Health by the numbers (and colors)

When the doctor's office calls with your blood test readings do you just hear the words, hopefully "everything normal", or do you write down the numbers and understand them? What are normal or optimal numbers anyhow? Like a lot of people, I have a hard time keeping the various medical numbers in my mind and end up hunting down explanations for cholesterol or blood pressure, etc.

I've pulled together a few of those magic health and wellness numbers (and a few colors) and some good explanations for reference.

Target heart rate

If you can monitor your heart rate while exercising, you can maximize your results (or so I'm told). The rule of thumb is: 220 minus your age give the maximum rate you should be running your ticker. The target heart rate zone is 50-85 % of the maximum.

Here is an American Heart Association page that explains the concept, gives age range charts, and offers a "conversational" approach if you can't measure your heart rate. If you talk, keep going; if you can sing, speed it up!

Here is a neat online calculator for those whose fingers and toes don't go above 20.

Working hard on your fitness? Hot days and nights dragging you down? Better be drinking plenty of fluids. You can monitor your hydration level by watching your urine color. Apparently lighter is better. One technique I read said that if your urine is the color of lemonade, you are hydrated; if it's more like the color of applesauce, then you are not hydrated enough. Remember, this is a visual test!

For those that aren't sure of their juice colors, I found this chart.

Not one number to manage, but four. No wonder we are stressed about cholesterol! Here is the goal:

LDL Cholesterol (the bad kind)

• less than 100 is optimal.
• 100-129 mg/dl is near optimal.
• 130-159 mg/dl is borderline high.

HDL Cholesterol (the so called "good kind")

• For Men, 40 mg/dl or higher for men is desirable
• For Women, 50 mg/dl or higher for women is desirable

Total Cholesterol (not sure why we are adding good and bad together?) - less than 200 is desirable.

• Desirable is less than 200 mg/dl
• Borderline High Risk is 200-239 mg/dl
• High Risk is 240 mg/dl

Triglycerides (the fat counter) - less than 150 is normal.

This page from WebMD covers the numbers in more detail, since so few of us are optimal.

• Target numbers - less than 120/80.

• High blood pressure is a blood pressure reading of 140/90 mmHg or higher.

Both numbers are important. Lower is better, up to a point and then we enter the territory of low blood pressure. This blood pressure is a sneaky little devil as it doesn't generally have warning symptoms.

Here is a page from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (tax dollars at work for you).