Many people assume that if they feel reasonably well, their health is moving in the right direction. But some of the most important changes in metabolic, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and cognitive health can develop gradually, long before they become obvious. That is why preventive health should be measured and not assumed.
What are we trying to identify or prevent?
A person may notice subtle changes such as lower energy, reduced exercise tolerance, gradual weight gain, loss of muscle, increasing waist circumference, poorer recovery, changes in sleep, or simply a sense that their body is not responding the way it once did. Do any of these sound familiar?
Sometimes there are no noticeable symptoms at all. Preventive care asks a different question than traditional symptom-based care:
What is changing now that could matter later?
Rather than waiting for a problem to become significant, we can establish a baseline and follow meaningful markers over time.
What biological systems should we be watching?
Health is not represented by one number. Body weight alone, for example, tells us very little about whether someone is gaining muscle, losing visceral fat, or changing body composition in a favorable direction. Don’t get us started on the whole BMI discussion as a standard marker of optimal health.
At Katallage Wellness Clinic, we think about health across interconnected systems, including:
Cardiometabolic health — blood pressure, glucose regulation, insulin sensitivity, lipid markers (the meaningful ones like triglycerides and HDL) and inflammatory regulators of vascular health
Body composition — visceral fat, body fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass and phase angle
Metabolic function — how efficiently the body produces and uses energy
Inflammatory and oxidative balance – acute or chronic, and detoxifying pathways
Nutrient status - are nutrients balanced or trending toward deficiency
Brain and cognitive health - APOE status
Strength, mobility and physical resilience – grip strength, gait and balance tests
No single test provides the entire picture. The value comes from establishing the right baseline for the individual and then following change over time.
What can an individualized KWC plan look like?
Once we understand where a patient is starting, the next step is not automatically a treatment. It is a plan created with you, not just for you.
For one person, that may mean improving protein intake, exercise and metabolic health through nutrition counseling. For another, it may involve correcting nutrient insufficiencies or considering provider-directed nutrient IV therapy as part of a broader clinical plan. Some patients may benefit from acupuncture to support stress regulation, pain management or overall wellbeing. Others may already have completed a more intensive phase of care and simply need an appropriate maintenance strategy (specifically our cancer patients with No Evidence of Disease- NED), with periodic reassessment rather than continuing the same treatment indefinitely.
The goal is not to do more. The goal is to understand what the patient needs now, measure the response, and adjust appropriately.
Measure. Reassess. Improve.
One of the most rewarding parts of preventive care is being able to see progress that may not be obvious on a bathroom scale. Perhaps skeletal muscle mass has increased with the little day to day changes of regular resistance training. Perhaps visceral fat has decreased with changes in carbohydrate intake, or HIIT training. Perhaps blood pressure, metabolic markers, strength or energy have improved with an improved intake of foods higher in nitric oxide.
When we measure those changes, patients can see that their effort is producing results—and we can make better decisions about what should happen next.
Our October message at Katallage
Check your baseline.
Review your plan.
Schedule your next step.
Preventive health works best when it becomes an ongoing process rather than something we revisit only when a problem appears.
If it has been a while since you reviewed your health goals or measured your progress, fall can be an excellent time to establish where you are now and decide what you want the next 90 days to look like. You can’t change what you don’t measure.