TAMPA (BLOOM) – Medical doctor, public speaker, author of “The Power of 5: Ultimate Formula for Longevity and Remaining Youthful”, David Bernstein, MD, joined Gayle Guyardo the host of the global health and wellness show Bloom about the importance of monitoring your own health.
“The health care system is set up in a way that we have to be our own health care advocates and track our health.” said Dr. Bernstein.
He went on to say, “Monitoring health metrics is important I have a doctrine I have followed my entire medical career and it has served me well in terms of testing and monitoring.”
Dr. Bernstein developed a journal to help his patients track their health but said any journal will work. He also recommended the below devices for at home testing:
Scale: for weight- an additional health metric is BMI (some scales will provide this information and there are formula to do this as well)– and is used by many as a way to determine status as overweight and obese
Blood Pressure monitor- easily accessible and useful to monitor home BP
Tape measure: a very inexpensive way to determine risk for Diabetes- for woman waist circumference greater than 35″ and men greater than 40 is highly indicative of diabetes and metabolic syndrome
Blood glucose monitor: an initial easy way to monitor Blood sugar at home–elevation and fluctuations are tip off regarding metabolic health, risk for diabetes or just monitoring diabetes and response to medication and to determine what foods might be triggering peaks in blood sugar
Hemoglobin A1C: ordered by physicians to track and monitor blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes. It will turn out as a good way to screen for prediabetes and motivate patients to make diet and lifestyle changes to avoid the diagnosis
Total Cholesterol and fractionated cholesterol-(HDL, LDL and Triglyceride): can be measured annually by health professional or more frequently if making dietary changes or to monitor response to medication
Dr. Berstein also pointed to other levels of sophisticated tests for different diseases based on monitoring of other parameters:
CT calcium score: a low cost/low radiation test to screen for coronary artery disease–the #1 cause of death in the US.
BRCA–DNA markers (tumor suppressor genes) for breast cancer for certain subgroups,