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If you monitor your health measurements, then you probably ignore the small changes. But these changes are another health risk that you should be aware of.

 

 

Monitoring your health measurements is a good way to identify early signs of problems. You can monitor health risk factors like blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and pulse rate easily in your own home. And when you go to the doctor, you can use this data to help them make the right diagnosis. But these measurements change constantly. These are small changes, and most of the time you will ignore them. However, these small changes can be indicators of a larger health risk.

 

Your Health Metrics

There are several health measurements you can monitor safely and easily at home. This data can be used to identify early signs of disease. They can also help your doctor make accurate, early diagnoses. These include:

 

• Blood pressure.
• Blood oxygenation.
• Heart rate.
• Blood sugar levels.
• Weight.
• Waist circumference.
• Sleeping patterns.

 

Big changes in any of these measurements can be indications of serious problems. For example, ongoing high blood pressure can be a sign of heart disease. And the earlier this is identified, the better your outcome. However, most changes in these measurements will be small. Until now, this was thought of as natural variation. But recent research indicates that these changes could be an important health risk factor.

 

The Health Risk Factors Linked to Heart Disease

Small changes your health measurement can indicate serious changes in your body. A recent study found that modest blood pressure decreases coupled with bad cholesterol (LDL) decreases can dramatically reduce your risk of heart disease. The study was conducted by the British Heart Foundation (BFH). The researchers had previously found that lowering blood pressure and LDL had health benefits. But the extent to which these changes affected health over the long term was the focus of this new study.

 

The study found that the reductions don’t have to be huge to decrease health risk. A long-term reduction in LDL levels of 1mmol/L and a 10mmHg reduction in blood pressure was enough. These changes led to an 80 percent lower risk of heart disease and circulatory disease. And this risk remained lower over a lifetime. The risk of death from these conditions also decreased by 67 percent.

 

And the news gets even better. Even smaller changes can make a difference. A decrease of LDL levels by .3 mmol/L and a 3mmHg decrease in blood pressure is significant too. These changes can lower the lifetime risk of circulatory and heart disease by 50 percent.

 

This research confirms again that blood pressure and cholesterol levels are key factors in heart disease. And because heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the US, these findings are vital for long term public and private health.

 

The Takeaway

• Even small changes, on the border of measuring error margin, can benefit you. A decrease of 0.3 mmol/L of LDL and 3mmHg of BP was associated with 50% lower  lifetime risk of CVD. These kind of small changes can hardly be detected without regular monitoring especially in long term. If LDL measurements at home is a technology  that  probably will be available soon, BP measurements are accessible for everyone.
• Why in this case monitoring at home is important? The health risk in general depends on how long the organism is exposed to risk factors, high LDL and BP in this case. The risk accumulates over time. Accordingly, if you managed to lower these risk factors you have to be sure that these changes are maintain in long run.
• You learnt that even small changes of risk factors can lead to significant benefits to your body. This fact can be an effective motivator for long term life style changes.

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re concerned about a health risk, try using HomeLab to keep track of your condition and any preventative measures you take. And if you see signs of a significant problem, you should check with your doctor as soon as possible.

 

 

Tags: Health Risk, heart disease