Medical Tests Worth Taking
Health and medicine get very complex very quickly. We're talking about possibly the most complex machine in the universe, after all—the human body.
Have you heard of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) or high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), for instance? Perhaps not. But you probably know something about diabetes and heart disease.
This week, my colleague Gabrielle Doré attempts to thread the needle with a cheat sheet on a whopping 15 blood tests, plus a urine test, that provide a deep understanding of your physical health. Homocysteine level, for instance, is a good indicator of your risk for heart attack or stroke.
She's not suggesting you become an expert on any of this. Rather, simply schedule the tests once a year. Then consult with experts like your primary care doc and potentially specialists such as a nutritionist if any of your results are out of whack.
In working on the piece, we debated the merits of taking a more active role in the data. Ezra CEO Emi Gal, for instance, purportedly tracks 127 of his own health measurements regularly, and he's posted online a spreadsheet that anyone can use to do the same.
But stress is one of the main determinants to health, and such an undertaking could cause plenty of that. Not only do you have to collect and enter all this data, you have to learn what it all means in order to be informed, rather than unduly alarmed.
If you think such a data deep dive would be a fun project, go ahead. But for most people just looking to stay healthy, their efforts would probably be better spent finding the right experts than trying to become experts themselves. That could mean getting second or third opinions or seeking out the right specialists. To ask the right questions, a little extra knowledge from reputable, easy-to-understand sources like the Cleveland Clinic can be very helpful.
If you have a serious condition, a rare condition, or something that’s defying diagnosis, you may need to develop some advanced knowledge to direct your care. But thankfully, more and more diseases are becoming better understood. And most fixes for illness are simple and low-tech: walk more, eat fewer pastries, don’t smoke.
One of Gabrielle’s main arguments for taking these tests is based on research showing that people with exceptional longevity , including centenarians, score well on them for some reason. They’re likely not doing this by meticulously maintaining spreadsheets. Probably their excellent health is a combination of good genes and healthy habits. You can’t change the former, but you can control the latter.
That’s something to think about when you’re eating an apple or going for a brisk walk.?
—Seán Captain, executive editor
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