Tuesday, August 09 2011
Health Shouldn't Be a Numbers Game
Healthcare in this country is strongly driven by numbers. You have numbers for blood pressure, cholesterol, osteoporosis, weight and BMI to name a few. But do numbers by themselves really tell the complete or accurate story about your health? Let's look at two good examples that illustrate my point.
Cholesterol Numbers and Heart Attacks
Statistically, protecting yourself against heart disease requires far more than just simply lowering your cholesterol levels. According to Dr. Barry Sears, "50 percent of the people who are hospitalized with heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels and 25 percent of people who develop premature heart disease have no traditional risk factors at all." If reducing cholesterol is really that important in preventing heart disease, why do so many heart attacks occur in the "normal" cholesterol group?
DEXA Scores and Osteoporosis Fractures
When a DEXA scan is performed on your bones, a series of numbers called T-scores are created which provide information on your bone density (BMD). These numbers become ONE risk factor in the calculation of future fracture risk. When deciding to take medication or embark on other treatment options, BMD is mistakenly used as the ONLY risk factor. There are as many as 12 different risk factors that should be looked at including BMD. The FRAX Index is a tool that includes all of these risk factors in its calculation of future fracture risk.
So the next time your doctor talks about numbers to you, remember that there is always more to your health and well being than just the the numbers.
