Numbers

I always liked math—algebra withstanding. But with each year I come to better appreciate the importance of numbers. Although April 15 has just passed, remember that numbers have a pervasive impact on our health as well as our taxes. Whether we want to admit it or not, our increasing age impacts our health and our daily lives. More important, however, is our “medical age.”

Most of us know our shoe size or dress size, but do you know your HLD and LDL cholesterol, your glucose level or blood pressure? How many grams of fiber are you eating a day? What is your thyroid level? Yesterday I learned from a Johns Hopkins ophthalmologist that, on average, with each advancing decade the vitreous gel that fills your eye pulls away from your retina by 10 percent. I wondered what other changes are occurring in my body that can be captured by data.

We may not be doctors, but we need to become familiar with these numbers and know how they can impact our health.