How to Prevent "Health Drift" - Lifestyle Markets

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How to Prevent "Health Drift"

Dear Dr.Kim,

Can you recommend some lab screenings that I can have to help me start this New Year off right? I want to make sure that I am being proactive about my healthcare.

T.D. Victoria

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Dear T.D.

Great question. I like to look at labs to get a baseline and gauge change over time. After all, your body is like a boat; it needs regular care to keep it balanced and in good working order. But even more importantly, it needs someone at the wheel charting a course to ensure a balanced and safe voyage. You don’t want to drift.

When you’re drifting, you’re not managing your health and where it’s headed. I call it Health Drift. This is when your body is off course and your diet, exercise, sleep quality, and overall energy suffer as a result. Sometimes you don’t even know you’re drifting and this is where lab work can help identify or reveal sub-optimal, sub-clinical data. I see health drift often and it is not specific to any age, gender, or time in life. Sometimes it is minor and you’re able to easily course correct, but other times, you might need some help to pull yourself back in.

Think of it like this. When you’re born, you (hopefully) have really great vitality and your health bucket is full through childhood. As we mature, we adjust to new schedule and demands, and maybe you don’t keep up self-care and nourishment as well as you would like to. You start to drift from the healthy habits you had when you were younger and had less on your plate. It’s not a big deal at first; you just have more going on and a little less time for wellness. You’re young and you push through. Your body adjusts to the changes but the level in your health bucket dips.

As the years go by it gets harder and harder to get back to an optimal level of health balance since you’re competing with a very full life. So it’s very natural that your health suffers. Everything in your body is interrelated, so if you’re suffering in one area, then there will likely be compromise is another. Energy may decrease, then your metabolism may slow down, you won’t exercise as much as you need to and the vicious cycle ensues.

If you’re strong in your health focus, you’ll be able to course correct and reign in any drift you might be experiencing. If you’ve been drifting for a while now, you might need a new map to get back to where you feel good again. I value doing screening labs to check in with parameters that we can test to get an idea of status against optimal. In some cases (not all) the reference ranges for labs can be broken into quadrants and I like to edge towards high normal, rather then the bottom rungs of low.

Some screening labs that you can have are: CBC, B12, Ferritin and Iron saturation, Fasting glucose and Fasting cholesterol, Kidney function, as well as Sex Hormones.

I hope this data helps you steer clear of the drift.

“Health from the inside out.”

 

Dr. Kimberly McQueen BSc, ND is a Naturopathic Physician in Victoria, BC. In addition to her clinic work she has been a consultant to the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence, Camosun College, and Rugby Canada. Kim currently works with Rowing Canada, providing Sport Performance Nutrition support. P:778.433.4935 and Kim McQueen is one of the Co-founders of the nourishing Supershake, Rumble.