I AM FINE, thank you. Or at least I think I am. I have no serious illnesses to speak of, I am of average weight and a recent knee scan showed that my joints are sufficiently oiled. My blood pressure is perfect and I exercise fairly regularly, at least, sometimes. Then again, I have a cough that I can’t shake. I don’t feel physically strongAnd since I’m about to turn 40, I really should get a mammogram, given my family history of breast cancer.
So, am I healthy? With my “big birthday” looming, I’ve found myself increasingly wondering what it means to be healthy and how we can best measure whether or not we are. I had assumed there would be a well-established way to find out. But when I started investigating, I quickly discovered that it’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer.
This is partly because we now know that many of the metrics we rely on, such as body mass index (BMI), are imperfect. But it is also the result of new insights into microbiome and the immune systemamong other things. These are giving rise to a whole new set of tests that promise better health assessments, from those that probe gut bacteria or metabolites to those that provide an “immune grade.” So which of these new tests, if any, should I turn to for my ultimate health check?
What does it mean to be healthy?
Your common sense definition of what it means to be healthy probably coincides more or less with…