Preventive Guidelines: Do Lower Medical Numbers Make Chronic Disease More Likely?

Hypertension has new numbers that are lower for normal.  To be considered normotensive your blood pressure numbers should be lower than 120/80 versus the former normal blood pressure below 140/90.  This is the new recommendation from the cardiology experts.  This may be shown to cause less morbidity and mortality, but it may cause more people to be considered hypertensive.  If your reading on three doctor visits is over 120/80, you will be considered a patient with hypertension.

This is just one of the many medical measurements or blood tests where the WNL (within normal limits) has been lowered.  Cholesterol was at one time considered normal at 300.  The normal now is under 180.  New tests can have the same effect.  The BUN and creatinine were once the basic kidney function tests.  Now the GFR is added to these.  Your BUN and creatinine can be normal while your GFR suggests kidney disease based on your sex and your ethnicity. 

Do lower medical measurements and numbers really mean that more patients will have some chronic disease sooner? Or does it mean lower numbers mean better health with less morbidity and mortality?    Good health care will help keep you and your numbers healthier.  Keeping a lifestyle of healthy food, exercise, good sleep, and minimal stress are important health care routines for better health.  These can be integrated with complementary medicine and medication treatments if necessary. 
You should know the measurements and numbers of all your health tests.  This helps you attain better understanding and control of the unhealthy abnormal.  Lower numbers can mean less chronic disease if you know what you have and how to keep it from becoming chronic disease.  Best health!
  

Use Your Medical History As Guide Guideline

Preventive health guidelines were developed to improve one’s health using things that prevent disease and detect it early.  They are based on credible research in which the criteria have been studied extensively.  The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is a leading resource for preventive health guidelines along with doctor specialty organizations like the American Academy Of Family Physicians and American Academy of Pediatrics.  There are so many that it can become confusing as to what you should do.  Like one size fails to fit all so do the guidelines. How will you know what you need and when you need it?
 
Use your medical history as your guide in deciphering through different health organization guidelines.   Though they may address the same thing, there will be similarities and differences.  If you have a history of cancer, you may want to get a mammogram or colonoscopy more often. If there is a family history, you may want to get tests sooner than the guidelines suggest.  Abnormal physical exam findings warrant testing regardless of guidelines.
 
Be sure to review guidelines from different organizations. This gives you a broader view of what you need.  Look at the pros and cons as they fit you.  Focus on those that concern you and your condition.  Discuss them all with your doctors and healthcare providers to plan your guidelines. Your medical history is your guide to the guidelines right for you.  Best health!