Wednesday, April 08, 2009

On The Path

The Atlantic Path that is. I volunteered this afternoon to take part in the 30 year cancer study currently looking for 30 000 Atlantic Canadians as part of a national initiative.

Having completed the survey part beforehand the process was quite smooth and efficient. Signed the waivers, gave my samples(blood, urine, saliva and toenails), got my measurements and out the door. Took about an hour.

One of the benefits was coming home with some test results. It was interesting to look at the numbers; some were expected and some were not.

Blood Pressure - 158/75 at a heart rate of 75. Hmmm.....the systolic number was much higher than usual but the diastolic was about the same. Odd in that the systolic was indicating stage one hypertension but the systolic was below normal. Thinking my stressful day at work combined with rushing to get there, 4 straight days of exercise and lack of sleep this week(my spouse is keeping me awake with her pinched nerve)might have some impact on the numbers I retested myself at Shoppers tonight after I had a chance to kick back and relax.First test after walking over had me at 151/76. The diastolic dropped to 136 and then to 126, the systolic dropped to 73 and 68 on the two followup tests.

I`m shrinking with age......height is 181.3 cm(5.94 feet).Weight is around where I expected for late afternoon.....92KG(202.8 lbs).Waist circumference was a surprising96cm(37.7 inches) and combined with hip measurement gave me a waist to hip ratio of 0.89.That puts me on the higher end of normal.My BMI was higher than I expected at 28.1 which charts me as overweight but my body fat percentage was 19.7 which lists me as healthy in the 40-59 age group.

Hmmmmm....not sure what to think about the apparent difference between body fat percentage and BMI? How does one reconcile an overweight BMI reading with a healthy level of body fat? Where does lean muscle mass factor in the equation?

Heel Ultrasound gave me a bone density reading of 0.4 which is normal.Grip strength tests gave me an average of 104 which charts very good for my age category(40-49).

Kinda cool to become part of such a major research initiative. Through followup clinical visits and MSI/healthcard monitoring my data will be tabulated over the course of the next 30 years in regards to my health, specifically in the development of cancer or,hopefully,lack thereof.(wink)

I`m officially on the path......

1 comment:

Jim Prince said...

Hey - don't worry about BMI... it's just an average. Muscle weighs more than fat... my brother is an actuary and he's classified as "obese" despite being 6'3" and skinny as a rake LOL!