BMI

People sometimes ask about my heart rate, blood pressure, or body mass index (BMI) numbers. They want to compare data about statins or supplements. I am amazed at the information available on their watches. I once blogged about not knowing my blood type which outed me as someone not donating blood. I get embarrassed and defensive about my ignorance of medical markers. I over share on my Blog, so I am not just trying to protect privacy. My blood pressure is taken at every doctor or dentist visit but what do those numbers mean? There should be one simple blood pressure number on a scale of one to twenty. If you have 19 Blood Pressure, you need medical intervention. If you have 7 Blood Pressure, you relax. I felt negligent when disappointing my Mom with the revelation that I was not taking vitamins or supplements. I do not oppose knowing my heart rate or BMI. I just resist taking time for a fat pinching test with a caliper. The one number easy to monitor is weight and I check mine every morning as an early warning system. Recently I found a BMI calculator on the internet. I tested at the midpoint of normal but since I am at a relatively rare low weight point, I would normally float around in the upper half of normal range. I was a little surprised that I could lose 24 pounds and still reside in the normal category. If I lost a couple dozen pounds right now, I would be very sick, dying, or dead! Which is why I simplify what I monitor. Do I feel good or bad? Am I alive or dead? If the latter, someone at my Wake will be scolding, “I kept warning Geoff to check his pulse.”

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