Know Your Numbers, Girl!
Numbers are the best way we know for keeping scores. Love it or hate it, you are defined by numbers. You are “documented” here in the United States by that random string of 9 digits. Not having a social security number means you are “undocumented”.
Your credit score determines the interest rate you are charged on your auto loan or mortgage. It gets worse; all sorts of entities would gladly define you by the number of zeros on your bank account statement.
So it stands to reason that your health would be defined by numbers too.
The 5 health numbers you should care about are:
- Your weight: Without taking your height into consideration, you absolutely do not want to be outside the margins of 100-200 pounds. Your risk for premature death from medical issues increases outside of that range.
- Your body mass index (BMI): This is the ratio of your weight to your height. There are free calculators online that you can plug in your weight and height to arrive at your BMI. The taller you are, the more weight your body can accommodate. You want this number less than 30 for sure. A BMI of 18-24.9 is healthy, a BMI of 25-29 is overweight and BMI over 30 is obese.
- Your blood pressure: Elevated blood pressure on a sustained basis can cause strokes, loss of vision, heart failure, and kidney failure. It really is the “silent killer” especially those of us of Nigerian descent. You want your top number below 140 and the lower number below 90 at the very least to prevent organ damage. Your ideal goal is less than 130/80.
- Your blood glucose level: You want your fasting blood glucose level to be less than 100. Fasting a blood glucose level of 126 or more on two separate occasions means you have diabetes. Your best for prevent diabetes (or keep it controlled, if already diagnosed) is to maintain a healthy weight.
- Your cholesterol level: High cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease. Heart disease happens to be the number one cause of death of both men and women here in the United States. Below are the parameters for cholesterol.
Total cholesterol should be less than 200
LDL (Bad cholesterol) should be less than 100
HDL (Good cholesterol) should be over 40
Triglycerides should be less than 150
There you have it.
Dr. Bola [Wife and mom]
Board-certified family physician
Health and Wealth Enthusiast
Can be reached at bola@healthgist.com
Dr. Bola Oyeyipo-Ajumobi
resides in Southern California with her husband and two boys. She is a family physician at Kaiser Permanente in Palm Springs with over 15 years of medical experience so it is fair to say she knows a thing or two about Medicine .
Dr. Bola is passionate about individual patient advancing their journey to better health, whatever that means for them in medical terms. In addition to her busy work and family, she partnered with a colleague to create an A-Z educational, interactive, and engaging online platform called Healthgist that offers the busy woman a place beyond the regular in-office appointment to reach out, learn, and gain more understanding of how to care about their health. Hers is such a great informational platform that it has been featured in multiple local news/ network media as a reputable and must-visit website.
Her other interests as any Nigerian is business and digital media (e.g. healthgist), and she manages to squeeze in time for family and some fun! She is a published medic with a strong following on healthgist and LinkedIn.
Her online bio and presence
LinkedIn ProfileHer contribution to this platform is greatly appreciated
