July 29, 2025 • 30 mins
In a world where fitness trackers count our steps and smartwatches monitor our hearts, we're drowning in personal health data. But which metrics actually matter? Dr. Enrico Dolcecore tackles this question head-on, ranking vital signs from most to least important in a compelling exploration of what our bodies are trying to tell us.
This episode was inspired by a troubling observation: too many people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s are experiencing serious health issues that might have been prevented with proper monitoring and understanding. Dr. Dolcecori cuts through the confusion by establishing a clear hierarchy of vital signs based on their ability to predict health outcomes and detect problems before they become emergencies.
Blood pressure claims the top spot as the most crucial vital sign, with blood glucose and A1C following closely behind. Heart rate variability, triglycerides, and VO2 max round out the top five, while more commonly obsessed-over metrics like weight and BMI fall lower on the list. For each measurement, Dr. Dolcecore provides context on healthy ranges, what abnormal readings might indicate, and practical ways to monitor and improve these markers.
Perhaps most illuminating is the distinction between functional and traditional vital signs, representing the shift from reactive to proactive medicine. While many healthcare providers are moving away from physical exams in favor of advanced imaging, understanding and monitoring basic vital signs offers an accessible way for everyone to take charge of their health. The episode provides concrete recommendations for establishing personal baselines and implementing simple monitoring practices without becoming obsessive.
Don't miss this opportunity to understand what truly matters in your health data. Listen now, and consider sharing this episode with someone who might be ignoring important health metrics – it could literally save their life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to another episode of living a full life.
I'm Dr Enrico Dolcecori andthis week we're doing a fun
podcast.
At least I think it's fun.
No one's ever ranked vitalsigns and all the metrics that
we use on our smartwatches, ourOR rings and all these things in
a categorized order of mostimportant to least important.
We use all these stats and Ithink we have so much
(00:24):
information now that we justhave at our fingertips about
ourselves that.
Do we really know what to dowith it?
What's important, what's notimportant?
Is it all important?
What does it all mean?
So some of the little thingsyou may get automatically is
arrhythmia notifications of yourheart rate, o2 saturation in
your blood.
There's some blood glucosemonitors out there.
(00:45):
I can show you your bloodglucose levels.
What does it all mean, and dowe actually understand this as
consumers?
Do we all need a medical degreeto understand?
Are the apps doing the rightthing by telling us what's going
on?
Let's dissect this.
I thought this was going to be alittle fun.
I couldn't really find anythingon the internet about like
(01:06):
what's more important or leastimportant.
When you go down certainpathways, you get into exercise
physiology and they'll talkabout endurance and VO2 max.
And then, if you get intomainstream medicine, they'll
talk about, you know, bloodpressure and triglycerides being
the most important thingbecause they can be indicative
of imminent disease.
So I thought we'd do a funpodcast about these signs.
What do they mean?
Dissect into them so that youcan take them home and
(01:29):
understand more about what to dowith them.
And I actually rank them fromthe most important to least
important, and I don't want itto be for most life-threatening
to least life-threatening, butthe signs that actually tell us
how we're doing in the momentare really important, and maybe,
if we rank these and take themto heart, we'll take them a
little bit more seriously and,instead of ignoring them, maybe
(01:53):
start doing something about them.
This is inspired by 2025 and alot of people close to me that
are just dropping dead I'll becompletely honest with you in
their forties.
One was in their thirties andfifties.
I mean, I feel like that's tooyoung.
So that's what inspired this.
I'm going down the whole thing.
I'm in my forties and I'm like,well, hang on a second, I don't
(02:15):
want to be another statistic.
What is this all mean?
Let's dive into it together andgo through this, and this is
what I've put together for thispodcast.
We're just going to break downwhat these things mean.
Maybe 10 of them I think I'veput together here about the
vital signs that you have accessto.
You have them on your watch, youhave them on apps that you can
use by.
(02:35):
You know when was the last timeyou had your vitals checked?
You got to think about this andif you're in the healthcare
field, as a nurse or a doctor orwhatever, you know that vitals
are really important.
When a patient comes throughthe door and they have symptoms,
any type of symptoms fainting,migraines, extreme pain the
first things you do is taketheir blood pressure, their
(02:57):
heart rate, their O2, and listento their lungs, listen to their
heart.
These are vitals that are thereto show imminent distress,
which then can tell us someother things.
Is their heart rate 200?
Is their blood pressure 200over 150?
What's happening?
Do they need nasal dilatorsimmediately?
(03:18):
Whatever it is, that is what wethink of vital signs, but
there's a lot of them to gothrough.
That is what we think of vitalsigns, but there's a lot of them
to go through.
So you know, many of us onlymonitor the metrics like weight
or BMI, but are we payingattention to the right ones when
we do all this?
There's a lot of fluff outthere too, so we're going to
define, you know, the key vitalsigns, explain their critical
(03:39):
significance and rank them fromthe most to least predictive of
health outcomes.
So a vital sign is somethinglike blood pressure, heart rate,
respiratory rate, bodytemperature.
It's functional andpreventative.
Medicine is included in HRV VO2max, blood glucose,
(04:01):
triglycerides, body fatpercentage and more Weight,
height, circumference.
All these things are used inhistories exams as vital
components to be measured.
So what are all of these thingsmeasuring?
Why does it matter?
Is there a healthy range thatwe should be within?
What happens when it's abnormal?
(04:22):
And let's look at some of thescientific backing for each and
every one of them.
So I'm ranking these.
We'll go through about 10 ofthem and the most important one
I know this is like the peak ofthe podcast the most important
vital sign across all researchis blood pressure.
It is the most important one.
We should know our bloodpressure.
(04:42):
Do you have to measure thisevery single day?
No, but we should be on top ofit.
I would measure it every week.
It's linked directly to heartand kidney health.
It tells us a lot.
The renal veins, the renalarteries control and the kidneys
themselves control a lot of theproportion of our blood
pressure more so than the heart,of the proportion of our blood
(05:07):
pressure more so than the heartand the heart pumps.
So we need to pay attention tothe, the blood pressure and its
metric difference from systolicto diastolic.
I've always I learned that inmedical school and it was like
the, the larger the variation.
So someone who has 110 over 70and someone who has 120 over 60,
who is healthier?
(05:28):
Well, the 110 over 70 isbecause the difference between
that is 110 minus 70, 40.
And the other person, eventhough 120 is not high, the 120
over 60, has a 60 point spread.
We want to stay within that 30to 40 point spread.
We want to stay within that 30to 40 point spread.
The larger the spread, the moreelasticity and the more
pressure up and down variationis happening in the arteries.
(05:50):
So it's pushing up to 120 gramsof pressure, down to 60.
And that's putting a lot ofstrain every heartbeat on the
arterial system.
I learned that early on.
I thought that was interesting.
So that's one.
High blood pressure is a silentkiller.
It predicts heart attack,stroke and dementia.
(06:13):
So living with high bloodpressure over time is just a
potential risk for strokes,heart attacks and other
long-term organ damage.
The ideal range is 110, 120,over 70 to 80, that 40-point
spread and this is from tons ofresearch on the internet Wheaton
(06:35):
and hypertension guidelinesfrom the AHA, acc they've all
shown this for years to be thatrange.
I would say for the last 100years we've known that that's
been the normal for bloodpressure.
So don't overlook this.
I find a lot of men, especially50 plus, like to ignore that
number.
They're like ah, it goes up to160.
(06:57):
And I think there's a littlebit of a fear that happens when
we see those numbers.
When we see that, we're like ohno, it's not like BMI or our
weight on the scale where welook at it.
We just tip our heads.
We're like dang.
Blood pressure is a little bitmore scary because I think it's
universally known that that is avital sign and it is the number
one predictor of many things.
So knowing your blood pressureis smart, not knowing it is
(07:22):
ignorant.
We need to be on top of that.
Anyone you love, tell themabout that.
Get a cheap electronic bloodpressure monitor in the house
from Amazon.
Leave it there, thosebattery-powered ones.
Are they 100% accurate?
No, but you can use it.
If it's there, you'll use it.
That's great Number two on thelist.
Number two the second mostimportant is our fasting glucose
(07:45):
.
An A1C, our blood sugar.
That is number two.
Chronic elevation is linked todiabetes, heart disease and
brain aging.
So the longer we live withhigher numbers, the more damage
we're creating each and everyday to our major organs.
The pancreas strains, the braingets broken down and the
(08:05):
cardiovascular system is under alot of stress.
With that, fasting glucoseshould be within that 70 to 90
percent milligrams per deciliter.
That's where we want to be inthat range.
That's every time you do awellness test or wellness blood
work.
That's where you should be.
You fast overnight, you go inthe morning, take your blood
(08:25):
after 12 hours and you should bein that 70 to 90 range.
A1c under five, under 5.4,actually shows optimal
functional range.
So under 5.4.
So if you're right around thatfive mark, it's good.
Four, something's fantastic.
And that's from the ADAStandards of Medical Care and
(08:46):
Diabetes from 2024.
Shows that staying in thoseranges prevents things like
brain aging and heart disease,yet alone diabetes.
It could be a pretty marker fordiabetes as well.
So number one, blood pressure,number two, blood sugar we're
not exploding anyone's brainsyet.
The rest of this list getsinteresting.
(09:07):
It's still ranked for mostimportant to, I think, least
important, but they're allimportant is heart rate
variability.
This is why in our office, wetest it on everyone.
It just gives us a little bitof an insight on the nervous
system and the cardiovascularsystem at the same time to see
what is going on in overallfunction.
Its main focus is the marker ofthe nervous system's health and
(09:31):
stress resilience.
It's really an important test.
It's so simple to use and manyof our watches and aura rings
keep track of this.
High heart rate variabilityequals better recovery,
adaptability and reducedmortality.
In our office we see people inthe red all the time, and I mean
the blunt thing to say is likeyou're going to die a little
(09:54):
younger than you think.
And when we see people in thegreen, we're like well, you're
right on pace for a long,healthy life and it's a great
marker to see that it's notexactly predictable, but it is a
very useful marker.
Then it leaves us, as nervoussystem doctors, chiropractors,
to make sure that we clear outthe nervous system as well as
possible to make sure itfunctions as optimally as
possible so that markers likeHRV, blood glucose and other
(10:18):
things stabilize.
It's not diagnostic.
It can't tell us reallyanything about the patient.
So when we get a score, whetherit's good or bad, it doesn't
really tell us anything on whatto do next.
There's no prognosis for it,but it is highly predictive of
something is up and it can leadus to other testing.
(10:38):
So if we have strains in thenervous system we can then look
and ask more history questions,dive a little bit deeper and see
where the strains are.
Is endurance an issue?
Is getting lightheaded an issue?
Is going up a flight of stairsan issue?
Maybe we need some morecardiovascular testing,
angiograms, ekgs, whatever itmay be.
Or is it more alertness,endurance-based brain fog,
(11:02):
memory, that we can do some morebrain work on that and get into
more vitamins and nutrition onthat side as well?
So Schaefer and Ginsberg theytalk about this a lot in the
frontiers of public health,about heart rate variability.
It's at the forefront of a lotof research right now, not
exactly to be predictive ofanything in particular, but more
(11:23):
so as a general testing sourceof wellness to see how well
people really are.
I think that goes on the top ofthe list for wellness.
Number four on the list istriglycerides.
They are important.
I think they've been demonizedbecause if the number is high,
automatically the prognosis isstatin drugs and unfortunately
(11:46):
we go down a different path whenwe do that and we won't get
into that today.
But because of that,triglycerides are easily ignored
and high levels are linked toinsulin resistance and
cardiovascular disease.
The optimal range is under 100milligrams per deciliter, even
though under 150 is normal.
(12:07):
The optimal range is to stayunder 100 milligrams per
deciliter.
It correlates with metabolicsyndrome.
This is triglycerides,particularly your triglyceride
testing.
There's LDL HDL another testingas well.
We're talking about thattriglyceride testing.
There's LDL HDL another testingas well.
We're talking about thattriglyceride testing Under 100,
and this is from Toth, from2005,.
Current arthrosclerosis reportsshowing that triglycerides are a
(12:29):
very important blood markerthat should not go ignored.
We should always keep an eye onthat, including the HDL.
It dives deeper into whichcholesterols are there the good
ones, the bad ones?
Good cholesterol repair ourarterial system and our tissues.
Cholesterol is important.
So having too low cholesterolcan be another issue there where
we don't heal properly, but toohigh of bad cholesterols lead
(12:53):
to atherosclerosis, plaquing,stroke, arterial disease.
Number five on the list, vo2 max.
You may have come around thisor not.
It's hard to get this testingbecause it's usually in exercise
physiology, personal trainingand in the fitness industry, but
it measures maximal oxygenconsumption.
It's the top predictor oflongevity.
(13:16):
So now, if you're biohackingwhich I hate that word, but it's
popular right now and you'retrying to figure out what's
going to help you live longerand more youthful, vo2 max is
one of the top predictors oflongevity.
If you have an optimal VO2 maxthe higher the better it's
(13:37):
directly tied to cardiovascularendurance and lifespan.
So people into their 70s withhigher VO2 maxes lived longer
than people who had lower.
If they made it to their 70sand this is from JAMA, physical
Medicine and All Causes ofMortality We've seen that across
(13:58):
all exercise physiology.
In my undergrad in exercisephysiology we looked at this
deeply through all of that tosee what took elite athletes
over the top with the VO2 maxand that distinguished great
athletes from elite athletes.
It was.
It was unbelievable what theycould do.
The swimmers, the, the, thecross country, uh, runners, the,
(14:23):
um, the Olympians they justwent over the edge.
The tour de France bike per.
You know people.
Um, they just went over thistipping point of like
unbelievable numbers with theirVO two max and it was a
distinctive feature in not onlyathletic ability but long-term
(14:45):
longevity.
Very cool.
Resting heart rate, differentthan heart rate variability.
Your resting heart rate thisone is on your Apple Watch.
You just look at it and it'lltell you your resting heart rate
while you're sleeping, duringthe day, while you're exercising
.
You may actually look at thiswhile you're exercising.
If you're trying to stay in afat burn mode or endurance mode
(15:07):
or doing high interval trainingin a HIIT mode, you may be
keeping an eye on your heartrate variability, seeing if you
can push the 160s on the highend during a HIIT exercise and
coming back down into the 120sto try and get that variability
in the HIIT, the high intensityIn others, maybe steady state
(15:28):
cardio.
Maybe you're trying to do theelliptical, the stair stepper or
walking and you're trying tomaintain 125 beats per minute or
120 beats per minute to stay ina fat burning zone.
So you've looked at this, maybein your fitness journey.
But are we looking at it overall?
What is it when I sleep?
What is it when I'm sitting atthe desk working.
What is it when I'm going for awalk?
And it indicates cardiacefficiency and overall
(15:51):
conditioning.
So the optimal range is 50 to65 beats per minute.
Elite athletes can sometimesshow lower long distance
swimmers they can be like in the40s and long distance runners,
but typically 50 to 65 is theoptimal range.
So when we're resting, 50.
When we're up, walking around,70.
That's pretty much just tasksaround the house.
(16:14):
Higher resting heart rate equalshigher risk of mortality.
So when we're resting herewe're not between that.
50 to 60 heart beats per minute.
It increases the risk ofmortality.
Unlike VO2 max, which shows uslongevity, resting heart rate
can show us a decrease inmortality.
That is interesting stuff.
(16:35):
So these are things that youwant to look at and as we go
through this list, what's moreimportant, what's less important
?
I mean you can kind of see howthat's all a little bit
important.
What about oxygen saturation?
This one is you'll see it as O2on your Apple Watch.
I use an Apple Watch so I knowit's there.
It measures the hemoglobinoxygenation and this is the most
(16:59):
critical in acute settings.
So acute settings meaning inthe moment.
So if you're, you know, 96 to99 is the normal on your watch.
If it's ever below that, it allis dependent on the situation.
So it could be that you'resleeping with your neck kinked
and decreased airway and you'refalling down into the lower 90s,
(17:20):
but as soon as you move yourposition it goes back to 99.
That's situational and inhospital settings letting
patients go after discharge fromsurgery or from a procedure,
their O2 should be up higher sothat they know when the patient
leaves they'll be able tobreathe and be healthy and make
it through the next two nightsat home without any support,
(17:42):
medical support.
So chronic low O2, oxygensaturation can indicate
pulmonary and cardiac issues.
But variation is limited inhealthy people.
So where we start to see issueswith the O2 is in the unhealthy
people, people with some typeof condition COPD, emphysema,
(18:04):
cardiac distress, cardiacfailure, kidney failure then we
have to give them some grace onthose numbers and keep them as
optimal as possible.
But for the rest of us we wantto stay in that 96 to 99 range
at all times.
That's an important one as welland, as you see, we go down
this list.
Body fat percentage, weight,height, circumference isn't in
(18:27):
the top and there's a reason forthat, but it is important BMI
is.
Body fat percentage is actuallymore important than BMI, and
we're going to bring both ofthese up right now.
Better than BMI at assessingmetabolic health is your body
fat percentage.
High visceral fat equals highdisease risk, even at a normal
(18:49):
weight.
So when we do some scanning notthey're not all accurate.
The dunk test, the water test,is probably the best one.
Many of us don't have access tothat, so using these uh
conductance scales where youhang onto the metal bars, are a
little bit more accurate.
They're.
The conductance is goingthrough you, measuring the
frequency of hydration so water,which we know is in muscular
(19:12):
tissue, bone and thendeciphering which one's which,
and then giving you a percentageof your overall weight, telling
you that this much is hydration, this much is muscle mass, this
much is bone, this much isskeletal, this much is whatever.
So are they 100% accurate?
No, but that number can give usa little bit of a distinction
of what's going on, and we useone in our office that I think
(19:34):
is a little bit better than theaverage one, a little bit more
techie, and it ends up showingus the body fat percentage and
the visceral fat amount as welland ranks it, and this is so
useful as a doctor for a patientto tell them listen it.
And this is so useful as adoctor for a patient to tell
them listen.
I'm so proud of you for takingthe first steps in your weight
loss journey, or gettinghealthier.
The amazing thing that's goingto happen for you is that your
(19:57):
visceral fat is in a dangerousarea and as soon as you start
burning fat, it is going to goafter the visceral fat first,
which is, as a doctor, the mostproud thing I can tell a patient
is.
I'm excited for you.
For these next month or two,you're going to be burning
strictly visceral fat.
So keep with it, because as you, as you go through this journey
(20:19):
, you're only going to end uphealthier, which is amazing.
For other people who are in anoptimal visceral fat range, what
that?
What will happen with theirweight loss?
If they have any weight to losewill end up going straight to
subcutaneous fat.
I call this the mirror fat.
When you look in the mirror,you can see it around the waist
or wherever it is that you'retrying to lose it.
(20:40):
You're going to go straightinto that fat burn because your
body's going to hang on to 5% to10% of your visceral total fat
around the visceral.
It's going to hang on to five,six, seven, 8% of that at all
times because you've got to keepa little bit for protection
around the organs.
But too much visceral fataround the organs is what causes
toxic overload and pathology onthose organs.
(21:01):
Typically we see this aroundkidneys, liver, which causes
fatty liver, and even the heartin as obesity.
As the obesity scale increases,we get more and more visceral
fat around those organs.
So that's why that's reallyimportant.
So body fat percentage is reallyimportant.
The healthy range for men is 10to 20%.
That's a huge range.
Being 10% body fat and 20% bodyfat are two very different
(21:25):
things.
The 10% guy is going to lookripped and the 20% guy is going
to look healthy and in thatrange it's quite different.
So 10% is an audacious goal totry and live your life at.
I'm just being honest with you.
I like the 20% one.
I like the 17, 18%.
That's an athletic, healthybody fat percentage to be in.
(21:47):
For women, 18 to 28%, 18%.
I mean those are the runners,the fitness women.
They're in that 18% range.
Even up to 28% for women hasbeen shown to be a healthy and
normal body fat percentage, andthis is from the American
Journal of Clinical Nutritionand you can find it all over the
web sites citing the samenumbers over and over again.
(22:07):
So that is fantastic.
So these goals of 3% body fat,5% body fat, 6% body fat are so
audacious and so difficult forthe human body to get down to
because it's hanging on tovisceral fat.
5% of your body fat is visceralfat and you're trying to get
(22:30):
down to five percent.
That means that you're burnt.
You want to, like, eliminateall fat on the body.
It's stressful on the whole, onthe whole system.
Fat cells do have a purpose inthe body and, uh, I think
pushing that limit and fitnessdoes this.
It's nowhere else, it's in the,in the bodybuilding culture and
all that that really pushes.
That is bodybuilding cultureand all that that really pushes.
That is a dangerous and steepthing, and that's why it's so
(22:52):
hard to maintain that long-term.
Without hormonal therapy andinjecting a bunch of stuff into
the body, it's virtuallyimpossible.
So don't aim for that.
Unless it's a short-term goal,that you just want to compete
once, then that's cool.
But doing that for too long canbe just as stressful.
Weight and BMI so it's easy tomeasure but one.
So then that's cool.
But doing that too for too longcan be just as stressful.
(23:13):
Weight and bmi.
So it's easy to measure but notalways meaningful without
context.
Okay, my bmi over the lastthree years has continued to
decrease uh sorry, stayed thesame but my body fat percentage
has continued to decrease.
So when I hop on, the scalestill tells me overly fat, so
overweight, not obese.
I'm at the 20, you know 25percent range and what that
(23:34):
tells me.
But my body fat percentage hasgone down.
So my lean muscle mass has goneup.
And that's out of context.
Because if I look at the justuse the BMI, then it's telling
me that I'm not in a healthyrange.
So easy to measure but notalways meaningful without
context.
Bmi doesn't account for musclemass hydration or fat
distribution, so knowing the fatpercentage is more important.
(23:57):
Is it visceral?
If that's in a healthy range,then we're in a healthy BMI,
it's great.
If it's not, if the visceralfat's high, then we're not in a
healthy BMI.
Even though two separate peoplecan be right around that 26, 27,
28, 29% body fat, one is in ahealthier boat than the other.
Make sense and they're aboutthe same height.
So that's the issue there.
(24:17):
It's better used with weight,circumference and body fat
percentage.
That's when you tie in allthree and then you can see it
and you'll see the difference.
Two people at 29% body fat.
One has a weight, a waistcircumference of 46 inches, the
other one has a waistcircumference of 40 inches and
it's a little two differentboats that they're in.
So you looking at all thosethings congruently tells us a
(24:40):
better story on that one.
The rest is all prettystraightforward.
So that is our top 10.
There's a lot of differentmarkers out there, but I think
these are the most important.
Blood pressure number one.
Blood glucose in A1C.
Number two.
Vo2 max if you can get thattested with spirometry in some
way or form is important onlongevity.
(25:03):
So making sure that we canbreathe in and out inspiration
and expiration of the lungcapacity and maintaining oxygen
saturation at a high level showslongevity.
Heart rate variability you canget this done at your many
chiropractic offices and medicaloffices are measuring that
Triglycerides through your bloodwork If you're resting heart
(25:26):
rate, keeping an eye on youraura ring or your watch on that
body fat percentage, alwayskeeping an eye on that.
I would do that quarterly tomake sure you're staying and
maintaining overall health.
The weight scale can be usefulas well, making sure you
maintain your weight.
That could be useful as well.
That's your BMI, oxygensaturation and of course, your
(25:48):
weight as well.
So functional versus BMI Oxygensaturation and, of course, your
weight as well.
So functional versustraditional vital signs.
There are two differentperspectives on all these.
Medicine is shifting away fromreactive to proactive.
A lot of the new medical gradsare barely doing vital sign
checks or checking anyone in thephysical exam anymore.
They're talking to them,listing and ranking their
(26:08):
symptoms and saying these arethe scans we need to go to next,
straight to CT, straight toblood work, straight to MRIs,
straight to scanning to justlook on the inside.
Hrv, vo2 max and bodycomposition are underutilized.
But tell us a lot aboutlifestyle and long-term
resilience and I'm encouragingyou to just get a blood pressure
(26:31):
cuff and leave it at home andcheck it.
Check it every week or everycouple weeks, at least once a
month, and just making sure thatnumber stays about the same.
You'll find your homeostaticnumber, whatever it is 122 over
82, whatever it is, you'll belike, oh, that's my normal, or
114 over 72.
It will be your number and oncethat changes and you put your
(26:53):
arm in there and one day it's132, over 96, and you're like,
whoa, hang on a second, let'sredo this, is this right?
And you do it, repeat it two orthree times and you either
realize oh, that was a glitch orsomething's up.
That's where we need to startgoing in for our wellness checks
, going in for our blood work,seeing our primary care and
getting checked for overallmarkers enzymes, liver
(27:14):
triglycerides, sugar and seewhat's going on, because
catching these things early areimmediately affected through
diet change quickly.
You could just easily clean upyour diet immediately the next
day, do well for 30 days and seeyour blood pressure come right
back down.
It was probably an over salt inthe diet, an over processed
food in the diet, over sugar inthe diet.
Whatever it may be, that'sprobably for most people what's
(27:38):
going on.
For others, we may be slidingdown the slope of disease and we
need to be careful and be ontop of it.
Preventative medicine is muchmore beneficial and better
outcome than reactive medicine.
So what I say you guys shoulddo is get your baselines Blood
work, body comp, hrv, vo2 max.
(27:59):
Use this on your treadmills atthe gym or on your smartwatches.
Focus on improving metabolicflexibility, fitness, sleep and
nervous system regulation.
This is what it's all ties intogether and HRV apps like on
your Aura, your Elite HRV, yourFitbit, your Apple Watch VO2 Max
(28:20):
you can get these done at gyms.
Home blood pressure monitorsand continuous glucose monitors
as well.
These things for short times,wearing those for 60 days and
just seeing how your normallifestyle when you get peaks and
valleys in the blood glucose,or is it just a steady flat line
?
And don't obsess over the lowertiered markers.
(28:42):
I think we do.
Weight, bmi we're all over thatscale and always worried about
the number on the scale.
Bmi we're all over that scaleand always worried about the
number on the scale.
The number on the scale isdifferent on what planet you
live on and we live on earth.
So gravity at 9.81 meters persecond, pulling us down at that
force times our weight, our mass, is how we calculate weight.
(29:04):
It's based on gravity.
It's just a number.
It's just a number.
It's the markers on the insidebody fat percentage, hydration
these things are more important.
Don't obsess over the scale andthen share this episode.
Share this episode with thosepeople that ignore these numbers
your husband, your spouse, yourfamily members, your friends
(29:26):
that you try and nudge.
Because you're ahealth-conscious person and you
love people, this is a great oneto share with them.
It dissects the most commonmarkers that are out there, that
we all have access to with allthe new little gadgets we have,
and it keeps us on top of it,and I think the purpose of it is
it's going to save someone'slife.
So share the podcast and have agreat and healthy week.
(29:49):
Stay well, take care.
Welcome to another episode of living a full life.
I'm Dr Enrico Dolcecori andthis week we're doing a fun
podcast.
At least I think it's fun.
No one's ever ranked vitalsigns and all the metrics that
we use on our smartwatches, ourOR rings and all these things in
a categorized order of mostimportant to least important.
We use all these stats and Ithink we have so much
(00:24):
information now that we justhave at our fingertips about
ourselves that.
Do we really know what to dowith it?
What's important, what's notimportant?
Is it all important?
What does it all mean?
So some of the little thingsyou may get automatically is
arrhythmia notifications of yourheart rate, o2 saturation in
your blood.
There's some blood glucosemonitors out there.
(00:45):
I can show you your bloodglucose levels.
What does it all mean, and dowe actually understand this as
consumers?
Do we all need a medical degreeto understand?
Are the apps doing the rightthing by telling us what's going
on?
Let's dissect this.
I thought this was going to be alittle fun.
I couldn't really find anythingon the internet about like
(01:06):
what's more important or leastimportant.
When you go down certainpathways, you get into exercise
physiology and they'll talkabout endurance and VO2 max.
And then, if you get intomainstream medicine, they'll
talk about, you know, bloodpressure and triglycerides being
the most important thingbecause they can be indicative
of imminent disease.
So I thought we'd do a funpodcast about these signs.
What do they mean?
Dissect into them so that youcan take them home and
(01:29):
understand more about what to dowith them.
And I actually rank them fromthe most important to least
important, and I don't want itto be for most life-threatening
to least life-threatening, butthe signs that actually tell us
how we're doing in the momentare really important, and maybe,
if we rank these and take themto heart, we'll take them a
little bit more seriously and,instead of ignoring them, maybe
(01:53):
start doing something about them.
This is inspired by 2025 and alot of people close to me that
are just dropping dead I'll becompletely honest with you in
their forties.
One was in their thirties andfifties.
I mean, I feel like that's tooyoung.
So that's what inspired this.
I'm going down the whole thing.
I'm in my forties and I'm like,well, hang on a second, I don't
(02:15):
want to be another statistic.
What is this all mean?
Let's dive into it together andgo through this, and this is
what I've put together for thispodcast.
We're just going to break downwhat these things mean.
Maybe 10 of them I think I'veput together here about the
vital signs that you have accessto.
You have them on your watch, youhave them on apps that you can
use by.
(02:35):
You know when was the last timeyou had your vitals checked?
You got to think about this andif you're in the healthcare
field, as a nurse or a doctor orwhatever, you know that vitals
are really important.
When a patient comes throughthe door and they have symptoms,
any type of symptoms fainting,migraines, extreme pain the
first things you do is taketheir blood pressure, their
(02:57):
heart rate, their O2, and listento their lungs, listen to their
heart.
These are vitals that are thereto show imminent distress,
which then can tell us someother things.
Is their heart rate 200?
Is their blood pressure 200over 150?
What's happening?
Do they need nasal dilatorsimmediately?
(03:18):
Whatever it is, that is what wethink of vital signs, but
there's a lot of them to gothrough.
That is what we think of vitalsigns, but there's a lot of them
to go through.
So you know, many of us onlymonitor the metrics like weight
or BMI, but are we payingattention to the right ones when
we do all this?
There's a lot of fluff outthere too, so we're going to
define, you know, the key vitalsigns, explain their critical
(03:39):
significance and rank them fromthe most to least predictive of
health outcomes.
So a vital sign is somethinglike blood pressure, heart rate,
respiratory rate, bodytemperature.
It's functional andpreventative.
Medicine is included in HRV VO2max, blood glucose,
(04:01):
triglycerides, body fatpercentage and more Weight,
height, circumference.
All these things are used inhistories exams as vital
components to be measured.
So what are all of these thingsmeasuring?
Why does it matter?
Is there a healthy range thatwe should be within?
What happens when it's abnormal?
(04:22):
And let's look at some of thescientific backing for each and
every one of them.
So I'm ranking these.
We'll go through about 10 ofthem and the most important one
I know this is like the peak ofthe podcast the most important
vital sign across all researchis blood pressure.
It is the most important one.
We should know our bloodpressure.
(04:42):
Do you have to measure thisevery single day?
No, but we should be on top ofit.
I would measure it every week.
It's linked directly to heartand kidney health.
It tells us a lot.
The renal veins, the renalarteries control and the kidneys
themselves control a lot of theproportion of our blood
pressure more so than the heart,of the proportion of our blood
(05:07):
pressure more so than the heartand the heart pumps.
So we need to pay attention tothe, the blood pressure and its
metric difference from systolicto diastolic.
I've always I learned that inmedical school and it was like
the, the larger the variation.
So someone who has 110 over 70and someone who has 120 over 60,
who is healthier?
(05:28):
Well, the 110 over 70 isbecause the difference between
that is 110 minus 70, 40.
And the other person, eventhough 120 is not high, the 120
over 60, has a 60 point spread.
We want to stay within that 30to 40 point spread.
We want to stay within that 30to 40 point spread.
The larger the spread, the moreelasticity and the more
pressure up and down variationis happening in the arteries.
(05:50):
So it's pushing up to 120 gramsof pressure, down to 60.
And that's putting a lot ofstrain every heartbeat on the
arterial system.
I learned that early on.
I thought that was interesting.
So that's one.
High blood pressure is a silentkiller.
It predicts heart attack,stroke and dementia.
(06:13):
So living with high bloodpressure over time is just a
potential risk for strokes,heart attacks and other
long-term organ damage.
The ideal range is 110, 120,over 70 to 80, that 40-point
spread and this is from tons ofresearch on the internet Wheaton
(06:35):
and hypertension guidelinesfrom the AHA, acc they've all
shown this for years to be thatrange.
I would say for the last 100years we've known that that's
been the normal for bloodpressure.
So don't overlook this.
I find a lot of men, especially50 plus, like to ignore that
number.
They're like ah, it goes up to160.
(06:57):
And I think there's a littlebit of a fear that happens when
we see those numbers.
When we see that, we're like ohno, it's not like BMI or our
weight on the scale where welook at it.
We just tip our heads.
We're like dang.
Blood pressure is a little bitmore scary because I think it's
universally known that that is avital sign and it is the number
one predictor of many things.
So knowing your blood pressureis smart, not knowing it is
(07:22):
ignorant.
We need to be on top of that.
Anyone you love, tell themabout that.
Get a cheap electronic bloodpressure monitor in the house
from Amazon.
Leave it there, thosebattery-powered ones.
Are they 100% accurate?
No, but you can use it.
If it's there, you'll use it.
That's great Number two on thelist.
Number two the second mostimportant is our fasting glucose
(07:45):
.
An A1C, our blood sugar.
That is number two.
Chronic elevation is linked todiabetes, heart disease and
brain aging.
So the longer we live withhigher numbers, the more damage
we're creating each and everyday to our major organs.
The pancreas strains, the braingets broken down and the
(08:05):
cardiovascular system is under alot of stress.
With that, fasting glucoseshould be within that 70 to 90
percent milligrams per deciliter.
That's where we want to be inthat range.
That's every time you do awellness test or wellness blood
work.
That's where you should be.
You fast overnight, you go inthe morning, take your blood
(08:25):
after 12 hours and you should bein that 70 to 90 range.
A1c under five, under 5.4,actually shows optimal
functional range.
So under 5.4.
So if you're right around thatfive mark, it's good.
Four, something's fantastic.
And that's from the ADAStandards of Medical Care and
(08:46):
Diabetes from 2024.
Shows that staying in thoseranges prevents things like
brain aging and heart disease,yet alone diabetes.
It could be a pretty marker fordiabetes as well.
So number one, blood pressure,number two, blood sugar we're
not exploding anyone's brainsyet.
The rest of this list getsinteresting.
(09:07):
It's still ranked for mostimportant to, I think, least
important, but they're allimportant is heart rate
variability.
This is why in our office, wetest it on everyone.
It just gives us a little bitof an insight on the nervous
system and the cardiovascularsystem at the same time to see
what is going on in overallfunction.
Its main focus is the marker ofthe nervous system's health and
(09:31):
stress resilience.
It's really an important test.
It's so simple to use and manyof our watches and aura rings
keep track of this.
High heart rate variabilityequals better recovery,
adaptability and reducedmortality.
In our office we see people inthe red all the time, and I mean
the blunt thing to say is likeyou're going to die a little
(09:54):
younger than you think.
And when we see people in thegreen, we're like well, you're
right on pace for a long,healthy life and it's a great
marker to see that it's notexactly predictable, but it is a
very useful marker.
Then it leaves us, as nervoussystem doctors, chiropractors,
to make sure that we clear outthe nervous system as well as
possible to make sure itfunctions as optimally as
possible so that markers likeHRV, blood glucose and other
(10:18):
things stabilize.
It's not diagnostic.
It can't tell us reallyanything about the patient.
So when we get a score, whetherit's good or bad, it doesn't
really tell us anything on whatto do next.
There's no prognosis for it,but it is highly predictive of
something is up and it can leadus to other testing.
(10:38):
So if we have strains in thenervous system we can then look
and ask more history questions,dive a little bit deeper and see
where the strains are.
Is endurance an issue?
Is getting lightheaded an issue?
Is going up a flight of stairsan issue?
Maybe we need some morecardiovascular testing,
angiograms, ekgs, whatever itmay be.
Or is it more alertness,endurance-based brain fog,
(11:02):
memory, that we can do some morebrain work on that and get into
more vitamins and nutrition onthat side as well?
So Schaefer and Ginsberg theytalk about this a lot in the
frontiers of public health,about heart rate variability.
It's at the forefront of a lotof research right now, not
exactly to be predictive ofanything in particular, but more
(11:23):
so as a general testing sourceof wellness to see how well
people really are.
I think that goes on the top ofthe list for wellness.
Number four on the list istriglycerides.
They are important.
I think they've been demonizedbecause if the number is high,
automatically the prognosis isstatin drugs and unfortunately
(11:46):
we go down a different path whenwe do that and we won't get
into that today.
But because of that,triglycerides are easily ignored
and high levels are linked toinsulin resistance and
cardiovascular disease.
The optimal range is under 100milligrams per deciliter, even
though under 150 is normal.
(12:07):
The optimal range is to stayunder 100 milligrams per
deciliter.
It correlates with metabolicsyndrome.
This is triglycerides,particularly your triglyceride
testing.
There's LDL HDL another testingas well.
We're talking about thattriglyceride testing.
There's LDL HDL another testingas well.
We're talking about thattriglyceride testing Under 100,
and this is from Toth, from2005,.
Current arthrosclerosis reportsshowing that triglycerides are a
(12:29):
very important blood markerthat should not go ignored.
We should always keep an eye onthat, including the HDL.
It dives deeper into whichcholesterols are there the good
ones, the bad ones?
Good cholesterol repair ourarterial system and our tissues.
Cholesterol is important.
So having too low cholesterolcan be another issue there where
we don't heal properly, but toohigh of bad cholesterols lead
(12:53):
to atherosclerosis, plaquing,stroke, arterial disease.
Number five on the list, vo2 max.
You may have come around thisor not.
It's hard to get this testingbecause it's usually in exercise
physiology, personal trainingand in the fitness industry, but
it measures maximal oxygenconsumption.
It's the top predictor oflongevity.
(13:16):
So now, if you're biohackingwhich I hate that word, but it's
popular right now and you'retrying to figure out what's
going to help you live longerand more youthful, vo2 max is
one of the top predictors oflongevity.
If you have an optimal VO2 maxthe higher the better it's
(13:37):
directly tied to cardiovascularendurance and lifespan.
So people into their 70s withhigher VO2 maxes lived longer
than people who had lower.
If they made it to their 70sand this is from JAMA, physical
Medicine and All Causes ofMortality We've seen that across
(13:58):
all exercise physiology.
In my undergrad in exercisephysiology we looked at this
deeply through all of that tosee what took elite athletes
over the top with the VO2 maxand that distinguished great
athletes from elite athletes.
It was.
It was unbelievable what theycould do.
The swimmers, the, the, thecross country, uh, runners, the,
(14:23):
um, the Olympians they justwent over the edge.
The tour de France bike per.
You know people.
Um, they just went over thistipping point of like
unbelievable numbers with theirVO two max and it was a
distinctive feature in not onlyathletic ability but long-term
(14:45):
longevity.
Very cool.
Resting heart rate, differentthan heart rate variability.
Your resting heart rate thisone is on your Apple Watch.
You just look at it and it'lltell you your resting heart rate
while you're sleeping, duringthe day, while you're exercising
.
You may actually look at thiswhile you're exercising.
If you're trying to stay in afat burn mode or endurance mode
(15:07):
or doing high interval trainingin a HIIT mode, you may be
keeping an eye on your heartrate variability, seeing if you
can push the 160s on the highend during a HIIT exercise and
coming back down into the 120sto try and get that variability
in the HIIT, the high intensityIn others, maybe steady state
(15:28):
cardio.
Maybe you're trying to do theelliptical, the stair stepper or
walking and you're trying tomaintain 125 beats per minute or
120 beats per minute to stay ina fat burning zone.
So you've looked at this, maybein your fitness journey.
But are we looking at it overall?
What is it when I sleep?
What is it when I'm sitting atthe desk working.
What is it when I'm going for awalk?
And it indicates cardiacefficiency and overall
(15:51):
conditioning.
So the optimal range is 50 to65 beats per minute.
Elite athletes can sometimesshow lower long distance
swimmers they can be like in the40s and long distance runners,
but typically 50 to 65 is theoptimal range.
So when we're resting, 50.
When we're up, walking around,70.
That's pretty much just tasksaround the house.
(16:14):
Higher resting heart rate equalshigher risk of mortality.
So when we're resting herewe're not between that.
50 to 60 heart beats per minute.
It increases the risk ofmortality.
Unlike VO2 max, which shows uslongevity, resting heart rate
can show us a decrease inmortality.
That is interesting stuff.
(16:35):
So these are things that youwant to look at and as we go
through this list, what's moreimportant, what's less important
?
I mean you can kind of see howthat's all a little bit
important.
What about oxygen saturation?
This one is you'll see it as O2on your Apple Watch.
I use an Apple Watch so I knowit's there.
It measures the hemoglobinoxygenation and this is the most
(16:59):
critical in acute settings.
So acute settings meaning inthe moment.
So if you're, you know, 96 to99 is the normal on your watch.
If it's ever below that, it allis dependent on the situation.
So it could be that you'resleeping with your neck kinked
and decreased airway and you'refalling down into the lower 90s,
(17:20):
but as soon as you move yourposition it goes back to 99.
That's situational and inhospital settings letting
patients go after discharge fromsurgery or from a procedure,
their O2 should be up higher sothat they know when the patient
leaves they'll be able tobreathe and be healthy and make
it through the next two nightsat home without any support,
(17:42):
medical support.
So chronic low O2, oxygensaturation can indicate
pulmonary and cardiac issues.
But variation is limited inhealthy people.
So where we start to see issueswith the O2 is in the unhealthy
people, people with some typeof condition COPD, emphysema,
(18:04):
cardiac distress, cardiacfailure, kidney failure then we
have to give them some grace onthose numbers and keep them as
optimal as possible.
But for the rest of us we wantto stay in that 96 to 99 range
at all times.
That's an important one as welland, as you see, we go down
this list.
Body fat percentage, weight,height, circumference isn't in
(18:27):
the top and there's a reason forthat, but it is important BMI
is.
Body fat percentage is actuallymore important than BMI, and
we're going to bring both ofthese up right now.
Better than BMI at assessingmetabolic health is your body
fat percentage.
High visceral fat equals highdisease risk, even at a normal
(18:49):
weight.
So when we do some scanning notthey're not all accurate.
The dunk test, the water test,is probably the best one.
Many of us don't have access tothat, so using these uh
conductance scales where youhang onto the metal bars, are a
little bit more accurate.
They're.
The conductance is goingthrough you, measuring the
frequency of hydration so water,which we know is in muscular
(19:12):
tissue, bone and thendeciphering which one's which,
and then giving you a percentageof your overall weight, telling
you that this much is hydration, this much is muscle mass, this
much is bone, this much isskeletal, this much is whatever.
So are they 100% accurate?
No, but that number can give usa little bit of a distinction
of what's going on, and we useone in our office that I think
(19:34):
is a little bit better than theaverage one, a little bit more
techie, and it ends up showingus the body fat percentage and
the visceral fat amount as welland ranks it, and this is so
useful as a doctor for a patientto tell them listen it.
And this is so useful as adoctor for a patient to tell
them listen.
I'm so proud of you for takingthe first steps in your weight
loss journey, or gettinghealthier.
The amazing thing that's goingto happen for you is that your
(19:57):
visceral fat is in a dangerousarea and as soon as you start
burning fat, it is going to goafter the visceral fat first,
which is, as a doctor, the mostproud thing I can tell a patient
is.
I'm excited for you.
For these next month or two,you're going to be burning
strictly visceral fat.
So keep with it, because as you, as you go through this journey
(20:19):
, you're only going to end uphealthier, which is amazing.
For other people who are in anoptimal visceral fat range, what
that?
What will happen with theirweight loss?
If they have any weight to losewill end up going straight to
subcutaneous fat.
I call this the mirror fat.
When you look in the mirror,you can see it around the waist
or wherever it is that you'retrying to lose it.
(20:40):
You're going to go straightinto that fat burn because your
body's going to hang on to 5% to10% of your visceral total fat
around the visceral.
It's going to hang on to five,six, seven, 8% of that at all
times because you've got to keepa little bit for protection
around the organs.
But too much visceral fataround the organs is what causes
toxic overload and pathology onthose organs.
(21:01):
Typically we see this aroundkidneys, liver, which causes
fatty liver, and even the heartin as obesity.
As the obesity scale increases,we get more and more visceral
fat around those organs.
So that's why that's reallyimportant.
So body fat percentage is reallyimportant.
The healthy range for men is 10to 20%.
That's a huge range.
Being 10% body fat and 20% bodyfat are two very different
(21:25):
things.
The 10% guy is going to lookripped and the 20% guy is going
to look healthy and in thatrange it's quite different.
So 10% is an audacious goal totry and live your life at.
I'm just being honest with you.
I like the 20% one.
I like the 17, 18%.
That's an athletic, healthybody fat percentage to be in.
(21:47):
For women, 18 to 28%, 18%.
I mean those are the runners,the fitness women.
They're in that 18% range.
Even up to 28% for women hasbeen shown to be a healthy and
normal body fat percentage, andthis is from the American
Journal of Clinical Nutritionand you can find it all over the
web sites citing the samenumbers over and over again.
(22:07):
So that is fantastic.
So these goals of 3% body fat,5% body fat, 6% body fat are so
audacious and so difficult forthe human body to get down to
because it's hanging on tovisceral fat.
5% of your body fat is visceralfat and you're trying to get
(22:30):
down to five percent.
That means that you're burnt.
You want to, like, eliminateall fat on the body.
It's stressful on the whole, onthe whole system.
Fat cells do have a purpose inthe body and, uh, I think
pushing that limit and fitnessdoes this.
It's nowhere else, it's in the,in the bodybuilding culture and
all that that really pushes.
That is bodybuilding cultureand all that that really pushes.
That is a dangerous and steepthing, and that's why it's so
(22:52):
hard to maintain that long-term.
Without hormonal therapy andinjecting a bunch of stuff into
the body, it's virtuallyimpossible.
So don't aim for that.
Unless it's a short-term goal,that you just want to compete
once, then that's cool.
But doing that for too long canbe just as stressful.
Weight and BMI so it's easy tomeasure but one.
So then that's cool.
But doing that too for too longcan be just as stressful.
(23:13):
Weight and bmi.
So it's easy to measure but notalways meaningful without
context.
Okay, my bmi over the lastthree years has continued to
decrease uh sorry, stayed thesame but my body fat percentage
has continued to decrease.
So when I hop on, the scalestill tells me overly fat, so
overweight, not obese.
I'm at the 20, you know 25percent range and what that
(23:34):
tells me.
But my body fat percentage hasgone down.
So my lean muscle mass has goneup.
And that's out of context.
Because if I look at the justuse the BMI, then it's telling
me that I'm not in a healthyrange.
So easy to measure but notalways meaningful without
context.
Bmi doesn't account for musclemass hydration or fat
distribution, so knowing the fatpercentage is more important.
(23:57):
Is it visceral?
If that's in a healthy range,then we're in a healthy BMI,
it's great.
If it's not, if the visceralfat's high, then we're not in a
healthy BMI.
Even though two separate peoplecan be right around that 26, 27,
28, 29% body fat, one is in ahealthier boat than the other.
Make sense and they're aboutthe same height.
So that's the issue there.
(24:17):
It's better used with weight,circumference and body fat
percentage.
That's when you tie in allthree and then you can see it
and you'll see the difference.
Two people at 29% body fat.
One has a weight, a waistcircumference of 46 inches, the
other one has a waistcircumference of 40 inches and
it's a little two differentboats that they're in.
So you looking at all thosethings congruently tells us a
(24:40):
better story on that one.
The rest is all prettystraightforward.
So that is our top 10.
There's a lot of differentmarkers out there, but I think
these are the most important.
Blood pressure number one.
Blood glucose in A1C.
Number two.
Vo2 max if you can get thattested with spirometry in some
way or form is important onlongevity.
(25:03):
So making sure that we canbreathe in and out inspiration
and expiration of the lungcapacity and maintaining oxygen
saturation at a high level showslongevity.
Heart rate variability you canget this done at your many
chiropractic offices and medicaloffices are measuring that
Triglycerides through your bloodwork If you're resting heart
(25:26):
rate, keeping an eye on youraura ring or your watch on that
body fat percentage, alwayskeeping an eye on that.
I would do that quarterly tomake sure you're staying and
maintaining overall health.
The weight scale can be usefulas well, making sure you
maintain your weight.
That could be useful as well.
That's your BMI, oxygensaturation and of course, your
(25:48):
weight as well.
So functional versus BMI Oxygensaturation and, of course, your
weight as well.
So functional versustraditional vital signs.
There are two differentperspectives on all these.
Medicine is shifting away fromreactive to proactive.
A lot of the new medical gradsare barely doing vital sign
checks or checking anyone in thephysical exam anymore.
They're talking to them,listing and ranking their
(26:08):
symptoms and saying these arethe scans we need to go to next,
straight to CT, straight toblood work, straight to MRIs,
straight to scanning to justlook on the inside.
Hrv, vo2 max and bodycomposition are underutilized.
But tell us a lot aboutlifestyle and long-term
resilience and I'm encouragingyou to just get a blood pressure
(26:31):
cuff and leave it at home andcheck it.
Check it every week or everycouple weeks, at least once a
month, and just making sure thatnumber stays about the same.
You'll find your homeostaticnumber, whatever it is 122 over
82, whatever it is, you'll belike, oh, that's my normal, or
114 over 72.
It will be your number and oncethat changes and you put your
(26:53):
arm in there and one day it's132, over 96, and you're like,
whoa, hang on a second, let'sredo this, is this right?
And you do it, repeat it two orthree times and you either
realize oh, that was a glitch orsomething's up.
That's where we need to startgoing in for our wellness checks
, going in for our blood work,seeing our primary care and
getting checked for overallmarkers enzymes, liver
(27:14):
triglycerides, sugar and seewhat's going on, because
catching these things early areimmediately affected through
diet change quickly.
You could just easily clean upyour diet immediately the next
day, do well for 30 days and seeyour blood pressure come right
back down.
It was probably an over salt inthe diet, an over processed
food in the diet, over sugar inthe diet.
Whatever it may be, that'sprobably for most people what's
(27:38):
going on.
For others, we may be slidingdown the slope of disease and we
need to be careful and be ontop of it.
Preventative medicine is muchmore beneficial and better
outcome than reactive medicine.
So what I say you guys shoulddo is get your baselines Blood
work, body comp, hrv, vo2 max.
(27:59):
Use this on your treadmills atthe gym or on your smartwatches.
Focus on improving metabolicflexibility, fitness, sleep and
nervous system regulation.
This is what it's all ties intogether and HRV apps like on
your Aura, your Elite HRV, yourFitbit, your Apple Watch VO2 Max
(28:20):
you can get these done at gyms.
Home blood pressure monitorsand continuous glucose monitors
as well.
These things for short times,wearing those for 60 days and
just seeing how your normallifestyle when you get peaks and
valleys in the blood glucose,or is it just a steady flat line
?
And don't obsess over the lowertiered markers.
(28:42):
I think we do.
Weight, bmi we're all over thatscale and always worried about
the number on the scale.
Bmi we're all over that scaleand always worried about the
number on the scale.
The number on the scale isdifferent on what planet you
live on and we live on earth.
So gravity at 9.81 meters persecond, pulling us down at that
force times our weight, our mass, is how we calculate weight.
(29:04):
It's based on gravity.
It's just a number.
It's just a number.
It's the markers on the insidebody fat percentage, hydration
these things are more important.
Don't obsess over the scale andthen share this episode.
Share this episode with thosepeople that ignore these numbers
your husband, your spouse, yourfamily members, your friends
(29:26):
that you try and nudge.
Because you're ahealth-conscious person and you
love people, this is a great oneto share with them.
It dissects the most commonmarkers that are out there, that
we all have access to with allthe new little gadgets we have,
and it keeps us on top of it,and I think the purpose of it is
it's going to save someone'slife.
So share the podcast and have agreat and healthy week.
(29:49):
Stay well, take care.
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