Keeping Score

How do you measure wellness? For that matter, how do you even know when you are well or not? We all know people who we thought were in pretty good health that suddenly came down with terminal cancer or died of a sudden heart attack. If I feel pretty good today, but have a heart attack tomorrow, was I really healthy? The more I learn about questions and subjects like this, the more I appreciate all the work and forethought that was put into our 8 Weeks to Wellness (8WW) program. In 8WW we use a Wellness Score to evaluate wellness. This score comes with a report of numerous tests including blood tests. But unlike most tests, these aren’t necessarily looking for what’s wrong or disease processes, these tests are looking to see how you are functioning. Because, we know, that when you are functioning at or close to 100%, you don’t have illness, health problems, or even symptoms. While I don’t have room to talk about all of these tests, I would like to focus on a couple.

Perhaps your most important test is your body composition; looking at your ratio of lean muscle versus fat. In our office, we use a bio impedance analysis machine to measure this as it’s supposed to be the most precise method. But for home use, you can use a Tanita handheld device or measure skinfolds with calipers. The reason this measurement is so important is because just last year they declared this composition to be the single best predictor of biological age and longevity. What this basically means is that those carrying and maintaining the most lean muscle through life win. The ideal ranges for this measurement vary depending on age and gender, but the solution to maintaining lean muscle is around 200 minutes of exercise per week that includes strength training and a low glycemic diet with adequate protein. Another simple but potent measurement is your abdominal fat. All you need for this is a tape measure and a bellybutton. Simply measure all the way around at the level of the bellybutton and record your number. For men, this number should not exceed 40 inches and for women it should stay under 35. When this measurement comes back high, you are at significantly higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. While exercise is important for this measurement, the solution for belly fat is largely diet. Excessive fat in the abdomen is mostly due to excessive sugar in the diet. Cut the sugar, grains, pastas, cereals, and white potatoes and you can watch the belly fat shrink away!

To learn more about the importance of a low glycemic diet, I would like to invite you all to the Red Bicycle Hall on Main Street in downtown Madison on Tuesday, September 30th at 7:00 pm. We’ve purchased the rights to show the movie “Fed Up” that is currently in theaters. This is a movie that USA Today said “Will change the way people think about eating.” If you plan on attending this impactful event, please go to the Rivertown Chiropractic Wellness Center Facebook page and find the post on “Fed Up” and click “join.” You can also call us at the office number to RSVP. This way we can tell the Hall how many people to expect. Hope to see you there!