Recently we have been asked "Do you know your BMI ?" and now "Do you know your A1c ?". Some people will have had problems in these areas and become familiar with them, but I'm wondering generally, if the health system in the US places a lot more importance on these figures for insurance purposes.
In the UK, we pay a national insurance premium and all treatment is free at point of delivery. Most of us just get on with our lives.
Numbers, odds, probabilities, actuals, polls, chances, tracking, weather, hurricane force, richter scale, g-force, distance, MPG, FICO scores & on & on. Science, health, laws all things that control your life are numbers based. I agree, why can't we just ignore the numbers & get on with our lives, watch a few 'cute' kitten videos & talk about the best restaurant (whoops more numbers). Life has become probability & your survival depends upon knowing those probabilities. I for one had a knack for numbers, couldn't spell my way for apples, didn't know who Emily Bronte was, but numbers were understandable.
5 years ago I was floored by health problems & the treatment was completely based upon my knowing my numbers, tumor markers, chances (odds) of survival if I choose this treatment or not. What I needed to do while in treatment, what numbers I & my oncologist needed to watch on my labs every two weeks. What dosage was required for those numbers. Most of it was left up to me to obtain favorable numbers & not my phantom team, I had diets I had to follow, things I no longer could do I was doing, I had to change my lifestyle. I reached those numbers the specialists wanted & had many follow up labs, office consultations & self-awareness on my own.
More numbers become my life, if I hadn't been aware of all the numbers of my labs, along with as much study as I could I wouldn't have known what non-aspirin over-the-drugs were doing to my body & liver functions, what diet soda or chemical additives, that things as simple as hand soap or shampoo were responsible for the red rashes in various parts of my body. I already knew that bleached flour, margarine, sugar substitutes, processed foods were harmful but without knowing the numbers I didn't know how much harm they were doing.
I was doing great until the summer of 2015 when another set of numbers sabotaged my health, A1C & glucose, The more I studied the more aware I became of the importance of numbers. BMI, A1C, BS, BP, labs & tumors markers were numbers I learned about so that I could ask intelligent questions when I was sitting in either my PC doctor, oncologist, cardiologist, ophthalmologist's office playing my roll in the 'team effort' to help me live. Your free doctor or clinic bases all your treatment & meds upon numbers. The more you know about them the easier & more accurate the treatment can be for all concerned.
In my entertainment choices I wanted to know why some people won & most people lost when they went gambling, numbers are a super major part of a gamblers life. You DON'T win or stand a chance of winning unless you know numbers & odds. Point spread controls a multi-billion dollar industry, even what games will be televised are based upon numbers.
