Know your numbers
In order to stay healthy, various guidelines have been developed to assist you in
measuring your health. The guidelines used here are mostly for Cardiovascular
measures and are based on South African guidelines. Other countries such as
the United States and the European Union have their own numbers, which may differ
from the SA ones.
When you know what the healthy range is you should check regularly to see that you
are keeping within them. This is part of the key to better health
Listed below is a score card you may like to use for numbers; you should be aiming
for, if you are not there already 1,2,3,4
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Blood Pressure
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Aim for less than 140/90 mmHg
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Cholesterol levels
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Total Cholesterol
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Aim for less than 5 mmol/L
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Triglycerides
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Aim for less than 1,7 mmol/L
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LDL (Bad Cholesterol)
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Aim for less than 3 mmol/L
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HDL (Good Cholesterol)
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Aim for greater than 1 mmol/L in males
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Aim for greater than 1,3 mmol/L in females
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Blood Sugar levels
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Fasting glucose
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Aim for 4-6 mmol/L
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2 hours postprandial (following a meal)
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Aim for 4-8 mmol/L
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HBA1c
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Aim for less than 7%
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Obesity
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BMI (Calculated: Weight divided by (Height in metres squared))
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Aim for less than 25 kg /m 2
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Fill in your height and weight below and press the 'Calculate' button to calculate
your BMI.
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Waist circumference
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Aim for less than 94 cm in males, less than 90 cm for Asians
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Aim for less than 80 cm in females,less than 80 cm for Asians
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NB Even a 5% weight loss can improve most metabolic parameters
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Smoking
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Stop
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For ways help you stop smoking click here...
You could have Metabolic Syndrome if you have any 3 of the following 5 criteria:
- Elevated waist circumference (Men greater than 94 cm Asian men greater than 90 cm,
women greater than 80 cm)
- Raised triglycerides (Greater than 1,7 mmol/L)
- Reduced HDL (Less than 1,0 mmol/L in men and less than 1,3 mmol/L in women)
- Elevated BP (Greater than 130/85 mmHg or on anti-hypertension medication)
- Elevated fasting blood glucose (Greater than 5,6 mmol/L)
If you think that you may have Metabolic Syndrome or are concerned about your health,
consult your doctor
For References on this section please
click here..