My yearly health-check 2022.

Hello friends!

Today I want to write some words about my latest yearly health-check where I check 30 plus health markers and find out how things are on the inside. It gives me a snapshot and pointers and indicators around where I stand with my health based on my current lifestyle. The beauty with measuring is also that I create my own personal baseline around where I normally position myself among the references. Just because a certain reference range states that I am within the normal range does not mean that it is normal for me.

Mat

I eat a paleo diet 80% of the time which means that I eat whole foods, preferably organic and as far as macros I eat around 60% healthy fats, 25% protein and 15% carbs. I try to give myself 12 – 14 hours of fasting each day and the rest is then of course my eating window. In the follicle phase I do try to throw in some extended fasting to practice my metabolic flexibility but I usually try to keep my calories fairly high.

Training

Currently my focus is strength training combined with walks, I aim to get 10000 steps in per day on my rest days. If I have done resistance training, I do not push for 10000 steps, just trying to get some steps in that day that fits my schedule.

Sömn

With my hormonal imbalances it is sometimes a challenge to get proper sleep and recovery. But I am still proud over the quality and quantity of sleep that I get over the long-term. Sticking to my routines for sleep is a huge factor here.

Stress

Things sometimes happens in life that is out of your own control. What we need to do then is to find coping strategies and be sure to not flood “the stress bucket”. I view stress as a bucket and if some new stressful incident comes into my life, I might need to remove something among my other stressors to not overflow my bucket.

Something to keep in mind

Our bodies are no robots, things change as we age and also considering what happens in our lives. This means that we constantly need to do some tweaks and adjustments to our lifestyle and pull whatever lever on the four pillars of health to stay on track and give ourselves our best health and wellbeing.

Conclusion

Blood lipid profile

Looking at my health markers for this year I am particularly happy that I have low number of triglycerides and a good balance of my HDL and LDL lipids. My cholesterol is on the high end. But this is nothing I worry about as the body creates the cholesterol it needs by itself. Cholesterol is an extremely important type of fat involved in many functions in the body. It is for example at the top of pyramid in the hormone hierarchy. Without cholesterol then you will not be able to make many important hormones and you will also not be able to build cells nor repair them.

This is what I focus on when it comes to cholesterol

So instead of staring at the cholesterol level I focus on these three markers:

HBA1C under 30 (I had 28)

Fasting blood sugar under 5 (I had 4.9)

Homocystein under 8 (I had 5.5)

Inflammation

My inflammation marker CRP is good but not optimal for me, I believe that my herniated disc has had a negative impact on my CRP. But as I heal from this injury, I have good hopes that it will come back down to my normal levels. I am also very happy to see that I have low value on my Homocystein, this is also a marker of inflammation and increased levels can increase the risk of heart disease. Having a high number could also point to problems to methylate. Some persons have a gene which makes this troublesome.

My thyroid health need to improve

This year it became clear to me that my thyroid health was not on top. Even though the reference ranges stated that it was doing fine, it was not because I was not doing fine. Thyroid issues has become more and more common these days, especially for women. The thyroid is involved so many functions in the body, so it is VITAL that the thyroid is doing well. So I have really put a lot of energy and still am putting a lot of energy into boosting my thyroid as much as I possible can. I was happy to see that I have a positive trend going on my thyroid, but I still have work to do to improve it.

Ytterligare läsning

Best ways to support the thyroid.

On which path in life are you walking?

The benefits of mäta health markers.

Guidelines for optimal health long-term.