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Wisdom Wednesdays: The Six Most Important Health Biomarkers to Track · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Now, we all know the importance of.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Going to the doctor and getting regular health checkups, particularly
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: as you get older, and especially as you hit my
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  Speaker 1: aage north of fifty. But what are the most important
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  Speaker 1: markers to actually look at? So today I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: talk about what I think and this is my personal opinion,
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  Speaker 1: But what I think are these six most important bio
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  Speaker 1: markers in terms of your long term health. And five
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  Speaker 1: of them are interconnected, and in one of them stands alone.
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  Speaker 1: So the five that are interconnected are constituents of what's
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  Speaker 1: called the metabolic syndrome. Now you may have heard of
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: metabolic syndrome, and recent research has shown that about thirty
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  Speaker 1: five percent or more of Australians have metabolic syndrome, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure that data is very similar in most developed nations,
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  Speaker 1: and worse in the UK and particularly in the USA.
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  Speaker 1: So the metabolic center, why is it an issue? Well,
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  Speaker 1: basically it means your metabolism is broken. And we know
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  Speaker 1: that people who have metabolic syndrome have really significantly increased
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  Speaker 1: risks of cardiovascular disease, which is the biggest killer of
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  Speaker 1: also type two diabetes, which is a big killer, but
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  Speaker 1: they also have massively increased risk of dementia and cognitive decline.
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  Speaker 1: And I've talked about before dementia is now the second
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  Speaker 1: biggest killer of all Australians and is soon in the
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  Speaker 1: next few years predicted to be the first. But if
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  Speaker 1: you have metabolic syndrome, it also significantly increases your risk
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  Speaker 1: of non alcoholic fatty.
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  Speaker 2: Liver disease which causes a whole.
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  Speaker 1: Heap of complications, and chronic kidney disease, as well as
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  Speaker 1: a number of different cancers pcos as, sleep, apnea, and
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  Speaker 1: the list goes on. So this for me is the
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  Speaker 1: one thing that everybody needs to look out for, and
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  Speaker 1: particularly as we get older, as our risk our incidents
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  Speaker 1: dramatically increases with age. And so the metabolic syndrome is
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  Speaker 1: basically three from five. Now, there are different definitions of
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  Speaker 1: it from different places around the world.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to use the Australian definition.
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  Speaker 1: It's three from five of the following high blood pressure,
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  Speaker 1: high triglycerides, high hats DL I sorry, low fast and
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  Speaker 1: low hats DL, the good cholesterol and inverted commas, high
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  Speaker 1: fasting glucose and what's called central obesity.
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  Speaker 2: So let's go through those ones one by one.
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  Speaker 1: So the first one is blood pressure, and high blood
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  Speaker 1: pressure is defined in terms of the metabolic syndrome as
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  Speaker 1: having a systolic the top number of greater or equal
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  Speaker 1: to one hundred and thirty milim also of mercury or
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  Speaker 1: eighty five or more for your diastolic. So the systemic
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  Speaker 1: that's the pressure in your artery walls when the heart
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  Speaker 1: is beating, and then when the heart is relaxing, that's
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  Speaker 1: your diastolic number that eighty five. So either one of
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  Speaker 1: those consistently above those. That is saying high blood pressure.
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  Speaker 1: Now just another thing. When you go in to get
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  Speaker 1: the doctor, and you walk in to the waiting room,
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  Speaker 1: you see and then you come into the doctor's office,
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  Speaker 1: you sit down and take your blood pressure straight away.
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  Speaker 1: That is not a true reflection because you've been up,
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  Speaker 1: you've been walking around. Really to get a true reflection,
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  Speaker 1: you should be have been sitting down for at least
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  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. Ideally, have no caffeine. If you're concerned about
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  Speaker 1: blood pressure, I recommend it you get a blood pressure
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  Speaker 1: monitor and you test it at home, and if there
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  Speaker 1: is an issue, you really want to get it checked
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  Speaker 1: properly before you jump to any conclusions, and be a
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  Speaker 1: word that some people suffer from what's called white coat
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  Speaker 1: hyphe pertension. So as soon as they say a white coat,
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  Speaker 1: as soon as somebody's measuring the blood pressure, it can
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  Speaker 1: go up. So that's why taking it consistently over a
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  Speaker 1: period of fifteen minutes or so when you're seated are
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  Speaker 1: half line is the best way to measure your blood pressure.
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  Speaker 1: Then let's talk about triglycerides. So high triglycerides are defined
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  Speaker 1: as more than one point seven millimals per liter or
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  Speaker 1: if you're American, one hundred and fifty milligrams per desileter,
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  Speaker 1: So those two scales, they're different in different countries. So
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  Speaker 1: one point seven minimals per leater are one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty milligrams per desti leader. Triglycerides are a sign of
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  Speaker 1: excess energy in the bloodstream and can also be a
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  Speaker 1: sign of insulin resistance. So that's why it's really important,
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  Speaker 1: and that triglyceraids goes hand in hand with HDL cholesterol,
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  Speaker 1: the good cholesterol. So the cutoffs here from the metabolic
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  Speaker 1: syndrome perspective are less than one milli mole per lider
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  Speaker 1: for men, which is about thirty nine milligrams per desolater
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  Speaker 1: in the other language, or for females is less than
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  Speaker 1: one point three, which is fifty milligrams per destily, so
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  Speaker 1: one point three milli moles per lider or one or
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  Speaker 1: fifty milligrams per destolat and again, and particularly as it
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  Speaker 1: interacts with treglycerides, this can be a sign of insulin
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  Speaker 1: resistance that causes widespread damage throughout the body. Then we
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  Speaker 1: have fasting glucose of more than five point five milli
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  Speaker 1: moles per lider, so this is after an overnight fast
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  Speaker 1: or in the other language, ninety nine milligrams per desilet.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes they use one hundred just for ease. So what
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  Speaker 1: is really important to understand is glucose is the last
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  Speaker 1: thing that tends to go awry in terms of the
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  Speaker 1: metabolic syndrome. So some people think that they get loaded
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  Speaker 1: into a false sense of security because may have high
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  Speaker 1: blood pressure, they may have central obesity, but they think, hey,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not too bad because my blood sugar is okay.
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  Speaker 2: That is the last to go.
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  Speaker 1: The other component that we talked about was central obesity,
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  Speaker 1: so that's high waste circumference. So the cutoffs used for this,
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  Speaker 1: again they vary, but the Australian money is for men
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  Speaker 1: more than ninety four centimeters. And this is not when
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  Speaker 1: you're sucking in your gut. This is you take a
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  Speaker 1: breath in, your breathe out, your relax your gut and
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  Speaker 1: you measure generally around the umbilical cord, are the umbilical cord,
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  Speaker 1: the belly button. That's the kind of measurement looking at
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  Speaker 1: making sure you're getting it straight all the way around.
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  Speaker 1: And then for women it's more than eighty centimeters. And
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  Speaker 1: there are some different cutoffs, particularly for people for with
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  Speaker 1: Central Asian are East Asian and Chinese and Central and
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  Speaker 1: South American descent, and they're saying and actually the cutoff
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  Speaker 1: for me and should be ninety centimeters rather than ninety
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  Speaker 1: four centimeters. So there are a few individual differences. So
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  Speaker 1: together three of those five things means that your metabolism
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  Speaker 1: is starting to fall apart. And most chronic diseases, particularly
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  Speaker 1: the big killers the ones I talked about, cardiovascu disease,
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  Speaker 1: type two diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and all alcoholic fatly
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  Speaker 1: liver disease, some forms of cancer, dimension cognitive decline your
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  Speaker 1: risk of those goes through the roof if you have
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  Speaker 1: the metabolic syndrome. Now, let's talk about the other blood
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  Speaker 1: biomarker that I feel is really really important, and this,
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  Speaker 1: for me, is the single most nutricio, the most important
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  Speaker 1: nutritional signal that we should be looking at, and it's
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  Speaker 1: something called your Amiga three index. Now, you will not
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  Speaker 1: get this tested from the doctor. You've got to go
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  Speaker 1: get it done privately. But it's actually pretty cheap and
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  Speaker 1: go to an amigaquant dot com.
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  Speaker 2: I got no association with these guys.
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  Speaker 1: I just love their testing because what has been shown
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  Speaker 1: quite robustly in the research is that people who have
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  Speaker 1: an Amiga three index of eight percent or more live
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  Speaker 1: five years longer than people with an Amiga three index
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  Speaker 1: of five or less. Now, you show me one other
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  Speaker 1: nutritional signal that actually determines a longevity difference of five years.
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  Speaker 1: For me, this is the most important in terms of
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  Speaker 1: nutritional signals, is that a Mega three index. And interestingly,
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  Speaker 1: most Americans have an a Mega three index of five
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  Speaker 1: or below. And in Japan the average Amiga three index
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  Speaker 1: is et And they eat a bucket load of fish
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  Speaker 1: and they just happened to live five years longer than Americans.
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  Speaker 1: Now that's not what this where the study actually came from.
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  Speaker 1: This was a study looking at a whole bunch of
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  Speaker 1: people independently of that, but we see that backed up
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  Speaker 1: in the observational evidence of longevity.
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  Speaker 2: So you're a Mega three index.
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  Speaker 1: That is basically the proportion of these long chain omega threes,
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  Speaker 1: epa and dita of all fatty acids in your red
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  Speaker 1: blood membranes.
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  Speaker 2: Now why red blood cells.
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  Speaker 1: This is the equivalent the Amiga three index is the
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  Speaker 1: equivalent of HITESBA one c for glucose. So if you
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  Speaker 1: get your fast in glucose, that's a snapshot in time
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  Speaker 1: of one particular morning. It can be influenced by your stress,
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  Speaker 1: your sleep levels, all of those things. But HITESBA one
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  Speaker 1: c is a measure of it over three months, which
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  Speaker 1: is a much better measure. Likewise, a Mega three index
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  Speaker 1: is actually a measure of it in your red blood
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  Speaker 1: cells that tend to have a life of about three months,
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  Speaker 1: so that is the reflection of the last three months.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a much more steable.
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  Speaker 1: Measure than just getting a Mega three from traditional blood.
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  Speaker 1: This actually takes it from your red blood cells and
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  Speaker 1: that's really really critical. And you can get the basic
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  Speaker 1: test from a mega quant, or you can get a
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  Speaker 1: more in depth test of your fatty acids, and I
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  Speaker 1: love that test. It also looks at your Amiga six
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  Speaker 1: to Amiga three ratio, which again is another important measure.
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  Speaker 1: Most people have too much Amiga six. We need a
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  Speaker 1: fair amount of Amiga six, but too much of them
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  Speaker 1: start to become pro inflammatory. So I highly recommend you
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  Speaker 1: jump onto a mega quant and order the tests. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: you can get the more complex tests the first time
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  Speaker 1: and then just go back to the basic test, But
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  Speaker 1: for me, are the real things that you want to
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  Speaker 1: look at, and just going to your doctor getting your
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  Speaker 1: standard bloods and getting a measurement of your waste circumference
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  Speaker 1: and that will tell you whether or not you have
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  Speaker 1: metabolic syndrome. And then for a small additional cost, I
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  Speaker 1: think it's about sixty five Ousie dollars, you can get
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  Speaker 1: your Amiga three index measured at a mega quant.
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  Speaker 2: So some people.
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  Speaker 1: May actually ask, and I get askest all the time,
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  Speaker 1: is that why don't put a lot of emphasis on
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  Speaker 1: LDL Because there's a lot of emphasis placed on LDL.
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  Speaker 1: I actually think LDL cholesterol by itself is a pretty
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  Speaker 1: poor measure, a poor proxy of your cardiovascular disease risk.
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  Speaker 1: I've seen research studies published at showing that half of
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  Speaker 1: all patients who have a heart attack have normal levels
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  Speaker 1: of LDL cholesterol. And then there's a study that was
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  Speaker 1: published at UCLA Health that showed that seventy five percent
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: of patients who were hospitalized for a heart attack had
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  Speaker 1: normal levels of cholesterol. Right now, this was a number
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  Speaker 1: of years ago, this study, and you know what their
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  Speaker 1: conclusion was. The conclusion was the guidelines for people are
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  Speaker 1: clearly not low enough. We should be driving it lower.
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  Speaker 1: So that's one way of looking at it. The other
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  Speaker 1: way of looking at it is that LDL cholesterol in
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  Speaker 1: and of itself is not causative of heart disease. And
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  Speaker 1: there's lots of debate about this online. You will hear
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  Speaker 1: lots of different opinions, even from highly seasoned health professionals
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  Speaker 1: and cardiologists. I don't think that LDL and of itself
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  Speaker 1: is causative. We know things measures like APO B are
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  Speaker 1: much more predictive and LDL particle size, So just so
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  Speaker 1: you know your LDL has different particle size. We know
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  Speaker 1: that small dense LDL is this stuff that is athrogenic
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  Speaker 1: and big fluffy LDL is not pathogenic at all, and
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  Speaker 1: some people even say that it might be protective. So
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  Speaker 1: you do not know from a typical LDL test that
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  Speaker 1: you get at your doctor what your particle size is.
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  Speaker 1: So if you want to go down that route in
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  Speaker 1: terms of looking at cholesterol, I highly recommend that you
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  Speaker 1: get some of the more in depth analysis looking at
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  Speaker 1: your particle size, and particularly then LP LITTLEA and apole B.
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  Speaker 1: That's Apo capital B and it stands for apple lipper
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  Speaker 1: protein B and that is basically a protein that transports
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  Speaker 1: lipids around and that's involving both cholesterol and tricless rides,
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  Speaker 1: and so that is a better measure of your overall
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  Speaker 1: cardiovascular risk. But I think that metabolic syndrome has got
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: much bigger implications.
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  Speaker 2: For a wide variety of diseases. So there we have it.
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  Speaker 1: That is my personal opinions, not medical advice, but my
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  Speaker 1: personal opinion on what I think are the most six
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  Speaker 1: most important biomarkers in terms of your long term health.
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  Speaker 1: Hopefully that's useful. That's it for this week. Catch you
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: next time, folks.