![\"When](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/104168281-15324165-When_2_000_adults_across_the_UK_were_asked_about_their_knowledge-a-20_17640734978.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nJust how blind we are to what\u2019s going on inside our own bodies was made painfully clear in a survey published last week.<\/p>\n
When 2,000 adults across the UK were asked about their knowledge of their own health, two-thirds said they didn\u2019t know their cholesterol level.<\/p>\n
Six in ten didn\u2019t know their blood sugar levels, while just under half had no idea what their body mass index (BMI) was \u2013 or their waist-hip ratio (a better measure of where you store your fat, as I\u2019ll explain).<\/p>\n
And almost half, 49 per cent, didn\u2019t know their blood pressure, they told MiCode, a health tech company.<\/p>\n
The reality is unless we close this gap soon, we are storing up a disaster for ourselves in years to come.<\/p>\n
Because the truth is simple. The heart attack didn\u2019t start the day you felt chest pain \u2013 it started years \u00adearlier, when your blood pressure crept up and you didn\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n
The stroke didn\u2019t begin when your arm went weak \u2013 it began decades before that, when your cholesterol quietly built up in your arteries, restricting blood flow to the brain and your blood sugar drifted higher and higher, scarring your blood \u00advessels until a clot finally formed.<\/p>\n
Symptoms are the last chapter of the story, never the first.<\/p>\n
When 2,000 adults across the UK were asked about their knowledge of their own health, two-thirds said they didn\u2019t know their cholesterol level<\/p>\n
When it comes to the numbers that determine whether we\u2019ll live a long, healthy life or spend the last ten to 20 years of it in and out of hospital, sadly we\u2019re clueless. Yet had this been a survey about people\u2019s \u00adsalaries, mortgages, rent and the cost of their car insurance, \u00adeveryone would have known their numbers.<\/p>\n
To be fair, some of the \u00adpeople who said they didn\u2019t know might well have had these things checked by their GP years ago.<\/p>\n
Yet we\u2019ve somehow drifted into thinking these numbers belong to the GP computer system, rather than to us. It\u2019s as if blood pressure and cholesterol are bits of admin for someone else to manage.<\/p>\n
In fact, they are your body\u2019s \u00adearly-warning lights, and knowing them yourself is the only way they can actually help you.<\/p>\n
A dangerous mindset exists in the UK (maybe because the NHS is free and we don\u2019t value it enough) that ill health is someone else\u2019s problem.<\/p>\n
That it doesn\u2019t matter if you don\u2019t look after your body well, because someone else will fix it when it breaks down.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the equivalent of never bothering to get your car serviced because you know that when it breaks down the repairs will be free. But that\u2019s definitely not true \u2013 and your health doesn\u2019t work like that, either.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve only got one body and, if it breaks down, it can\u2019t always be fixed. And unless you want your last years to be spent battling illness rather than enjoying life, you have to take ownership of your own numbers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When it comes to the numbers that determine whether we\u2019ll live a long, healthy life or spend the last ten to 20 years of it in and out of hospital, sadly we\u2019re clueless, writes Professor Rob Galloway<\/p>\n
I was thinking about this recently when I treated a woman in her 70s who collapsed in her kitchen while making tea. She came into A&E with a \u00addevastating stroke, her left side paralysed. Her daughter told me her mum hadn\u2019t had her blood pressure checked for years because she \u2018felt fine\u2019.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t know her cholesterol either (it was very high), or her blood sugar levels (she had undiagnosed type 2 diabetes).<\/p>\n
But she did know her blood group, which she told me proudly.<\/p>\n
That moment summed up everything that\u2019s wrong with the way we think about health, because blood group is one of the least important pieces of information about your health you can know.<\/p>\n
Yet the MiCode survey found that nearly 50 per cent of people knew theirs. But who cares? I don\u2019t know mine.<\/p>\n
Even if you screamed yours at us in an emergency while \u00adbleeding to death, we would \u00adcompletely ignore it.<\/p>\n
We always test it before giving a blood transfusion or, in a dire emergency, give blood that\u2019s compatible for everyone. The only place where knowing your blood group matters seems to be in Hollywood hospital dramas. In real life, it means nothing.<\/p>\n
What actually matters are the numbers people don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
From puberty onwards you should know your BMI or, ideally, waist-hip ratio; from your 30s, add your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar.<\/p>\n
These are the numbers that reveal if you\u2019re heading for \u00adtrouble in the future.<\/p>\n
High blood pressure isn\u2019t something you would ever notice, and the ridiculous thing is it\u2019s one of the easiest checks in medicine.<\/p>\n
Thirty seconds with a cuff which costs less than a round of drinks, and you\u2019ve got your answer.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t need to take it twice a day or turn up to the GP with a spreadsheet of readings \u2013 that\u2019s almost guaranteed to raise it. But checking it every month or so is sensible, and it\u2019s a far better plan than finding out about it in the back of an ambulance. The fix is easy.<\/p>\n
Cholesterol works in much the same silent way as blood pressure: you don\u2019t feel it rising and nothing aches or tingles. It just quietly builds over years, laying down tiny layers of plaque inside your arteries long before you\u2019d ever notice anything wrong. Checking your cholesterol every year with a cheap test from a high-street chemist is a stitch in time to save nine.<\/p>\n
Blood sugar works the same way. Type 2 diabetes doesn\u2019t \u00adsuddenly appear out of nowhere.<\/p>\n
The diagnosis might feel \u00adsudden, but the sugar \u00adlevels themselves have \u00adusually been creeping up for years, quietly damaging nerves, kidneys, eyes and blood vessels long before anyone realises.<\/p>\n
The irony, again, is it\u2019s one of the easiest things to check \u2013 use a simple DIY finger-prick test.<\/p>\n
And then the waist-hip ratio. This isn\u2019t about looking good. This is about measuring the dangerous, visceral fat that wraps around your organs and drives diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart disease, dementia and cancer.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a much better determinant of health than your simple BMI because carrying more weight around your middle is far riskier than on your hips or thighs.<\/p>\n
I get that life gets in the way and it never feels urgent to do these tests, but taking a few \u00adminutes now is a lot easier, and far less stressful, than dealing with the consequences later on.<\/p>\n
And if you\u2019re aged 40 to 74, the NHS Health Check is one of the best bits of preventative medicine we have \u2013 you can get all these things checked.<\/p>\n
Yes, it only comes around every five years, but it is a good starting point.<\/p>\n
So get the NHS Health Check when you\u2019re invited, but don\u2019t stop there: pop into your local chemist once a year, pay a small fee and get your blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol checked.<\/p>\n
It could save your life.<\/p>\n
@drrobgalloway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just how blind we are to what\u2019s going on inside our own bodies was made painfully clear in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[92,105,211,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-593306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-nhs","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115611694667931226","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}