I try to be very upfront about anything I discuss here, and that includes a couple of personal health facts: 1) I currently have no health insurance, and, 2) I generally too inactive and very overweight.
Which made it especially interesting to get a sort of “mini-physical” yesterday at a local “sliding rate” health clinic.
I was very concerned, given my weight and my level of inactivity, about blood pressure. Those quicky blood pressure machines at many pharmacies has been showing me higher levels of blood pressure each year. They aren’t really accurate, I’ve heard, but indications were there that the aging blood vessels were, well, aging less than gracefully.
The blood pressure was indeed elevated above normal, but not too severely. The doc prescribed the mildest available blood pressure medicine (got it for $4 per 30 days) and encouraged me to get more active. The clinic did cholesterol testing and blood sugar testing, which I won’t get results on for a week or two.
What really surprised me is that all the heart beat/heart rate stuff was good, and I actually have lost four or five pounds in the last few months.
Amazingly fit for an overweight, sedentary Old Guy, I thought. I don’t know whether to chalk that up to good genes, exceptionally good fortune, blind fate, prenatal vitamins my mother took, or what.
But I’ll take it. And, yes, I’ll try to do better.