My annual numbers

Every term in MS 150 Statistics I use a Tanita scale to measure the students weight and to estimate their body fat. The data is primarily used, with names stripped out, as number sets to play with during the term. Secondarily this provides information to a sample at high risk of obesity and associated metabolic syndromes, number two on the planet by one measure. The students become inured to my exhortations to exercise, eat right, and to track their numbers.

Because I get to see the students numbers, I always feel that sharing my numbers is incumbent on me. Although I do try to take a daily pill for my health, my health habits are not yet well aligned with modern heart attack prevention guidelines.
  • Blood pressure 100/70 is down year-on-year for a second year. 
  • Weight: 140 down four pounds. 
  • LDL: 103, was 86 last year. 
  • HDL: 47, up from 41. I was a tad low last year, this year I just edged up over 45. Fish oil recommended but not taken. 
  • Cholesterol: 165. Up from last year, but down from prior years. 
  • Triglycerides: 78.
  • Risk ratio: 3.5
  • Sugar: 86, down from the unusually high 102 I recorded last year. 
  • PSA 1.26, statistically flat against last year's 1.1. Highly colored vegetables, lycopene, recommended.
  • Uric acid: Down a full point at 6.8 from 7.8 last year.  In 2008 I hit 7.7, 2009 I dropped to 6.9. I have spent this past year avoiding pork, all but eliminating beef, and avoiding chicken skin. I do not usually eat shrimp, lobster, clams, shellfish, crabs, and other problematic foods. Hydration may be an issue too.
  • Hemoglobin 13.9, hemocrit 41.8. 
  • This year no ASD and no ALT number to report (79 in 2010). 
Cholesterol is the number that concerns me each year. I typically saw numbers in the 160s and 170s through to a 2007 cholesterol of 169. Then in 2008 I hit 219. With more attention to my diet, exercise, and a daily glass of wine or a single beer, that dropped to 178 in 2009.

That 2008 spike also saw my LDLs hit 144 after a 100 in 2007. 2009 saw that number drop to 118, 2010 to 86. That number is now rising again at 103.

My 2008 HDL, however, was good at 57, falling to 41 and holding there for two years, and now back slightly at 47.

The results remain mixed. The HDL is low for a runner - but then I am not running enough these days. The cholesterol is up, but 165 puts the numbers at where they were a decade or so ago. The uric acid is down from the borderline, but not out of the woods. A resting heart rate done in statistics last week was a record low 49 for those particular measurements - which are not true resting heart rates.


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