Healthcare News
My Health Journey Part I
I believe it is important to lead by example so rather than just telling People what they should be doing I decided to share my own health journey to show just how easy taking care of yourself can be. So to start with, we need to go back about 17 years when I was first diagnosed with high blood pressure (BP) with a reading of around 160/100. My GP immediately wanted to prescribe a course of Statins which I declined. Reluctantly, he suggested I could try changing my diet by removing coffee, diary products, red meat and chocolate to name a few. You know, all the things we crave.
Remarkably after 3 months, with just this dietary change my BP had reduced to around 140/90. A little while later I discovered a product called Argi+1 a L'Arginine supplement. L'Arginine is an amino acid which aids the production of nitric oxide, a molecule that helps blood vessels relax and widen for greater blood flow. This contributed to a further reduction of my BP to 120/80. I also introduced a lot more walking into my daily routine, started to pay better attention to my sleep quality and purchased a smartwatch to monitor my vital numbers.
Some time later I was introduced to the importance of our Omega 6:3 balance and took my first Zinzino balance test2 in 2020. You can see from the graphic below my initial test revealed I was only semi-balanced at 4.3:1 where the optimum level is 3:1 or lower. After 4 months on Zinzino's balance oil product3 my second set of results saw an improvement and I hit the target of 3:1. I will be covering the significance of this balance profile in another post where I can delve deeper into the subject.
Zinzino recently launched their Vitamin D test4 with associated Vitamin D Supplement Zinoshine5 so I decided to test my own levels to see if I needed to supplement. Vitamin D, also known as the ‘sunshine vitamin,’ provides multiple benefits throughout our body and plays a key role in the body’s immune response. Over the past 2 years we have discovered just how important this can be.
So the results show my level is optimal which means I don’t need to supplement. It is also important to note this test was taken in January 2022 which reflects my Vitamin D levels through the Winter months so with the amount of sunshine we have experienced this Summer (2022) I should be well topped-up for this Winter too!
The next step in my journey was to check-in on my Cholesterol6 levels to see whether a further tweak in my diet may be necessary. The recommended cholesterol level is 5 although there is much debate around this but for the moment my number came in at 5.48.
No major cause for concern but I will make some minor dietary adjustments going forward so when I take a follow-up test these numbers should drop within range.
I mentioned earlier that I had purchased a smartwatch7 to monitor my vital numbers and you can see from the snapshot below that all of the major indicators are showing good values. My average pulse rate is now around 70 (69 in the graphic), my Oxygen level is at 95% exactly where it should be, my energy levels are in Good Condition and crucially my BP is now at 110/77 down from 160/100. I will go into much more detail about the smartwatch I use in a forthcoming post where I will also share and discuss a real-time ECG trace and address the age-old debate over accuracy.
So the burning question after all of this is: “How do I feel?” I can honestly say that I feel fitter now than at any previous time in my adult life and my only regret is not embarking on this journey sooner. As I approach my 64th year I have no ailments or conditions usually associated with People of my age, I am still able to walk on average 20,000 steps p/d with no ill-effects and I still coach football at weekends. I cannot remember the last time I was ill and that includes the infamous pandemic years!
So as I conclude Part I of my story I hope you have been able to see how effective self-care can be. I know what you’re thinking: "How much is all this costing?" which is a valid question and one which I will address in more detail in "The Cost-Benefit Analysis of Self-care" coming soon.
Finally, I do hope you have found some value in this post and if so please share it with as many People as you can so that between us we can strive to improve the Nations health one person at a time.