Carotid Artery Ultrasound and Longevity

The opposite of longevity is death. If longevity is what we seek we must obsess about death, and those things that increase the risk of us dying.

#1 Killer – Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer on the block claiming the lives of 1 in every 3 people worldwide. Almost 1 million people a year die from cardiovascular disease in the United States alone, often due to events like heart attacks and strokes. The main cause of cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis

Thickening and hardening of the artery walls caused by the deposition of plaque (made of cholesterol, fats, other materials) into the blood vessel walls. Plaques can slowly grow causing occlusion of a blood vessel (stenosis). Plaques can also rupture, leading to blood clots (ischemic heart attacks, strokes, and other infarctions). Plaques can also break away from the walls, forming emboli (also causing ischemic heart attacks, strokes, and other infarctions).

Infarction: Obstruction of blood supply to an organ or region of tissue (usually from a blood clot or embolis)

Thickening of blood vessel walls, plaques, and restriction of blood flow can all be visualized using Carotid ultrasound. In the body, if blood vessel disease (e.g. atherosclerosis) is seen at one area, it is likely present in other areas as well. As such:

Carotid Ultrasound is a very important Longevity Metric.

For the complete blog post check out fullscope.org/blog or longetrics.org/blog

Visual Accuity and Longevity

Happy Halloween everybody! Hope everybody is dressing up, My kids are being Spiderman, Boba Fett, and a black cat. I am going out as Darth Vader. If you are new to parenting, you are probably also realizing that candy is an alcohol equivalent for children and they literally become “drunk” after several pieces of concentrated sugar. Sorry Mormon church…..concentrated sugar is a drug.

But enough about candy!

Today on Full Scope, we are going to talk about a very important Longevity Metric – Visual Accuity, or how clearly a person can see things.

For longevity metrics, we are going to look through 3 lenses

1. Common-Sense: Does it make sense that a given metric would impact longevity

2. Clinical: Do I see evidence that a given metric impacts longevity in my clinical practice

3. Research: Do research studies demonstrate that a metric impacts longevity.

So HERE WE GO

Check out fullscope.org/blog or longetrics.org/blog for the complete post.

To see how visual acuity is measured at Longetrics, check out our youtube channel Longevity Metrics @BillBrandenburgMD.

Health and longevity are measurable, quantifiable, and malleable. The first step toward health optimization is awareness. Awareness starts with measuring. Because:

“What gets measured gets managed”

- Said by many, made famous by Peter Drucker (known for modern management theory)

- This idea is why I moved from primary care to longevity medicine. More about this at the end.

Welcome to Season 6 of Full Scope! This season is all about how to measure health and longevity. We are going to go over:

- All of the tests utilized at Longetrics to measure health and longevity in Your Longevity Report Card

- Videos of how to perform each test (https://www.youtube.com/@BillBrandenburgMD)

- A podcast and a blog about what each of these tests (the longevity metrics) means regarding a person’s health and longevity (+ some tips about how to improve them).

Saddle Up!

Visit Longetrics.org/blog or fullscope.org/blog for the complete post