Health Check

[andrewc]

Got sent along for a health check at a local sports centre. 

BP 125/90 (it was 130/80 last month).    A touch higher than ideal.
Pulse 82
BMI 30.49 - It's all around my middle    (looking at their chart, even when I was training hard 7 days a week I was overweight!)
Total Cholesterol 7.02,  HDL 1.94 which I'm told is good.

Approving nods at the walking to & from work and the cycling.  Pursed lips at the red wine consumption.......

Apparently I've a 3.5% Cardiovascular risk which I suppose is reassuring.

At 49 I suppose I'll have to get used to being on the downward slope.   Sent home with a leaflet on how to improve my diet, which appears to want me to buy loads of soya & Alpro products.   

[hellymedic]

andrewc, good to see your blood pressure's down a bit. You would benefit from losing some belly weight and your cholesterol is high. I think you should get a fasting cholesterol done by your GP and take things from there.

I would not expect to go on the downward old age slope for a couple of decades yet!

David is the same age and has been given advice with which he disagrees today.
BP 110/64   They're a bit concerned his diastolic's too low.  I am not.
BMI 20.5. They suggest he is too thin. He disagrees.

Cholesterol and blood sugar will follow a fasting sample tomorrow. He says he might not be able to give a fasting sample if he needs a night feed. (He can't sleep if he gets hungry at night!)

I foresee a battle...

David is thin, fit and dis gruntled/disillusioned with the NHS!

[andrewc]

Hi Helly,    I had a fasting blood test last month as I was tired all the time (probably work/stress) .  They didn't give me figures when I called up but said there was nothing to be concerned about. 

I know I need to lose a load around the middle,  but according to the chart I was given I was overweight at 6ft & 13 1/2 st when I was teaching & training in ju jitsu 7 days a week!   I'm guessing the height/weight/waistline formula they must be using doesn't account for the chunky cyclists legs....

[hellymedic]

BMI works best when (like David) your height in metres is close to the square root of 3 (about 5' 9" in old money). If you're significantly taller, it fails.
Giraffe has little subcutaneous fat but at 1.94m he seems to have a high BMI.

Waist measurement indicates visceral fat and is a better measure of health.

We are not all beanpoles and racing snakes but some are too blobby.

Sitting in a wheelchair, I seem to notice waistlines more. They seem to be expanding, which is not good.

[Jakob]

BMI is useless for anyone who isn't standard build.
Mike Tyson at fighting weight  (probably less than 10% fat) had a BMI of 33.4!

What they really need to do is a body fat measurement and ideally with calipers.

(Having sad that, a BMI of 20, is very very low).

[SteveC]

(Having sad that, a BMI of 20, is very very low).

But 'normal' (according to the NHS website) is 18.5 to 25, which may be the point Helly is trying to make...

[SteveC]

I thought I'd done this for myself already. My weight tracking spreadsheet has a pane for what BMI would I be at different weights.
My healthy range is 58 to 78 kg (or 9 stone 2 to 12 stone 4).
I have to admit I wonder what I would look like at under ten stone. When I got down to around eleven a few years back, old friends didn't recognise me and people were wondering if I was ill.

[Jakob]

(Having sad that, a BMI of 20, is very very low).

But 'normal' (according to the NHS website) is 18.5 to 25, which may be the point Helly is trying to make...

At 5'8, that's 130lbs.. 

[hellymedic]

David is around 5'9" and 136lb.

I can 'pinch an inch' in some places and half an inch in others.  He's lightly built, with wrists only slightly thicker than my average girly wrists.

I don't think he is too light.

Nor does he.

[sojournermike]

When I was but a student my BMI (not that it existed back then) was just under 19.5.

When I was running reasonably quickly 8 to 10 years later it had risen to just under 20.5, thogh I suspect my absolute fat was o higher and may have been lower.

Now it's more

I am 6 ft 1 in tall.

20ish seems reasonable to me, even though I look from afar. Of course, suggesting that weight scales with the square of height seems a bit optimistic , given volume scales with the cube of length.

Mike

[hellymedic]

Indeed. I only think BMI works if a person's height approximates to root 3.

A tall chap with a BMI of 19 is thin.

A short woman of 45kg is not really thin; she's just little.

[Ningishzidda]

BMI is useful to give the undertaker a clue of how thick to make the floor of your coffin. For everyday, living circumstances, its not worth diddly.

[andrewc]

Got sent along for a health check at a local sports centre. 

BP 125/90 (it was 130/80 last month).    A touch higher than ideal.
Pulse 82
BMI 30.49 - It's all around my middle    (looking at their chart, even when I was training hard 7 days a week I was overweight!)
Total Cholesterol 7.02,  HDL 1.94 which I'm told is good.

Approving nods at the walking to & from work and the cycling.  Pursed lips at the red wine consumption.......

Apparently I've a 3.5% Cardiovascular risk which I suppose is reassuring.

At 49 I suppose I'll have to get used to being on the downward slope.   Sent home with a leaflet on how to improve my diet, which appears to want me to buy loads of soya & Alpro products.   

Another one of these today. 

BP about the same

Total chlesterol down to 5.04   I don't think I've changed my diet that much ?
HDL 1.75

Ratio 2.9  and a CVD risk of 3.7% this time.   

Awaiting the results if another blood test (sugars & prostate) and booked in for a 10 minute chat with the GP next week.

Weight was 100.6 Kg this morning,  which is a couple of Kg down from 2 weeks ago.

[hellymedic]

My cholesterol was 4.2 but my blood pressure was high (150/90 ish) at the surgery.

Bought my own BP machine and the latest reading is 105/60.

I've not weighed myself of late but my BMI is around 22-23.

David's brother visited a fortnight ago. His BMI is around 19 but he does not resemble a stick insect either. Some people just are light. The chap does eat slowly though.

I don't suppose I'm at much CV risk...

[Chris S]

Total chlesterol down to 5.04   I don't think I've changed my diet that much ?
HDL 1.75

Out of interest, did they do your Triglyceride level (full lipid panel should do)? TG/HDL is supposedly a decent predictor of CVD:

<0.87 = ideal
>1.87 = bad
>2.62 = really bad

My most recent test was April 2014, and my ratio was 0.69, which meant my GP was not the least bit concerned about my overall cholesterol level of 6.4.

ETA: Like you andrewc, my BP is somewhat higher than it should be, and like you - I like the vino. There is most likely a link . When I do Dry January, my BP drops quite a lot.

[hellymedic]

My triglycerides:  0.79
HDL: 1.9mmol
LDL: 1.9mmol

No TG:LDL on mine. Theres a cholesterol:HDL which is 2.2

Simple arithmetic would suggest TG:LDL is 0.79/1.9  = 0.416.

[Pancho]

I've been invited to one of these checks (on account of being old and decrepit, presumably). Is it worth going (for me and the taxpayer who foots the bill)?

I don't actually need doctorial time to tell me: my BP is too high => exercise, cut salt, lay off fags; I'm too fat => eat less and eat better; I drink too much => drink less (I don't actually drink but doctors assume I'm lying); I'm getting on a bit => keep doing physical stuff; my cholesterol is too high => eat less cholesterol.

[hellymedic]

You will probably save the NHS more money by attending ASAP than by causing them to spend more while they nag you so they can tick their boxes and achieve their targets, without which some payments to them might be withheld.
Tell them you'll behave better.

The system is badly b0rked; it couldn't cope with my alcohol intake. I told them I drank about 12 units per year.
My printout suggests I have a unit every week, which is four times as much.