Last night while giving blood, they gave me a nice Red Cross O+ key ring, which can replace my RACV one now that I’m no longer a member. (Mind you, so far they’re still sending me newsletters and the occasional “Maybe you’ve forgotten to pay?” letter.)

They also let me know my vital blood statistics.

Blood pressure: 117 over 76. Apparently that’s good.

Haemoglobin: 163 (aka 16.3). Apparently that’s good too, though it always varies a bit. Last time it was 147.

Weight: 77.7 Kg. I think that’s up a bit in the last few years. I traditionally thought of myself as being about 75 Kg, and not all of the difference could be in winter clothes, could it?

(A previous post indicates that in the last five-ish years, my blood pressure is down slightly, and my weight is up. In fact a friend posted an old photo of me on Facebook last week where I look awfully thin.)

Recently an article in the paper about health checks was accompanied by a quick (and probably not overly scientific) quiz people could look through to see if they were at risk of diabetes (which my father has).

I’ve been meaning to try it, so, let’s have a look. My answers are at the bottom.

Quick diabetes risk check (from The Age 19/3/2008)

1. Your age. Under 45 - 0 points; 45-54 - 2 points; 55-64 - 3 points; over 64 - 4 points.

2. Your body mass index (kilograms divided by height in metres squared). Less than 25 - 0 point; 25-30 - 1 point; More than 30 - 3 points.

(more…)