Category: Weekly Status

Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 8/16 – 8/22/21

For those checking the dates, I post these with a 1-week lag. 

After 6 weeks, I’ve finally finished my blinded study of melatonin to increase sleep duration. Unfortunately, melatonin didn’t have any effect on my sleep duration, but I learned a lot about how (and how not) to measure sleep. Based on the results, I’m going to keep manually recording how I slept when I wake up and see if I can identify any patterns I missed when previously looking only at data collected from my watch.

On the food effect study, this week focused on low-carb breads. So far, almost all have a high blood glucose impact (40-60% of glucose based on area under the curve), but I got a bunch more recommendations from Reddit that seem promising and will be testing next week.

I simplified these status updates. Let me know if you do/don’t like the new format.

– QD

Active & Planned Experiments

  • Comprehensive bloodwork:
    • Goal: Establish baseline for a broad range of biomarkers and check overall health
    • Approach: WellnessFX Premium panel
    • Status: Complete, need to write up.
  • Blood glucose impact of low-carb foods
    • Goal: Check blood glucose impact of new low-carb foods I’d like to incorporate into my diet
    • Approach: Follow the same protocol from my previous study
    • Status:
  • Methods of sleeping longer:


Observations & Data

  • Sleep:
    • Two nights of insomnia this week resulted in a much lower average time asleep. Likely cause was my wife quarantining due to a COVID exposure (she’s fine). I always sleep poorly when she’s away.
  • Blood glucose:
    • Everything looking good. Still keeping an eye on positive trends in coefficient of variation, fasting BG, and time in range to see if they’re real.
  • Body:
    • I was able to stabilize my weight this week by adding an extra 200 calories to breakfast and continuing to eat more for dinner. I’m going to cut back on the dinner to finish my weight loss, but nice to see I know how to stop it when the time comes.
    • Interestingly, change in waist measurement also flatlined, suggesting that I’m not doing any body recomposition, just straight weight loss.
  • Blood:
    • Hemoglobin was the lowest I’ve seen yet, close to the bottom end of the normal range. Keeping an eye on this…
    • Pulse continues to drop on both the Omron (resting) and Apple Watch (sleeping & awake).
    • Blood pressure has came back down a bit.
Blood

Body
Sleep

 

Methods

Measurements: 
  • Sleep:
    • Metrics: total time, heart rate variability, pulse (sleeping vs. waking)
    • Method: Apple watch + Autosleep app
    • Frequency: daily
  • Blood glucose:
    • Metrics: fasting BG, Avg. BG, coefficient of variation, time 70-140 mg/dL, time <60 mg/dL
    • Method: Dexcom G6 CGM
    • Frequency: continuous
  • Body:
    • Metrics: weight, waist circumference, BMI, waist/height
    • Method: scale + Renpho tape measure
    • Frequency: weekly
  • Other blood:
    • Metrics: hemoglobin, cholesterol, blood pressure, pulse
    • Method: Hemocue 801, Cardiocheck PA, Omron 10
    • Frequency: weekly for blood pressure & pulse, every 2 weeks for hemoglobin & cholesterol

Data Processing & Visualization. Data was visualized using Tableau.

Data: here

Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 8/8 – 8/14/21

For those checking the dates, I post these with a 1-week lag. 

Summary:

Active & Planned Experiments

  • Comprehensive bloodwork:
    • Goal: Establish baseline for a broad range of biomarkers and check overall health
    • Approach: WellnessFX Premium panel
    • Status: Complete, need to write up.
  • Testing blood glucose impact of low-carb foods
    • Goal: Check blood glucose impact of new low-carb foods I’d like to incorporate into my diet
    • Approach: Follow the same protocol from my previous study
    • Status:
      • Baseline:
        • Glucose re-test: In queue
      • Low-carb foods:
      • Supplements:
  • Testing methods of sleeping longer:
    • Goals:
      • To determine if taking melatonin supplements in the evening extends the duration of my time asleep and subjective fatigue given a consistent bedtime.
      • To determine if taking melatonin supplement and/or sleeping longer affects subjective fatigue, blood glucose, heart rate variability, or pulse
    • Approach: here
    • Status: Data collection complete. Ready to analyze.


What I’m tracking

  • Sleep: 
    • Metrics: total time, heart rate variability, pulse (sleeping vs. waking)
    • Method: Apple watch + Autosleep app
    • Frequency: daily
  • Blood glucose:
    • Metrics: fasting BG, Avg. BG, coefficient of variation, time 70-140 mg/dL, time <60 mg/dL
    • Method: Dexcom G6 CGM
    • Frequency: continuous
  • Body:
    • Metrics: weight, waist circumference, BMI, waist/height
    • Method: scale + Renpho tape measure
    • Frequency: weekly
  • Other blood:
    • Metrics: hemoglobin, cholesterol, blood pressure, pulse
    • Method: Hemocue 801, Cardiocheck PA, Omron 10
    • Frequency: weekly for blood pressure & pulse, every 2 weeks for hemoglobin & cholesterol


Observations

  • Sleep:
    • My sleep experiment is complete. Analysis will be posted next Saturday. 
    • From looking at my manually recorded data, my Apple Watch is occasionally wildly off on either time awake or time asleep, leading to huge errors in total sleep. For example, for this week, the watch reports an average time asleep of 7.7h, but my manual tracking shows an average time asleep of only 6.8h. A look at the data shows the watch data didn’t catch one day where I had insomnia and didn’t fall asleep until 12:30a (claimed I fell asleep at 9:30p, when I first went into bed) and showed me sleeping until 7:40a another day when I know I was at working starting at 5:30a.   
    • Given these huge discrepancies, I’m going to switch to tracking sleep manually using the final modified protocol from my sleep study. Will specify details in the next post.
  • Blood glucose:
    • Everything looking good. Still keeping an eye on downward trend in coefficient of variation & fasting BG to see if it’s real.
  • Body:
    • Tried to eat more at dinner this week, but still lost 1.6 lb. Looks like the plan to eat more at breakfast will be necessary. 
  • Blood:
    • Off week for hemoglobin and cholesterol.
    • Pulse has been steadily dropping (0.16 bpm/day, R2 = 0.54). This is showing up consistently on the Omron (resting) and Apple Watch (sleeping & awake). The only thing I can think of to cause this is the weight loss. I’ve found several studies reporting a correlation between heart rate and BMI (e.g. here), but they’re mostly in obese patients or population studies. Will try to find some in non-obese people.
    • Blood pressure has been rising the last 3 weeks, but I continue to be skeptical of the measurement device. Looking for ways to verify.

Data:

Blood

Body

Sleep

Methods:

Measurements: See summary section above

Data Processing & Visualization. Data was visualized using Tableau.

Data: here

– QD

Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 8/1 – 8/7/21

For those checking the dates, I post these with a 1-week lag. 

Summary:

Active & Planned Experiments

  • Comprehensive bloodwork:
    • Goal: Establish baseline for a broad range of biomarkers and check overall health
    • Approach: WellnessFX Premium panel
    • Status: Complete, need to write up.
  • Testing blood glucose impact of low-carb foods
    • Goal: Check blood glucose impact of new low-carb foods I’d like to incorporate into my diet
    • Approach: Follow the same protocol from my previous study
    • Status:
      • Baseline:
        • Glucose re-test: In queue
      • Low-carb foods:
        • Meal replacements: 2/3 complete, (Ketochow previously reported)
        • Flour replacements: 1/4 complete
        • Tortillas: Reported
        • Bread: 1/8 complete
        • Snack bars: 0/8 complete
        • Ice cream: 2/11 complete
        • Cereals: 4/7 complete
      • Supplements:
  • Testing methods of sleeping longer:
    • Goals:
      • To determine if taking melatonin supplements in the evening extends the duration of my time asleep and subjective fatigue given a consistent bedtime.
      • To determine if taking melatonin supplement and/or sleeping longer affects subjective fatigue, blood glucose, heart rate variability, or pulse
    • Approach: here
    • Status: Data collection complete. Ready to analyze.


What I’m tracking

  • Sleep: 
    • Metrics: total time, heart rate variability, pulse (sleeping vs. waking)
    • Method: Apple watch + Autosleep app
    • Frequency: daily
  • Blood glucose:
    • Metrics: fasting BG, Avg. BG, coefficient of variation, time 70-140 mg/dL, time <60 mg/dL
    • Method: Dexcom G6 CGM
    • Frequency: continuous
  • Body:
    • Metrics: weight, waist circumference, BMI, waist/height
    • Method: scale + Renpho tape measure
    • Frequency: weekly
  • Other blood:
    • Metrics: hemoglobin, cholesterol, blood pressure, pulse
    • Method: Hemocue 801, Cardiocheck PA, Omron 10
    • Frequency: weekly for blood pressure & pulse, every 2 weeks for hemoglobin & cholesterol


Observations

  • Sleep:
    • 2 days left in my sleep experiment and still seeing significant discrepancies between the auto and manually tracked metrics. I’m going to hold off on analyzing the data until the experiment is complete so as to minimize any impact on data collection. 
    • Sleep back up to normal.
  • Blood glucose:
    • Coefficient of variation back to normal this week.
    • Coefficient of variation & fasting BG starting to look like there’s a downward trend. Probably due to weight loss.
  • Body:
    • Lost more weight than normal the last couple weeks (2 vs. 1 lb/wk). Still in acceptable range, but I don’t want to go any faster. 
    • Still have time, but I’m 4 weeks away from having to change my diet to stabilize my weight. Current plan is to add calories to breakfast.
  • Blood:
    • Hemoglobin is the lowest I’ve seen this week. Still well within the normal range, so nothing to be concerned about, but will keep an eye on it.
    • Cholesterol was much better this week, but probably an outlier.
    • Pulse has been steadily dropping (0.16 bpm/day, R2 = 0.54). This is showing up consistently on the Omron (resting) and Apple Watch (sleeping & awake). The only thing I can think of to cause this is the weight loss. I’ve found several studies reporting a correlation between heart rate and BMI (e.g. here), but they’re mostly in obese patients or population studies. Will try to find some in non-obese people.
    • For blood pressure, no obvious trend over time. Slightly higher than I’d like (~125/82), but won’t know if that’s real or measurement error until I calibrate against another instrument.  

Data:

Blood

Body

Sleep

Methods:

Measurements: See summary section above

Data Processing & Visualization. Data was visualized using Tableau.

Data: here

– QD

Weekly Update & Health Statistics: 7/25 – 7/31/21

For those checking the dates, I post these with a 1-week lag. 

Summary:

What I’m tracking

  • Sleep: 
    • Metrics: total time, heart rate variability, pulse (sleeping vs. waking)
    • Method: Apple watch + Autosleep app
    • Frequency: daily
  • Blood glucose:
    • Metrics: fasting BG, Avg. BG, coefficient of variation, time 70-140 mg/dL, time <60 mg/dL
    • Method: Dexcom G6 CGM
    • Frequency: continuous
  • Body:
    • Metrics: weight, waist circumference, BMI, waist/height
    • Method: scale + Renpho tape measure
    • Frequency: weekly
  • Other blood:
    • Metrics: hemoglobin, cholesterol, blood pressure, pulse
    • Method: Hemocue 801, Cardiocheck PA, Omron 10
    • Frequency: weekly for blood pressure & pulse, every 2 weeks for hemoglobin & cholesterol

Observations

  • Sleep:
    • I’m three weeks into my sleep experiment (1 to go!) and still seeing significant discrepancies between the auto and manually tracked metrics. I’m going to hold off on analyzing the data until the experiment is complete so as to minimize any impact on data collection. 
    • Significant drop in sleep this week due to a couple bad nights. Nothing to act on yet, but will keep an eye on.
  • Blood glucose:
    • Coefficient of variation was much higher this week. Could be due to the new food effect study I’m running. Will keep an eye on this.
  • Body:
    • Surprisingly steady drop in weight (1.1 lb/wk, R2 = .95) and waistline (1 cm/wk, R2=.99); still happy with my progress.
    • I’ve got time, but need to think about how to change my diet to stabilize my weight. I’m about at my limit for what I can eat for dinner without feeling too full and causing overnight BG spikes. I’ll probably need to add to breakfast…  
  • Blood:
    • Off week for cholesterol and hemoglobin
    • For blood pressure, no obvious trend over time. Slightly higher than I’d like (~125/82), but won’t know if that’s real or measurement error until I calibrate against another instrument.  

Active & Planned Experiments

  • Comprehensive bloodwork:
    • Goal: Establish baseline for a broad range of biomarkers and check overall health
    • Approach: WellnessFX Premium panel
    • Status: Complete, need to write up.
  • Testing blood glucose impact of low-carb foods
    • Goal: Check blood glucose impact of new low-carb foods I’d like to incorporate into my diet
    • Approach: Follow the same protocol from my previous study
    • Status:
      • Baseline:
        • Glucose re-test: In queue
      • Low-carb foods:
        • Meal replacements: 2/3 complete, (Ketochow previously reported)
        • Flour replacements: 1/4 complete
        • Tortillas: Reported
        • Bread: 1/8 complete
        • Snack bars: 0/8 complete
        • Ice cream: 2/11 complete
        • Cereals: 4/7 complete
      • Supplements:
  • Testing methods of sleeping longer:
    • Goals:
      • To determine if taking melatonin supplements in the evening extends the duration of my time asleep and subjective fatigue given a consistent bedtime.
      • To determine if taking melatonin supplement and/or sleeping longer affects subjective fatigue, blood glucose, heart rate variability, or pulse
    • Approach: here
    • Status: Week 3 complete

Data:

Blood

Body

Sleep

Methods:

Measurements: See summary section above

Data Processing & Visualization. Data was visualized using Tableau.

Data: here

– QD

Weekly Health Statistics: 7/18 – 7/24/21

For those checking the dates, I post these with a 1-week lag. 

Summary:

What I’m tracking

  • Sleep: 
    • Metrics: total time, heart rate variability, pulse (sleeping vs. waking)
    • Method: Apple watch + Autosleep app
    • Frequency: daily
  • Blood glucose:
    • Metrics: fasting BG, Avg. BG, coefficient of variation, time 70-140 mg/dL, time <60 mg/dL
    • Method: Dexcom G6 CGM
    • Frequency: continuous
  • Body:
    • Metrics: weight, waist circumference, BMI, waist/height
    • Method: scale + Renpho tape measure
    • Frequency: weekly
  • Other blood:
    • Metrics: hemoglobin, cholesterol, blood pressure, pulse
    • Method: Hemocue 801, Cardiocheck PA, Omron 10
    • Frequency: weekly for blood pressure & pulse, every 2 weeks for hemoglobin & cholesterol

Observations

  • Sleep:
    • I’m two weeks into my sleep experiment and still seeing significant discrepancies between the auto and manually tracked metrics. I’m going to hold off on analyzing the data until the experiment is complete so as to minimize any impact on data collection. 
  • Blood glucose:
    • All stats looking good.
  • Body:
    • Still seeing steady drop in weight and waistline; still happy with my progress.  
  • Blood:
    • Total cholesterol and triglycerides were way higher than normal this week (90 & 276 vs. ~160 & ~70). Very likely an outlier, but will keep an eye on it.
    • Blood pressure back down to typical, so last week was probably an outlier. 

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.
  • Testing blood glucose impact of low-carb foods
    • Goal: Check blood glucose impact of new low-carb foods I’d like to incorporate into my diet
    • Approach: Follow the same protocol from my previous study
    • Status:
      • La Tortilla Factory Low-Carb Flour Tortilla: Testing complete
      • La Tortilla Factory Low-Carb Whole Wheat Tortilla: In queue
      • Other low carb tortilla: In queue
      • Costco low-carb bread: In queue
  • Testing methods of sleeping longer:
    • Goals:
      • To determine if taking melatonin supplements in the evening extends the duration of my time asleep and subjective fatigue given a consistent bedtime.
      • To determine if taking melatonin supplement and/or sleeping longer affects subjective fatigue, blood glucose, heart rate variability, or pulse
    • Approach: here
    • Status: Week 2 complete

Data:

Blood

Body

Sleep


Methods:

Measurements: See summary section above

Data Processing & Visualization. Data was visualized using Tableau.

Data: here

– QD