Vital Signs: The 9Health Fair

Helping me to keep the remaining blood in my body
at the Nederland 9Health Fair.

At the onset, my expectation in training for the BolderBOULDER was to develop a weekly routine, but it has unintentionally increased my awareness of other health and wellness aspects which may include annual routines as well.

Deciding to focus on health last year, I made the commitment to come to the 9Health Fair at the Nederland Community Center.

For the town to provide this venue, is a tremendously convenient resource for mountain folks in the entire Peak to Peak region.

This year's event was postponed for a week due to last week's four foot snow storm. I came back to get the same screenings, and see if the exercise program (that I have been on for the past year) has improved my well being from the inside out. The 9Health Fair is an ideal chance to get a blood screening to see what is going on in my bloodstream.

Last year, I also began inputing vital statistics into the Apple Health App. I started with the basics, and even moved on to find out my blood type for the first time in fifty years. So, if I ever get run over by a bus (even though I'd more likely be inside the bus) but as the expression goes, if I got hit by a bus, I'll feel better knowing that the paramedics can access the Health App, and know my blood type.

I numerically confirmed that I've been a little overweight for the past three decades or so. What had been the low side of the 'Dad Bod' syndrome, had creeped up on me and I was about ten pounds heavier than the ten pounds overweight I had been. Some of it also might have been due to the fact that I had shrunk over an inch. What? "Oh yea. It happens to everybody," the perky physician's assistant said.

My wellness data in my palm with the Apple Health App 

Moving on to other vital signs; Previously, I had not paid attention to my blood pressure before, but now I appreciate that I can record these readings with the day and time, and that my health information has a place to live in the Apple Health App. "Hey, can I get the x-ray from the time my friend Wally broke my leg during eighth-grade football practice?" (Apparently, I can't get those x-rays considering that they recycled the material because x-rays were made with silver halide.)

I wonder, "Wouldn't it be cool to have an accurate and complete medical history of broken bones, measles, having my tonsils removed at five years-old, allergies, etc.?" This relatively small amount of data, can be carried around with me 'just in case' I ever need it. I'm also appreciative that Tim Cook and Apple are supportive of me being able to protect my own personal data. I wonder what it would be like to rely, and trust, people working on my body while I'm unconscious, with the information I put in my iPhone.

[Related Story: Nederland is Now a HEAL Town – Just Do It] 

It is just about this part of the dream state, that I wake up to a few people from the 9Health Fair looking down at me, because I passed out during the blood draw. Well, that's an experience that never happened to me before. I am grateful for the considerate folks at the 9Health Fair.

Screenshot of my AddApp

We are now reaching a point where I can track aspects of my health like an olympic athlete might have done just a couple of decades ago. My goal is to find a way to have this information collected in the easiest way possible, and improve my health. It's not just tracking steps, I can track over the past year my workouts, miles running, weight, blood pressure, sleep patterns, all sorts of nutrition, resting heart rate, even my blood oxygen saturation levels. When I get my blood results back, I'll be able to compare things like cholesterol or iron levels to last year's screening.

My hope, is that eventually all this data will be compared against each other across different platforms to provide insight into my health. The closest app to accomplishing this goal is called AddApp. It will tell me things like; that I sleep better when I exercise, or in the case of my actual feed in the image here, "Your data shows a link between your sodium intake and your running duration", or "When you consume more protein, your step count is higher the following day."

Similarly, the 9Health Fair also has a fabulous website called 9HealthReady for holistically focusing on five 'pillars' of wellness: Prevention, Sleep, Nutrition, Exercise, and Mental Health. I spent a few hours browsing these pages, and it is packed with useful information by local experts who share simple and effective resources to help you create or maintain healthy habits. Pretty much what I was looking for in this project.

If you missed the 9Health Fair in Nederland, you can still catch the 9Health Fair in Parker May 1, Thornton May 7, and Denver June 5. See the 9Health Fair website for details.

I'm anxious to see if training for the BolderBOULDER will become incorporated into my lifestyle and how that habit is reflected in these annual blood tests.

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[Here is a Video Valediction] The fourth song in my Running Track is where my run starts to get good. This is London elecrto-duo, Groove Armada with I See You Baby (Fatboy Slim Remix). Collectively, Joe's Running Track is sort of Techno, Trip Hop, Progressive House music, but if you actually run to this track, I think you’ll understand what I mean. [What is a Video Valediction?]