“Americans have the shortest lifespan, the most chronic disease, the most avoidable deaths, despite spending the most on healthcare.” -Dr. Will Cole
Ouch that hurts to think about. If you have listened to Casey and Callie Means on the Joe Rogan Podcast, or had a chance to listen to any of the roundtable discussions with the Senators and RFK Jr., or listen to any of the other revelations regarding the current state of health, you know the statistics are not in our favor. Faced also with the sad truth that our medical system is effective at dealing with chronic health issues. Doctors do a phenomenal job working with acute issues or trauma’s but they are sadly falling short in the area of chronic health.
Did you know…. It takes approximately 10 years for a cancer cell to develop into a tumor, so what you do today affects your health tomorrow!
The good news is we also live in a new ERA of health! We can take responsibility for our lives and be proactive with the new wave known as bio-observability!
Bio-observability is using the tools we have available to observe our health now, so we can make changes to better our future. In Casey Means new book, Good Energy, she chats with an aerospace engineer from Space X about how they put tens of thousands of sensors all over their rockets! They are wanting to know immediately if something is not functioning correctly before the rocket experiences a system failure. So why do we as humans wait until we have a system failure before we attempt to correct course?
You may have the tools in your hands now or even on your wrist, so you can be proactive today! If you have a piece of paper you can record what you eat and drink and track your moods and energy levels that will give you a glimpse into what your diet is doing for you. If you have a phone with Apps available like myfitnesspal or chronometer you can track your diet and activity to help you understand what you are really doing.
What we actually do, and what we think we do often don’t match up and so seeing it on paper or on an app helps us to connect the dots.
If you have a smartwatch or oura ring (depending on the watch)- you can track your movement, temperature, your heart rate variability, your respiratory rate, your monthly cycles if you’re a female, and my favorite- SLEEP!!!! Sleep is vital for all life healing processes and longevity. Sleep is one of the hardest things to track, because you are asleep and don’t know what’s going on. You want to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night, you want to get at least 17% Deep sleep and 17% REM sleep each night. It’s not just about quantity but quality! Use your watch to see what you are actually doing, and if you’re not getting what you need, that’s an area I can work with you on!
This past week my doctors office gave me and each of my family members a continuous glucose monitor as a 10 day free trial. Ask your physician if you too can get a free trial for a CGM! A CGM monitors your blood sugar levels 24 hours a day, it shows you what is happening in real time and if you pay close attention you will learn how food, stress, activity and so much more adjusts your blood sugar levels. Doctors are saying that more than 80% of today's chronic disease is rooted in metabolic dysfunction, which is tied closely to blood sugar levels.
The first time I wore a 10 day meter, I learned that stress was not my friend, my diet held my blood sugar flat and stable, but every day on the drive heading into work my sugar would spike so fast the alarm would go off! My job at the time was an incredibly stressful situation, and my body was feeling it. Seeing the spike and then drop hours later, revealed to me that I needed to make a change as my life was causing strain on my physical body! Blood sugar spikes and reactive drops are dangerous to cellular health.
This past week, I learned that I can hold a stable blood sugar level but one sweet will raise my levels as it should, but I struggled to come back down to normal. Hmm. I also noticed feeling very anxious, my thoughts unfocused and heart racing when my sugar was high! Because it stayed high for longer than I would have preferred I would go walk, and within a 10 minute walk I would bring my number back to normal again. Movement after eating is a very efficient blood sugar regulating hack!
Using the few tools or sensors we have available to monitor our health can help us be proactive today, motivate us to make life changes, and hopefully avoid the illness that was a potential threat glaring at us a decade later.
The other wonderful thing about using these sensors is that if we are already struggling with health issues, they can give us more clues and indicators or what’s happening and where in our lives, so we can heal more efficiently and effectively!
Join me in this new ERA of Bio-Observability!!! Take action today, so you can heal more effectively and or don’t have to suffer the consequences tomorrow.