The older you get, and the more obsessed with your health, the more it feels as if life comes down to numbers: how many more years you can expect; your lean body mass; your percentage of visceral fat; how dense your bones are; how many kilos you can squat; how long you can deadhang; how often you still do it; your levels of LDL and HDL cholesterol; your resting heart rate; your overnight blood oxygen level; how quickly you can run; how many steps you do in a day; how many hours you sleep; how fast you are shrinking; how often you get up to pee.
I say you, of course, but what I mean is me. I fixate on all those things and more. Do you want to know my vascular age as calculated by my smart scales? I will tell you. The point is that some of these numbers matter more than others. And one that definitely belongs in the you-should-give-a-toss column is blood pressure (BP).
