Everyone should know these numbers

Every year Americans are getting more unhealthy.

We are getting sicker, heavier, more depressed and  more infertile even though $4 trillion dollars per year are spent on health care.

I believe we should be focusing on prevention and starting earlier in life doing so.

At the least, everyone should know these numbers:

Fasting Triglycerides :  <150

HDL:  Women >50 , Men >40

Blood Pressure: <120/80

Waist Circumference: Women <35″, Men <40″

These are the simplest markers you can acquire from a regular doctor’s visit that you don’t have to go through hoops to get your insurance to pay for and these numbers give you an idea of your metabolic health, that is, are your cells healthy.

While there are some nuances and, according to some doctors like  Dr. Casey Means, a Stanford-trained physician, Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of metabolic health company Levels and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention,  these numbers are actually generous (for example, the fasting triglycerides should be <70 to be at your lowest risk of disease), for the most part they do indicate a standard level of “good metabolic health.”

If your numbers don’t fall in line, here is some interesting information for you:

–Walking is extremely valuable. Dr. Means says “If walking were a pill, it’d be the most successful pill in all of history.”

At an 11 year follow-up, some studies show that walking 7,000 steps per day reduce all cause mortality by 50%. Other studies have show the 8-12,000 steps/day decrease the all cause mortality by 50% and ALSO have a 40-60% reduction in obesity, type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s dementia, cancer, gastro-esophageal reflux disease and more diseases.

This is AMAZING!

The average American gets only 3-4 k steps daily and by adding in more time walking, they can reduce their death and disease rate considerably.

-Slow down your eating. ​Fast eaters have a 4x higher rate of metabolic syndrome (if you have the stats at the top of the page, you have metabolic syndrome) and a 2x higher rate of Type II diabetes.

Chew your food, take breaths between bite, put your fork down AND eat meals with friends and people you enjoy (the interaction and conversation naturally slows down your eating process)

Americans are very unhealthy right now with only 6.8% (2024) -12% (2018) of the population being metabolically healthy.

If you’d like to lower your risk of disease, start moving and change some of your lifestyle habits. Over the course of time, small steps have a big impact.