The 13% Solution

I don't believe that I'm alone in worrying about my health as I get older. Paranoia increases with the calendar. Yet my doctor has thrown at me some interesting calculus in trying to assure me that my overall health is really very good.

My blood pressure is, to my mind anyway, high, or higher than I would like it to be anyway, although my physician does not share my view. He's all right with it. 

When I voiced my concerns during my last checkup, he pulled my charts up on the computer in the examination room and began calculating. My blood pressure history times my age divided by great cholesterol numbers interpreted by the cosine of my vitamin D levels divided by the iron in my blood weighed against my ideal amount of potassium subtracted from the sodium seen in my white cell count compared to kidney function in ratio to my being about 25 pounds overweight contrasted to the zenith of the rising Sun on the Tenth of October in 2019 means that I have about a 13% chance of a serious cardiac or stroke event in the next ten years. "And we don't even worry at all under ten percent, because that's just about anyone's risk at your age," he assured me. "So you're in good health Mr. Cosgriff."

Well. That's it then. I'm healthy. Even if I didn't understand a word he said.