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I’m going to give blogging another go. To minimize the risk of getting overwhelmed/too busy, I’m going to start slow with a weekly post on what I’m tracking, observations, and active & planned experiments. I’ll supplement that with other ad-hoc posts.
Summary:
What I’m tracking
- Sleep:
- Method: Apple watch + Autosleep app
- Metrics: total time, heart rate variability, pulse (sleeping vs. waking)
- Blood glucose:
- Method: Dexcom G6 CGM
- Metrics: fasting BG, Avg. BG, coefficient of variation, time 70-140 mg/dL, time <60 mg/dL
- Body:
- Method: scale + Renpho tape measure
- Metrics: weight, waist circumference, BMI, waist/height
- Other blood:
- Method: Hemocue 801, Cardiocheck PA, Omron 10
- Metrics: hemoglobin, cholesterol, blood pressure, pulse
- Urine:
- Method: Vessel
- Metrics: biotin, ketones, pH, vitamin C, magnesium, hydration, & cortisol
Observations
- Sleep:
- Sleep was way down this week. My family was on vacation Sunday through Wednesday, which typically results in me sleeping poorly.
- Blood glucose:
- TIR & CV% are much better this week. Introspection suggests this is due to a combination of eating smaller meals and the fact that I’m paying more attention now that I’ve resumed aggressive self-tracking.
- Body:
- Still seeing steady drop in weight and waistline. I’m very happy with my progress here.
- I had higher insulin sensitivity when I was at my target weight, so I need to keep a close eye on my time low as I continue to lose weight.
- Blood:
- My hemoglobin is on the high end of normal range. Nothing to be concerned about, but interesting. I’m curious if there are any dietary interventions that would significantly boost hemoglobin. Maybe in studies on athletic performance?
- Total cholesterol is staying steady at ~160 mg/dL, which is fine.
- The Curo L5 has failed to read my HDL & triglycerides three weeks in a row, with no obvious reason why. The Cardiocheck PA was was able to read both and with sensible numbers (close to my lab test last week). It also gave the same total cholesterol and was easier to use. I will switch to the Cardiocheck going forward.
- HDL is a bit low & LDL a bit high. Nothing super concerning, but I will look into ways to improve.
- Blood pressure continues to run slightly high. Not sure if I trust the absolute value of the home meter. Will need to check against the Dr’s at my next appointment
- Urine:
- Nothing interesting in this data. My values for biotin, pH, & Vitamin C are outside of the “normal” range, but I haven’t been able to find any literature indicating that this is even correlated with medical issues I would be concerned about.
- In 4 tests, I’ve only gotten a reading on cortisol once. That measurements seems to be extremely unreliable.
- All-in-all, I’m not getting much value out of the vessel tests. I will finish out the back I bought and then stop.
Active & Planned Experiments
- Comprehensive bloodwork:
- Goal: Establish baseline for a broad range of biomarkers and check overall health
- Approach: WellnessFX Premium panel
- Status: Got the results, need to analyze and write up.
Data:
Urine
Blood
Body
Sleep
Methods:
Measurements:
- Sleep: Apple Watch Series 5 + Autosleep app
- Urine (biotin, ketones, pH, vitamin C, magnesium, hydration, & cortisol): Vessel
- Body:
- Waist: Renpho tape measure
- Weight: digital scale
- Blood:
- Glucose: Dexcom G6 CGM
- Hemoglobin: Hemocue 801
- Cholesterol: Curo L5 & Cardiocheck PA
- Blood pressure & pulse: Omron 10
Data Processing & Visualization. Data was visualized using Tableau.
Data: here
– QD
