Trying a different number

If you watched the Biggest Loser last week, you couldn't have missed the repeated suggestions from Dr. Huizenga and others to "know your number" by visiting the Biggest Loser website and clicking the Know Your Number link. Basically, this is supposed to be a way of determining your overall health my giving you a number that represents how "old" you are physically. In other words, if you're 30 years old and have a lot of health issues, such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes, your physical condition might have your body more in the shape of a 50- or 60-year-old. Likewise, if you have none of those issues and you're taking steps to maintain and improve your health, then your score might be more like 20.

OK, I know this is sort of a gimmicky kind of thing, but it piqued my curiosity. But I must say I much more interested in knowing my number before I knew theirs -- $89.99.

This is exactly why the Biggest Loser has started rubbing me the wrong way. While I still enjoy the show immensely, it seems more and more like the show is devolving into a two-hour infomercial for weight-loss products, and in some cases the tie to weight-loss is tangential at best. ("To curb your snack cravings, try chewing Brand X sugarless gum! Then wash the cancer-causing artificial sweetener out of your mouth using this Acme water filter!")

To be fair, this does seem to be a little more than a super-expensive online quiz about your health habits. I noticed that you actually send them a blood sample during the process, so hopefully you actually get some worthwhile information (perhaps cholesterol or blood sugar analysis) for your hard-earned money.

Still, in this economy, shelling out $90 for a questionable health analysis is something a lot of people, myself included, might shy away from. So, today I thought I'd offer the cheapskate's way of obtaining questionable health info.

First, keep on the lookout for health fairs sponsored by local hospitals and clinics. A lot of times, these events will provide such services as cholesterol and blood sugar screening for free, and you'll have the added bonus of having a health professional right there with you to answer questions about your results. This will be much better, much more personally relevant information than you could get from Know Your Number.

But if you're really interested in assigning an age or score to your body's health, you can always check out Real Age. This is a website that offers an online quiz, during which you answer questions about your health and habits. Then, by adding years for bad answers and subtracting years for good answers, the site gives you a "Real Age" to let you know how healthy you are.

Best of all, the site is completely free, which is a good thing because I don't know how much value there is in it, other than as a general reminder of things you should and shouldn't be doing. I mean, it's OK in the sense that it will tell you whether your diet needs more fruits and vegetables, or that you need to quit smoking, or that you're doing a good job in exercising. But it's also not exactly an authoritative picture of your health.

For one thing, if you really want to know how healthy you are, go see a doctor ... preferably one who recognizes health does not consist of taking pills to mask symptoms.

Secondly, the main problem with an online quiz for the masses is that health really isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. For example, the Real Age quiz treated my heart rate as a negative, saying it was too low. But here's the deal: The average "normal" resting heart rate is between 60 and 80 beats a minute. Back before I changed my diet and started exercising, my heart rate would generally range from 80 to 90 beats a minute, which was just starting to get bad, but not really a huge concern. However, exercise will cause your resting heart rate to go down, because your body becomes more adept at transporting oxygen to its cells, and therefore it doesn't need to beat quite as often to get the job done. And as a result of all the cardiovascular exercise I've done over the past three years or so, I've watched my resting heart rate fall consistently as I've gotten healthier, dropping from a high of 90 three years ago, to an average of 48 now. So is that really something that should be considered a negative? If so, then poor Lance Armstrong must be on the verge of death, because his resting heart rate is around the 35-beats-a-minute range.

Still, the Real Age quiz does have some value, in that it can point out some unhealthy behaviors you might be unaware of, or give you some new ideas about improvements you can make. And you certainly can't beat the price.