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, and because I exhort those around me to get annual physicals and exercise, 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.

My blood pressure is up slightly from 100/70 last year to 117/80 this year, possibly simply a return-to-the-mean effect as my blood pressure had dropped for the past two years. My EKG was normal and the EKG recorded a heart rate of 60.
Weight: 142, statistically equivalent to last year.
LDL: Dropped to 88, essentially the same as last year's 86. This remains improved over 2010's 103. This number should remain under 100.
HDL: 45, down very slightly from 47 last year, but still better than my 2010 value of 41. This number should be above 45.
Cholesterol: Slightly down at 158 from last year's 165. 2010 saw a record low of 138. Because of the gluten issue I have had to forgo beer, which was my principal source of my single drink a night to reduce cholesterol. I do occasionally drink a glass of red wine, but not as consistently as I drank a single beer back in 2010.
Triglycerides: 124, an increase from 78.
Risk ratio: Remains at 3.5
Sugar: 87, the same as last year when it was 86. I remain below the unusually high 102 I recorded in 2010.
PSA Not measured this year. In 2011 my PSA was1.26, statistically flat against last year's 1.1. Highly colored vegetables, lycopene, recommended.
Uric acid: Crept back up to 7.1 from a low of 6.8 last year. Still below the 2010 number of 7.8.  In 2008 I hit 7.7, 2009 I dropped to 6.9. With an average of 7.26 over the past five measurements (7.7, 6.9, 7.8, 6.8, 7.1), the 7.1 is likely a return to the long term mean.
Hemoglobin 12.3, hemocrit 39.6.

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, in 2011 my LDL rose 103, this year my LDL is back down at 88.

My 2008 HDL, however, was good at 57, falling to 41 and holding there for two years, and then back up slightly to  47 in 2011. A number above 35 is good, at 45 this year I am down but not significantly. If the long term trend is downwards, then that is problematic.

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 158 keeps the numbers at where they were a decade or so ago.

My uric acid is back up at 7.1, not sure what my consistently high borderline uric acid might mean. I suspect this might be a result of insufficient hydration in the humid tropics, and a tendency to hydrate with black coffee, juices, and drinks rather than water. Maybe running in the humid tropics has some effect on uric acid levels - if nothing else running here is exceptionally dehydrating.

A resting heart rate done in statistics earlier this term was 50, consistent with my record low 49 in 2011 for my heart rate. This past week I measured a 59 in class. Those measurements are not true resting heart rates and are not medically accurate, but the later agrees well with the 60 on the EKG machine.