If you’re not feeling yourself it’s worth taking a trip to your health care provider to have a few basic tests. If you find anything is out of the ordinary the figures listed below can generally be controlled by making some alterations to your diet and lifestyle. Ask your doctor at your next visit to make sure you’re on top of your health.

Resting heart rate is best taken before you rise from bed in the morning by putting your finger on the pulse in your neck below your jaw line (carotid artery) or on your wrist. When taking your pulse use fingers rather than your thumb as your thumb has a pulse of its own. Count the beats for 15 seconds and then multiply this number by four to calculate the beats per minute.

Your resting heart rate should be as close to 60 as possible, if it is over 85 it is too high and your heart is having to work too hard to pump blood around your body

Blood pressure is the pressure of the blood in the arteries as the heart pumps it around the body.  Blood pressure is constantly changing to meet the body’s needs depending on exertion, emotional state and other factors. A healthy blood pressure is 115/75 to 120/80. Your blood pressure should be taken regularly and will generally be on your GP’s checklist when you visit them.

Cholesterol Levels above 5.5 are considered too high but this is not the only important figure. LDLs (Low Density Lipoproteins) which should be below 100 and HDLs (High Density Lipoproteins) which should be above 40, are a measure of the health cardiovascular system and are a big part of your cholesterol reading. Your LDLs take cholesterol from your liver to your cells where it performs several functions, if there are too many LDLs cholesterol will build up in your cells and arteries. HDLs are the good guys that take cholesterol from the cells back to the liver to be processed and excreted. Low HDLs will also lead to a build up of cholesterol in the cells and lining of the arteries causing cardiovascular disease.

Waist size is a quick and easy way to measure your likelihood of diabetes and heart disease. Your waist should measure less than 100cm for men and 80cm for women or another way of thinking is to have your waist line measure less than half your height. Some people have what is known as an 'apple' shaped body, carrying all their body fat around the abdominal region, this is an indication that you may be more prone to conditions affecting the cardiovascular system & diabetes.

Blood sugar levels are a measure of how well your body copes with sugars and simple carbohydrates in your diet. Your body produces a hormone called insulin which allows your cells to absorb sugar, therefore lowering your blood sugar levels. If your pancreas (which produces insulin) or insulin receptors on your cells are not working efficiently then your blood sugar levels will be raised. In the long term this leads to Insulin Resistance, Type II Diabetes Mellitus, Obesity and High Cholesterol and Cardiovascular disease.

Vitamin D levels are important to keep track of for those who don’t get enough sun exposure. If you go to work before the sun comes up and don’t see the outdoors until the sun is going down then you probably don’t get the required 15 minutes a day to produce the necessary amount of Vitamin D for Calcium metabolism & bone strength. If you are in this category a supplement containing 1000IU (International Units) of Vitamin D should be taken daily

TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) controls your Thyroid gland which governs your metabolism. Your Thyroid can be under or over active but it is more common for it to function below normal resulting in weight gain, decreased mood, slow speech, forgetfulness, dull facial expression, fluid retention and decreased hair growth which is also coarse and dry. From this long but not complete list of symptoms you can see how the Thyroid affects all parts of growth, development and metabolism.  A blood test can easily determine your TSH levels.

None of these tests are difficult, nor do they cost anything except a trip to the doctor so take the time to get to know yourself a little better and take charge of your health.