This week, I posted the first experiments from my attempt to reduce my blood pressure. I started by measuring the repeatability (within-instrument variation) and reproducibility (between instrument variation) of my Omron Evolve blood pressure monitor. Unfortunately, the standard deviation was high compared to my target reduction (~3 vs. 10 mmHg), meaning that I’ll need to measure multiple times per observation in order to get sufficient precision.
Lesson for future experiments: I should have measured the repeatability & reproducibility before starting any other experiments. I finished up the deep breathing study before I got these results, and from a quick look at the data, the error bars are too large to draw a conclusion and I’ll need to repeat it. Lesson learned, always run a power calculation first…
Experiments this week:
- Whole foods: none (traveling)
- Blood pressure:
- Completed the deep breathing study, started repeat with 5 measurements/observation
- Analysis of repeatability testing
Next week:
- Food effect:
- continued testing of whole foods
- Blood pressure:
- Post initial deep breathing study & continue the repeat.
- Analysis of historical data.
– QD
Active & Planned Experiments
- Blood Glucose Impact of Low-Carb Foods & Ingredients
- Goal: Determine blood glucose impact of low-carb foods and ingredients
- Approach: Protocol
- Status:
- Reported:
- Up next:
- Whole foods (vegetables, meats, low-carb fruits)
- Dietary fibers
- Miscellaneous low-carb prepared foods
- Blood Glucose Impact of Supplements
- Goal: Determine blood glucose impact and mechanism of promising supplements
- Approach: Protocol
- Status:
- This week: Initial replication
- Reported:
- Up next:
- Full meal test
- Alternate macronutrients
- Alternate acid sources
- Blood Pressure
- Goal: Identify causes & interventions to improve my elevated blood pressure
- Approach: under development
- Status:
- Reported:
- Up next:
- Analysis of historical data
- Effect of deep breathing protocols
- Improving Cognition
- Goal: Identify environmental factors & interventions to improve my cognition
- Status:
- Reported:
- Up next:
- Larger chess puzzle dataset
Let me know in the comments if there’s any other experiments you’d like to see.
– QD
Observations & Data
- Sleep
- Sleep was down this week due to travel. Should come back up to baseline next week.
- Pulse looking stable, but could be a slight long-term downward trend. Will reassess with more data.
- I got an Oura ring about a week ago. Once I have a few weeks of data, I’ll compare it to the Apple watch and manual tracking to see if it gives more reliable results.
- Blood Glucose
- All measures worse this week, largely due to the days I was traveling. Should go back to normal next week.
- Other Blood
- Blood pressure has been very stable for the last couple months, which suggests the increase in cardio workouts isn’t helping significantly.
- Body
- Weight and waist are up, probably related to traveling. Should return to normal next week.
Sleep
Blood Glucose
Other Blood
Body
Methods
- Sleep
- Metrics: total time, heart rate variability, pulse (sleeping vs. waking)
- Methods: Apple watch + Autosleep app
- Frequency: daily
- Blood Glucose
- Metrics: fasting BG, Avg. BG, coefficient of variation, time 70-140 mg/dL, time <60 mg/dL
- Methods: Dexcom G6 CGM
- Frequency: continuous
- Other Blood
- Metrics: weight, waist circumference, BMI, waist/height
- Methods: scale + Renpho tape measure
- Frequency: daily
- Body
- Metrics: hemoglobin, cholesterol, blood pressure, pulse
- Methods: Hemocue 801, Cardiocheck PA, Omron Evolve
- Frequency: daily for blood pressure & pulse, every 2 weeks for hemoglobin & cholesterol
