It’s My Job To Monitor Dozens of Vital Signs: Here’s Why I Don’t Want You To
It’s My Job to Monitor Dozens of Vital Signs. Here’s Why I Don’t Want You To.
The room is quiet.
The patient is asleep. The monitors glow in the darkness. A wall of numbers tells me, second by second, what is happening inside the human being on the operating table in front of me:
I vigilantly monitor EKG, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, CO₂, respiratory rate, tidal volume, airway pressures and more. Everything looks fine…
Until one number changes.
Maybe just a little. But I know that a small change can be the first sign that something is going very wrong.
And suddenly, the room isn't quiet anymore:
I interpret. I act. FAST.
For more than 20 years as an anesthesiologist and critical care physician, this has been my world. But here's what people may not realize:
I never monitor a number just because I can.
Every number has a purpose. Every change has context. And the right piece of information can change what I do - in seconds.
That's why my transition into longevity medicine has been so interesting.
Because now I see people doing something completely different. They're monitoring everything: HRV. Sleep stages. Recovery. Glucose. VO₂ max. Stress. Biological age.
Take an extreme example such as Bryan Johnson. He has taken the measurement-and-optimization philosophy to an entirely different level, tracking hundreds of biomarkers and building his life around continuous experimentation and measurement.
I find it fascinating.
But it raises an important question:
At what point does measuring your health stop serving your life - and start becoming your life?
That’s what my colleagues and I call Longevity Fixation Syndrome.
Your sleep score drops. Your HRV is down. Your recovery score isn't where you want it.
Suddenly, you’re anxious about your health - even when you actually feel fine.
The irony?
You can become so focused on optimizing your health that you forget to live life.
So here are my rules for using health data:
1. Have a question before you collect the data.
- What are you actually trying to learn?
2. Know what you’ll do differently.
- If the number changes nothing about your behavior or treatment, do you need to track it?
3. Look for trends, not single-day fluctuations.
- Your body isn't a spreadsheet. Context matters.
4. Don't let your wearable become your physician.
- A device can measure. It can't put the measurement into the context of you. You need to work with someone knowledgable and ethical, who knows how to use the information to help you move towards your goals.
The OR taught me:
Don't treat the monitor. Treat the patient.
The same principle applies to longevity. I'm not anti-wearable…
I'm pro-purpose.
Measure what matters. Understand it. Act on it.
Then put the monitor down - and get back to living.