5 metrics you should know about your health

IF YOU'RE ASKED TO SHARE a few fun facts about yourself, you're probably not going to rattle off your blood-pressure or cholesterol levels (even if your "good" cholesterol is, well, really good). But you should have a solid sense of what those numbers are, experts say.

- ANGELA HAUPT

Why? "That old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is absolutely correct," says Dr. Josh Septimus, an internal-medicine physician with Houston Methodist Hospital. A small number of conditions, including heart disease and metabolic disorders, cause an enormous amount of suffering. "If we can identify a few things that help us prevent those morbidities, it's very much worth your time."

You don't have to know everything. Experts widely pan full body health scans, for example, that claim to catch early signs of problems like cancer. Septimus also steers patients away from the VO2 max test, which measures aerobic fitness levels. "It's a huge ordeal," he says. "They put you on a treadmill and put a mask over you to measure how much oxygen and carbon you produce while exercising." While the results can benefit elite athletes, they're not necessary for the average person. Likewise, while it's certainly possible to track and analyze your health data via smartwatches, you're not necessarily going to gain much by doing so.

When Septimus' patients "get lost in some random number," or ask about a test with little return, he refocuses them "on the basics." Here's a look at the five metrics everyone should know about their own health.

1. Waist circumference