I’ve been toying with the idea of having a public medical check-up every year. I would get blood, urine, testosterone, cholesterol and other health markers measured, as well as a picture taken, and then compare these numbers year after year.

What worries me about this situation is the pain it would cause me to see the decline—I’m 40 years old now, in the best shape I’ve been in my life, not without health issues but pretty healthy in general, and in order to do this I would need to be detached from my own health.

I seem to suffer from things even though I have not gone through them, so let us suppose I am able to observe these health markers with detachment, until I come to my—say, 90th birthday—and see a progression of 50 pictures with health stats, and one would see a decline in the body, and very likely of the mind too. Should I continue writing, would my writing be worse than it already is?

A second question is: these markers of health are really markers of unhealth. The fact that your indicators are at normal levels is no guarantee of health. What is health then? How could one account for the health of the mind? Should I get an MRI every five years?

I am fortunately not a hypochondriac person, and so I think I could do this without getting too involved in it. It is taking your health in your own hands, instead of depending on a doctor. Doctors are there to save your ass from grinding your health to the ground, but there are no “well-being doctors”, doctors whose role is to keep you healthy instead of taking you away from disease.

I have convinced myself already of performing this feat. It must be done before the end of the year, as to mark the beginning of this experiment in 2020, a health-conscious year. I must find what are good tests to perform on myself on an annual basis so that I am able to sense my overall health.