Tracking Health #

Health Stats XKCD

Why? #

A common (the most common?) way people try to stay healthy is by adopting habits that are generally known to be healthy. By “generally known”, I mean that epidemiological studies have found correlations between certain behaviors and positive outcomes, or that anecdotes from individual people support a behavior (“this worked for me”). This is a great starting point for determining what is healthy, but it is not perfect. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of variation between different people in what is physically healthy for them, and both studies and anecdotes can be systematically flawed.

Probably the most reliable way to stay vigorous and healthy for the longest possible time is by self-experimenting to see what behaviors work best for you. Of course, using anecdotes/epidemiology/randomized controlled trials to inform what to try will greatly accelerate your ability to settle on the best habits.

Inputs #

These are things you can change or habits you can adapt to effect your health. Tracking them is useful to correlate them with outputs.

Food #

See “Tracking Food”

Exercise #

Methods #

Fitbit
Oura Ring
Location Tracking

Blood Pressure #

Sleep Time #

Dental Care #

Socializing #

Use a microphone to detect how much I personally am talking, use this as a proxy for how social I am being.

Temperature #

Both body temperature and external ambient temperature/humidity.

Outputs #

These are metrics that correlate in some way with health goals (e.g. staying vigorous and health for the longest possible time).

Epigenetic Clocks #

Sleep Quality #