Category: Weekly Status

Weekly Health Statistics: 7/11 – 7/17/21

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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:
    • This was the first week of my sleep experiment, so in addition to the metrics automatically tracked by my watch, I’m noting down any time I wake up in the middle of the night.
    • Despite the fact that all the auto-tracked metrics looked good, I was waking up much more frequently in the middle of the night and feeling more tired. This suggests the auto-tracked metrics are not a great measure of overall sleep quality.
    • I need to do a more detailed analysis to figure out what’s going on here…
  • Blood glucose:
    • All stats back to normal after last week’s travel. 
    • Time 70-140 mg/dL still could be a bit better. Will continue to cut back on insulin at meals.
  • Body:
    • Still seeing steady drop in weight and waistline. I’m very happy with my progress here. 
  • Blood:
    • Switching to every other week measurement for cholesterol and hemoglobin to reduce tracking burden. Will increase frequency if I’m doing any experiments that might cause them to change.
    • Blood pressure was much higher than normal this week. I ate an unusual dinner last night and had higher than normal BG, so might just be an outlier. Will keep an eye on this and see if it persists.

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 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 1 complete

Data:

Blood

Body

Sleep

Methods:

Measurements: See summary section above

Data Processing & Visualization. Data was visualized using Tableau.

Data: here


– QD

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Weekly Health Statistics: 7/4 – 7/10/21

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For those checking the dates, I’m posting these with a 1-week lag. 

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:
  • Other blood:
  • Urine:
    • Method: Vessel
    • Metrics: biotin, ketones, pH, vitamin C, magnesium, hydration, & cortisol

Observations

  • Sleep:
    • Sleep improved again this week, despite traveling Monday-Wednesday and I continue to feel much better/less tired than before I started going to bed at a consistent time.
    • Still noticing that I’m waking up earlier than preferred, though it’s not always showing up in the data (probably b/c I stay in bed trying to go back to sleep). I’m starting an experiment this week to test ways to stay asleep longer, so I’ll need to make sure I measure wake-up time correctly.
  • Blood glucose:
    • Fasting BG spiked up this week, likely due to travel Monday-Wednesday. I ate much later those days (8p vs. normally 5p), which led to a higher fasting BG. 
    • Rest of BG stats were ok, but not great, again likely related to traveling and less controlled meals.
  • Body:
    • Still seeing steady drop in weight and waistline. I’m very happy with my progress here. 
  • Blood:
    • Hemoglobin in dead center of normal. Starting to look like those high points were anomalies.
    • Cholesterol (total, LDL, and HDL) looks like it’s holding steady. Numbers are decent, but could be better. I may target this for intervention after my sleep study.
    • Blood pressure seems to be trending down. Will keep an eye on.
  • 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 6 tests, I’ve only gotten a reading on cortisol three times. That measurements seems to be extremely unreliable.
    • All-in-all, I’m not getting much value out of the vessel tests. I’ve finished out the pack I bought and won’t be continuing these 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.
  • Testing methods of sleeping longer:
    • Goal: Determine interventions that will enable me to stay asleep longer
    • Approach: Melatonin?, will ask in several forums to get suggestions
    • Status: posting in forums this week

Data:

Urine

Blood

Body

Sleep

Methods:

Measurements: 

Data Processing & Visualization. Data was visualized using Tableau.

Data: here


– QD

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Weekly Health Statistics: 6/27 – 7/3/21

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For those checking the dates, I’m posting these with a 1-week lag. 

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:
  • Other blood:
  • Urine:
    • Method: Vessel
    • Metrics: biotin, ketones, pH, vitamin C, magnesium, hydration, & cortisol

Observations

  • Sleep:
    • With my family back home, my sleep came right back up to normal. I’ll have to tell my wife she’s not allowed to go on trips anymore 🙂
    • I’m feeling much better/less tired during the day now that I’m going to bed at a consistent time. However, over the last week, I noticed I’m waking up earlier and earlier (total change ~30 min.) despite going to bed at the same time. I’d like to test out some interventions to see if I can stay asleep longer.
  • Blood glucose:
    • Fasting BG & average BG continue to improve and CV% is holding steady at ~13% (very good). 
    • TIR is low again, due to spending too much time below 70 mg/dL. I suspect this is due to increased insulin sensitivity from losing weight, so I’m going to try backing off on my insulin doses.
  • Body:
    • Still seeing steady drop in weight and waistline. I’m very happy with my progress here. 
  • Blood:
    • Hemoglobin continues to be on the high end of normal range. Still doesn’t matter.
    • Slight trend down in cholesterol (total, LDL, and HDL). Will keep an eye on.
    • Cardiocheck PA continues to give reliable readings (and matched Quest blood work). 
    • Blood pressure continues to run slightly high. 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 5 tests, I’ve only gotten a reading on cortisol twice. 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 pack 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.
  • Testing methods of sleeping longer:
    • Goal: Determine interventions that will enable me to stay asleep longer
    • Approach: Melatonin?, will ask in several forums to get suggestions
    • Status: posting in forums this week

Data:

Urine

Blood

Body

Sleep

Methods:

Measurements: 

Data Processing & Visualization. Data was visualized using Tableau.

Data: here


– QD

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I’m Back / Weekly Health Statistics

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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:
  • Other blood:
  • 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: 

Data Processing & Visualization. Data was visualized using Tableau.

Data: here


– QD

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October Blood Glucose Stats & Upcoming Experiments

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I’m about a week late on this, but here’s an update on my monthly blood glucose stats. As before, I’ll be looking at average blood glucose, coefficient of variation, and time in range. 

Here’s the data broken out by month:

Figure 1. Average blood glucose (blue) & coefficient of variation (orange) by month.
Figure 2. Time-in-range vs. month.
Figure 3. Time-in-range vs. month, excluding “in-range.”

No improvement vs. August. However, I had two bad sensors in September, which resulted in periodic large mismatches between my CGM and fingerstick meter. I don’t have the data to quantify the impact, but I suspect that that was responsible for a substantial fraction of the Low and High time. A quick look at the first 1.5 weeks in October shows that I’m on trend for a meaningful drop in Low (currently 3%) with no change in average glucose (still 90 mg/dL). We’ll see if it holds up.

Planned Experiments:

  • Baseline:
    • Glucose re-test
    • Fasting re-test
  • Low-carb foods:
    • Carbquick
    • Eggs
  • Supplements:
    • Vinegar
    • MSG: Preliminary tests here. I tried again, but this time while taking insulin, and saw no effect. I’m going to repeat the original test and then other variations to try to figure out what’s going on.

As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, ideas for new experiments, or want to participate, please let me know in the comments or send a PM via the contact form or to quantifieddiabetes_at_gmail.com.


– QD

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