Favorite biomarker of your health?

[RAE]

So it turned out that you had hemochromatosis? Sorry if that was the case.

There are many problems with unnecessary tests being done. Lots of money to be made treating numbers rather than people. False positives. Patients and doctors not understanding what test results mean and why they can be 'abnormal'. There are many reasons that the US far outspends the rest of the OECD countries in the realm of healthcare - unnecessary diagnostics is definitely one of them.

I don't have hereditary hemochromatosis, but I had iron overload, presumably from just gradually accumulating too much iron in my system over the years. The blood tests (ferritin, serum iron, transferrin saturation) confirmed that I had iron overload. As you probably know, males do not have a good mechanism for getting rid of excess iron, so it can slowly build up in your system over time. It is the free iron in the blood that can cause big problems (cancer, liver damage, etc). I had no idea my iron/ferritin was so high until I had the blood tests, so I am very happy I did have those tests. I wish someone would have encouraged me to have my ferritin tested before I started getting sick, but I had never heard of iron overload back then, and was not aware that it is not all that uncommon in males my age. Donating blood a few times resolved the problem, so it was not a difficult thing to treat. I'll probably have to continue donating blood a couple times each year, but I'm fine with that.

Here is an article on iron overload, for those interested:
https://kresserinstitute.com/iron-overload-cause-diabetes-heart-disease/

Yes, there are lots of unnecessary tests being done, I agree with you on that. And many doctors and patients do not understand what certain test results mean, for sure. But that doesn't mean that blood tests are always an unnecessary or bad thing. Without the tests for ferritin/iron that I had, I'm not sure I would even be here right now. At the very least, I would have gotten much sicker.

 

[sengsational]

A simple biomarker is pain or bleeding when flossing. It's probably a really important marker that's accessable all the time and is free. So much coming out about dental health correlation with disease, especially CVD.

 

[athena53]

A few things: the cholesterol components/ratios. Total is "high" (223) but triglycerides/HDL is 0.6, for example.

Hba1c because my fasting blood glucose runs over 100. No diabetes risk factors that I know of- no symptoms, no family history, very active, close to being underweight. Last-measured value was 5.7.

BMI. Having switched to a mostly plant-based diet, cutting way back on refined sugars, cutting out potatoes, rice, pasta, etc, in favor of "slow carbs" such as beans and whole grains, it sometimes dips below 19. I wasn't concerned except that I read you're at risk for osteoporosis if it goes under 19. Today someone had made apple cake with a thick layer of cream-cheese frosting for the church coffee hour. I had one slice and then had another half-slice. Yum. All in the interests of getting my BMI back up since it was 18.9 this morning!

My wife is a Medical Technologist, and she managed laboratories in a number of major hospitals. A full blood chemistry panel is where doctors first look to analyze a patient's physical well being. If there are problems in one area, they may do other more specialized testing.

<snip>So you can see how important that aging people get yearly physicals and also need to go to quality doctors.

Totally agree with that. A dear friend had ER forced on him earlier this year after he had a stroke. He was teddy-bear shaped, knew he had high BP, didn't eat well, didn't know he was diabetic and didn't get regular checkups. I'm a numbers person anyway, but I have an Excel spreadsheet going back 8 years with bloodwork results. I'm almost looking forward to my monthly donations of platelets and/or plasma because they also check my BP, iron, platelet and plasma levels. I'm deferred till early April after a trip last March to India.

 

[NW-Bound]

With retirement I have more time for exercise and awareness of my health. My weight is fine and I don't follow running distances, exercise durations, max lifts, etc. Doctor visits and blood work is not done often enough for my near term feedback.

The metric that works best for me in Resting Heart Rate. I wear a Fitbit and monitor the RHR daily because I have seen a personal correlation between healthy living (good diet, exercise, regular schedule) and lower RHR. There is some related research below.

What biomarker do others use?

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog...an-reflect-current-future-health-201606179806

I am very surprised to learn from the link above that the target heart rate for someone in his 60s to be 80 to 136 beats/min. That seems awfully high.

I am relatively fit and active, but never athletic. My resting heart rate is 60 or less most of my life, yet my BP is usually 130/90. It is rarely as low as 120/80.

 

[HFWR]

Orgasms/week.

+1

 

[sgstaley]

A1C currently. I am doing the keto lifestyle and watching it drop drop drop.