You may have noticed that the requirements for our health insurance benefits changed slightly this year. In order to meet the highest criteria insurance discount you are required to get preventative blood work. We changed the insurance criteria because knowing your numbers or biometrics is very important to your wellbeing and preventative care.
“Knowing your numbers” refers to knowing your blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, and BMI. These numbers show us what’s going on in your body and are key indicators of your risk for serious health issues. If you can keep your numbers in a healthy range, you can dramatically decrease your risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes and other health conditions.
I will elaborate more on each of these categories in later videos but here are the basics to get you started:
For most people, overall cholesterol should be below 200. If it’s higher than that you could be at risk for developing heart disease.
Triglycerides are excess calories that are converted into a type of fat and stored in your body. The healthy range for triglycerides is below 150 mg/dl or 1.7mmol/l. High triglycerides put you at risk for stroke, heart attack, heart disease and pancreatitis.
Another important biometric is blood sugar. Your fasting blood sugar should be below 100. Otherwise you could be at risk for developing diabetes.
Blood Pressure is another important biometric. If it’s too high you could be at risk for stroke. Blood pressure is expressed as a fraction, and in general the healthy upper number is less than 120 and the healthy lower number is less than 80.
Lastly is your BMI or body mass index. This is calculated using your height and weight. If your BMI is over 25 that means you are overweight or obese. If your BMI is in an unhealthy range you could be at risk for diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
When you know your numbers and start making changes to get them in a healthy range, you take control and can actually improve your health outcomes.
As a health coach, it’s a very rewarding experience to help people improve their numbers by making lifestyle changes, and help them live a healthier and hopefully longer and more rewarding life.
Over the next few weeks I will be sharing a series of videos to help you understand these numbers better and improve or maintain them.
In the meantime, I wish you health and happiness.