RECOVER: 9/11/15 Place Your Bets on Healthy Action

I love technology - gadgets and sensors, data and dashboards....I love the stuff.  As wearables and health data applications have become more mainstream, I've had lots of fun checking out the variety of cool new measures.  So, as you can imagine, I was excited to get an email from a doctoral student from 1/2 way around the world last week telling me about some of his research and a new app he was working on....once I got over the mental hurdle of how small things like twitter have made the world of course.  He has been working on ways to measure markers of recovery, a known predictor of injury and disease - which, of course is right in our wheelhouse.  So, for the last few days, to support his effort, I've been taking some simple measurements (heart rate, breathing rate, etc) even before getting out of bed.  Even though it's a bit of "just another thing" to do in the AM before getting out the door, it's only a minute and the data is fascinating.

 

However, now that it's been a few days, I started wondering if this new knowledge would actually be enough of a nudge to change my actions.  Would it tempt me to go to bed earlier?  Would it help me to keep a more balanced training plan?  Would it actually have an impact on my actions?

 

Of course, no one really knows yet....but plenty of people are placing big bets that it will be something that helps us all achieve a better level of health.  If we used financial investments by the biggest tech companies (google, apple, etc) in health-tech as an indicator, it's fair to say the expectations are big -- revolutionary maybe.  However, tech to date has really been focused on making us more informed; influencing our beliefs and helping us to make better decisions because THIS is what will lower our risk of injury and disease....THIS is what will help us to live out the best version of ourselves - and to that end, there's good news and bad news.

 

The bad news: no matter how we slice it or dice it, actions & environment determines risk and risk determines likelihood of an incident. Therefore, lowering risk is about choosing the best actions and creating the lowest-risk environment.  This was proven again recently when researchers showed that the health-pitfalls associated with diabetes (which unfortunately impacts as many as 50% of the US adult population in either the diagnosable or pre-diagnosable form) were significantly increased for those who smoked. This study for example showed that risk of death in smokers who had diabetes was 50% higher - YIKES!

 

The good news: even small changes in our actions can have an impact. A small, but promising study for example showed that interrupting constant sitting (a known risk factor for diabetes) with as little as 3 minutes of moderate intensity walking had an impact on blood markers associated with developing the disease in kids - COOL!

 

Avoid smoking (and quit if you're ready), get moving  - nothing earth shattering there - but the results can be.  Even though (according to the CDC) the average American "heart age" continues to be higher than actual age, maybe it doesn't have to be.

 

The formula is really pretty simple - know your risk, take action to lower it and prevent injury and disease.  ANYONE can do it -- let us know if we can help.