Today we start with a discussion of reference ranges, and how what medicine considers as “normal” may not be optimal for your health. Remember, normal is relative! It changes based on age, gender, physical activity, and so much more. In fact, if you were to assess someone's weight in America today, it would be normal to be overweight, because 70% of us are overweight. Yet, we keep changing the reference ranges for lab tests based on a sick population. That’s crazy! We should aspire to optimal health.

Next, we apply this knowledge to the most basic medical measurements—your vital signs. Everybody knows that when you go to the doctor, the first thing you do is you get your vitals taken by the nurse: your blood pressure, your weight, your heart rate, your temperature, etc. But does your doctor tell you what these numbers mean? Do they just mean you're not dying? How can you tell if you're thriving?

Let’s find out.

~ Dr. Mark Hyman

Heart Rate: This shows how fast your heart is working and is a reflection of your cardiovascular health and stress (whether you’re in a state of fight or flight constantly, or can relax into rest and repair). Your heart rate can also tell you about your thyroid health: a low or high heart rate may be reflecting an underactive (slow heart rate), or overactive (fast heart rate) thyroid gland.

• Normal: 60-100 Beats per minute
• Optimal: 60-80 Beats per minute

Heart Rate Variability: This reflects the complexity of your heart rate and the health of your autonomic or automatic nervous system, which controls all the subconscious processes of your body such as digestion, heart rate, breathing, etc. The worst heart rate is a flat line—no variability! The best is lots of variability. In other words, your heart rate isn’t 72 but instead is 69, 71, 68 ½, 73, and so on. It varies from beat to beat.

• Ideal: high HRV

Blood Pressure: Your blood pressure is the resistance your heart is pumping against. You want it low enough so it doesn’t damage your vessels, but high enough that it can get blood to your brain and limbs.

• Normal: less than 130/80
• Optimal: 110/60-129/79

Waist-to-Hip Ratio: This is a better measure of metabolic risk factor (i.e. your risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc) compared to weight or body mass index (BMI) alone. This is because it tells us about your body composition—how much of your body is fat versus muscle/water. This is so important since the single biggest health problem we face globally is the metabolic disaster that has led to a global epidemic of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. 

How to:

• Measure your waist:
• Measure midway between the last rib you can feel and the top of the iliac crest (the topmost bony ridge of your hips). This is roughly where your belly button is.
• Measure your hips:
• Measure the widest part of your hips a few inches below where your belt goes (these bony protuberances of the thigh bone are known as the greater trochanters)
• Divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement:
• Waist/Hip= waist-to-hip ratio
• Optimal Women: <.8
• Optimal Men: <.9

The content in this course has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. This content is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. Always work with qualified healthcare practitioner when making changes to your medication, diet or overall healthcare plan.