The 10 Questions You Should Be Asking Your Doctor

These are the top 10 questions that will increase your chance of having the best overall health as you get older.

UPDATED: February 9th, 2026

Welcome to the Beyond The Labs Newsletter, a weekly deep-dive into solving your health mysteries. I help adults in their 30s-50s solve the ‘Normal Lab’ mystery of brain fog, fatigue, and stubborn weight, to reclaim their energy and focus. I’m Dr. Ashori, a board-certified MD. I look Beyond the Labs through virtual Direct Primary Care in California and personalized health coaching for professionals worldwide.

We don’t get a lot of time with our doctors these days so it’s important to make the best use of your time. After all, this is the doctor who’ll take care of you well into your golden years, helping you prevent diseases and live well.

Many doctors, like myself, have designed their practice around 1-hour long appointments, encouraging these deeper conversations. But few people can afford this kind of healthcare.

If your doctor has the traditional 7-10 minute appointment slots, this article helps you get the most out of your healthcare.

1. “What’s my highest health Risk?”

Each and every human body is unique and has a unique risk profile. This is often determined by their lifestyle, where they live in the world, and family history.

A good physician can help you identify the diseases you’re at highest risk for.

We know that diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and dementia are the most common conditions people will suffer from after their 30s and 40s. For some it’s more dementia and less cancer.

What’s your biggest risk and what are you doing about it?

2. “What symptoms predispose me to major medical conditions?”

Inflammation, metabolic disease, poor sleep, brain fog, low energy, and poor staminal are the symptoms that correlate strongly with major medical conditions.

Signs of inflammation is an important one to look for. Another might be sleep changes, strength or mobility issues, and digestion changes. While the most important step is to recognize these signs, it’s also necessary to know what to do about them.

3. “How can I protect my brain against dementia?”

If you live in the US, your life expectancy is going to be solid. But you could spend the last 15 years with dementia.

What are you doing now that is putting you at risk for a neurodegenerative condition and what important actions can help you slide into old age with a sharp mind and a strong body?

We know that dementia has potentially 7 stages - each offering an opportunity for intervening before it’s no longer reversible.

For most the risk of dementia is all about insulin sensitivity, while for others it’s lack of exercise or excess stress. Knowing your particular cues and risks can help you prevent common chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s dementia.

4. “What can I do to prevent cancer?”

Cancer is often an unfortunate chance mutation that can take a normal cell and turn it into an unhinged factory destroying important structures around it. In most cancers, the signal to stop reproducing is turned off.

Our body has the ability to recognize rogue cells and we can help our immune system perform better and destroy them before cancer cells are formed or cells seed in distant sites.

Are you at risk of cancer? Any family history of it? If so, what might be your biggest trigger risk, maybe it’s insulin resistance, or inflammation, or obesity or stress.

5. “Is my body composition changing appropriately with age?”

The most common changes with age are shifting of fatty tissue, muscle loss, and weakening of some tissue and hardening of others.

Some muscle loss is perfectly fine but too much and we run into mobility problems and metabolic disease.

It’s important to know what’s abnormal and what’s considered normal aging. Your doctor can help you look for any early signs and offer tests that can catch such conditions early.

6. “Am I on track to never get diabetes?”

More and more people are developing diabetes. And though we are also winning on the pharmaceutical front, a medication won’t cure diabetes. Even the best GLP1s will leave a person with diabetes a few decades short of healthy years.

We have many tests that we can do to determine the risk of diabetes in a person. It’s important to know which tests to perform but more importantly which lifestyle changes to encourage in patients.

7. “What tests will help me live better and longer?”

Some of my patients are at highest risk of depression, obesity, frailty, cancer, osteoporosis, or dementia. A good family history might tell me a lot but sometimes I need specialized testing to find out what they are at risk for.

Once we determine risk we can adjust someone’s lifestyle, habits, and even offer medications, when appropriate.

Sometimes we are truly missing more data. More often, we’re just not taking existing data seriously enough.

8. “Are my lifestyle changes making a difference?”

Thanks to better medical technology we can use tools to determine if someone’s lifestyle changes are having the necessary impact. A dietary change should improve inflammatory markers, lipid levels, and blood pressure or else we’re going down the wrong path.

While I’m not a big fan of unnecessary testing, when someone is at high risk for a certain medical condition, it’s important to track their progress.

“Unfortunately, I missed a major hidden risk in one of my patients who later developed a major tear in his main aorta. Had we screened him much earlier for sleep apnea I think we could have avoided this tragedy and lifelong disability.” - Dr. Ashori MD.

9. “Am I on track to never get heart disease?”

Heart disease is broad term we use for heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure. We know it’s one of the most common diseases in the US and we also know that it’s among the most preventable.

Exercise, nutrition, and stress management are quite important. But for some people it’s simply a biochemical problem that may require cholesterol lowering medications. Fortunately, we have many more options than the old statins of a few decades ago.

And remember, heart disease is not just a cholesterol problem. In this article I go over all the other factors often overlooked when trying to lower cardiovascular disease risk.

10. “How is my mental health?”

Mental health is easily overlooked and can be as impactful as knowing what your cholesterol and blood pressure numbers are. If you believe in mind-body medicine then you’ll know the importance of a healthy outlook on life and cultivating interpersonal relationships.

“I’ve noticed that my patients who aren’t able to deal with certain emotional issues in their 30s and 40s end up with much more severe mental health problems later. We identify it early and intervene appropriately.” - Dr. Ashori MD.

Finding the Right Doctor

I realize that healthcare in Western countries is complicated, hard to navigate, and quite polarized. But there are more and more doctors who genuinely care about their patients and want to help them avoid a disease before it ever sets in.

The modern primary care doctor is more of a friend, confidant. You can text them, email, and do a live session usually the same day. That’s what it means to be a primary doctor for someone.

I’ve spent years perfecting my medical practice to meet my patients where they are, make it easy for them to understand their health, support them, and keep them healthy well into their old age.

Disclaimer:

Dr. Mohammad Ashori is a U.S.-trained family medicine physician turned health coach. The content shared here is for education and general guidance only. It is not personal medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and it does not create a doctor–patient relationship. Humans are complicated and context matters. Always talk with your own healthcare team before making medical decisions, changing medications, or ignoring symptoms. This information is to help you add more depth to those conversations.