video, sits on neither panel.
Does it check cholesterol?
No. Cholesterol comes on a lipid panel, which a doctor orders on its own. ApoB is a separate test again, and Dr. Peter Attia names a number for it - watch at 36:30.
What does “your lab’s range only” mean in the tables?
That the range printed on your report is the only line anyone has drawn on that marker. We searched the video library and found no named doctor putting a different number on it.
Keep reading
- Fasting glucose70–90 mg/dL
- ALTunder 30 U/L
- ASTunder 30 U/L
- Ferritin45–70 ng/mL
- The iron panel6 measurements
- All biomarkers98 markers
See where your own numbers land
Decode is an iPhone app that reads the blood test you already have. Where a doctor has put a number on a line, it shows you the number and the video. Where a line has none behind it, it says that too.