WEBVTT

00:00:05.425 --> 00:00:08.687
As a kid I always loved information

00:00:08.687 --> 00:00:10.887
that I could get from data

00:00:10.889 --> 00:00:13.839
and the stories that could be told
with numbers.

00:00:13.850 --> 00:00:16.153
I remember, growing up,
I'd be frustrated

00:00:16.153 --> 00:00:20.219
at how my own parents
would lie to me using numbers.

00:00:22.324 --> 00:00:26.166
"Talithia, if I've told you once
I've told you a thousand times."

00:00:26.166 --> 00:00:29.547
No dad, you've only told me 17 times

00:00:29.552 --> 00:00:33.584
and twice it wasn't my fault.
(Laughter)

00:00:33.584 --> 00:00:36.601
I think that is one of the reasons
I got a Ph.D. in statistics.

00:00:36.601 --> 00:00:38.132
I always wanted to know,

00:00:38.132 --> 00:00:40.977
what are people trying to hide
with numbers?

00:00:40.977 --> 00:00:42.319
As a statistician,

00:00:42.319 --> 00:00:45.169
I want people to show me the data

00:00:45.169 --> 00:00:48.252
so I can decide for myself.

00:00:48.684 --> 00:00:51.978
Donald and I were pregnant
with our third child

00:00:51.978 --> 00:00:55.218
and we were at about 41 and a half weeks,

00:00:55.218 --> 00:00:58.499
what some of you may refer to
as being overdue.

00:00:58.499 --> 00:01:00.234
Statisticians, we call that

00:01:00.234 --> 00:01:03.193
being within the 95 percent
confidence interval.

00:01:03.193 --> 00:01:04.677
(Laughter)

00:01:04.677 --> 00:01:07.264
And at this point in the process

00:01:07.264 --> 00:01:09.311
we had to come in every couple of days

00:01:09.311 --> 00:01:11.481
to do a stress test on the baby,

00:01:11.481 --> 00:01:12.922
and this is just routine,

00:01:12.922 --> 00:01:16.735
it tests whether or not the baby
is feeling any type of undue stress.

00:01:17.288 --> 00:01:20.168
And you are rarely, if ever,
seen by your actual doctor,

00:01:20.168 --> 00:01:23.210
just whoever happens to be
working at the hospital that day.

00:01:23.210 --> 00:01:26.238
So we go in for a stress test
and after 20 minutes

00:01:26.238 --> 00:01:28.990
the doctor comes out and he says,

00:01:30.106 --> 00:01:33.529
"Your baby is under stress,
we need to induce you."

00:01:35.323 --> 00:01:39.770
Now, as a statistician,
what's my response?

00:01:40.987 --> 00:01:43.227
Show me the data!

00:01:43.227 --> 00:01:45.576
So then he proceeds to tell us

00:01:45.576 --> 00:01:48.000
the baby's heart rate trace
went from 18 minutes,

00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.442
the baby's heart rate was
in the normal zone

00:01:50.442 --> 00:01:53.556
and for two minutes
it was in what appeared to be

00:01:53.556 --> 00:01:56.746
my heart rate zone and I said,

00:01:56.746 --> 00:01:59.547
"Is it possible that maybe
this was my heart rate?

00:01:59.547 --> 00:02:01.460
I was moving around a little bit,

00:02:01.460 --> 00:02:03.686
it's hard to lay still on your back,

00:02:03.686 --> 00:02:06.028
41 weeks pregnant for 20 minutes.

00:02:06.028 --> 00:02:08.154
Maybe it was shifting around."

00:02:08.154 --> 00:02:11.745
He said, "Well, we don't want
to take any chances."

00:02:12.207 --> 00:02:13.596
I said okay.

00:02:13.803 --> 00:02:16.133
I said, "What if I was at 36 weeks

00:02:16.133 --> 00:02:18.309
with this same data?

00:02:18.309 --> 00:02:21.470
Would your decision be to induce?"

00:02:22.104 --> 00:02:25.433
"Well, no, I would wait
until you were at least

00:02:25.433 --> 00:02:27.559
38 weeks, but you are almost 42,

00:02:27.559 --> 00:02:29.602
there is no reason
to leave that baby inside,

00:02:29.602 --> 00:02:31.693
let's get you a room."

00:02:37.232 --> 00:02:41.846
I said,
"Well, why don't we just do it again?

00:02:42.223 --> 00:02:44.346
We can collect more data.

00:02:44.346 --> 00:02:46.642
I can try to be really still
for 20 minutes.

00:02:46.642 --> 00:02:49.523
We can average the two and see

00:02:49.523 --> 00:02:52.330
what that means.
(Laughter)

00:02:52.970 --> 00:02:54.935
And he goes,

00:02:56.740 --> 00:03:01.316
"Ma'am, I just don't want you
to have a miscarriage."

00:03:02.996 --> 00:03:05.606
That makes three of us.

00:03:06.068 --> 00:03:07.187
And then he says,

00:03:07.187 --> 00:03:10.994
"Your chances of having
a miscarriage double

00:03:10.994 --> 00:03:14.677
when you go past your due date.
Let's get you a room."

00:03:16.124 --> 00:03:20.489
Wow. So now as a statistician,
what's my response?

00:03:21.796 --> 00:03:23.538
Show me the data!

00:03:23.538 --> 00:03:25.009
Dude, you're talking chances,

00:03:25.009 --> 00:03:27.380
I do chances all day long,
tell me all about chances.

00:03:27.380 --> 00:03:29.191
Let's talk chances.
(Laughter)

00:03:29.356 --> 00:03:31.156
Let's talk chances.

00:03:31.313 --> 00:03:32.727
So I say, "Okay, great.

00:03:32.727 --> 00:03:36.012
Do I go from a 30-percent 
chance to a 60-percent chance?

00:03:36.012 --> 00:03:38.185
Where are we here
with this miscarriage thing?

00:03:38.185 --> 00:03:41.199
And he goes, "Not quite, but it doubles,

00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:44.644
and we really just want
what's best for the baby."

00:03:46.224 --> 00:03:48.805
Undaunted, I try a different angle.

00:03:48.981 --> 00:03:53.650
I said, "Okay, out of 1,000
full-term pregnant women,

00:03:54.354 --> 00:03:56.598
how many of them are going to miscarry

00:03:56.598 --> 00:03:58.767
just before their due date?

00:03:58.767 --> 00:04:01.611
And then he looks at me
and looks at Donald,

00:04:01.611 --> 00:04:05.456
and he goes, about one in 1,000.

00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:09.063
I said, "Okay, so of those 1,000 women,

00:04:09.063 --> 00:04:12.427
how many are going to miscarry
just after their due date?"

00:04:14.006 --> 00:04:17.150
"About two."
(Laughter)

00:04:17.180 --> 00:04:19.691
I said, "Okay, so you are telling me
that my chances

00:04:19.691 --> 00:04:22.267
go from a 0.1-percent chance

00:04:22.710 --> 00:04:25.925
to a 0.2-percent chance."

00:04:27.536 --> 00:04:30.172
Okay, so at this point
the data is not convincing us

00:04:30.172 --> 00:04:32.036
that we need to be induced,

00:04:32.036 --> 00:04:34.130
and so then we proceed
to have a conversation

00:04:34.130 --> 00:04:36.114
about how inductions lead to a higher rate

00:04:36.114 --> 00:04:40.554
of Cesarean sections, and if at all
possible we'd like to avoid that.

00:04:40.581 --> 00:04:41.606
And then I said,

00:04:41.606 --> 00:04:44.891
"And I really don't think
my due date is accurate."

00:04:45.412 --> 00:04:47.480
(Laughter)

00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:49.621
And so this really stunned him

00:04:49.621 --> 00:04:51.743
and he looked sort of puzzled

00:04:51.743 --> 00:04:53.857
and I said, "You may not know this,

00:04:53.857 --> 00:04:55.661
but pregnancy due dates are calculated

00:04:55.661 --> 00:04:58.118
assuming that you have
a standard 28-day cycle,

00:04:58.118 --> 00:04:59.327
and my cycle ranges —

00:04:59.327 --> 00:05:02.580
sometimes it's 27,
sometimes it's up to 38 —

00:05:02.580 --> 00:05:05.213
and I have been collecting
the data to prove it.

00:05:05.213 --> 00:05:08.092
(Laughter)

00:05:09.563 --> 00:05:14.465
And so we ended up leaving the hospital
that day without being induced.

00:05:15.154 --> 00:05:19.412
We actually had to sign a waiver
to walk out of the hospital.

00:05:20.846 --> 00:05:24.501
And I'm not advocating
that you not listen to your doctors,

00:05:24.986 --> 00:05:27.191
because even with our first child,

00:05:27.191 --> 00:05:30.370
we were induced at 38 weeks;
cervical fluid was low.

00:05:30.370 --> 00:05:32.971
I'm not anti-medical intervention.

00:05:32.971 --> 00:05:35.749
But why were confident to leave that day?

00:05:36.568 --> 00:05:39.456
Well, we had data
that told a different story.

00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:43.353
We had been collecting data for six years.

00:05:44.377 --> 00:05:46.963
I had this temperature data,

00:05:46.963 --> 00:05:48.484
and it told a different story.

00:05:48.484 --> 00:05:53.293
In fact, we could probably pretty
accurately estimate conception.

00:05:56.094 --> 00:05:58.070
Yeah, that's a story you want to tell

00:05:58.070 --> 00:06:01.379
at your kid's wedding reception.
(Laughter)

00:06:01.379 --> 00:06:03.774
I remember like it was yesterday.

00:06:03.774 --> 00:06:06.967
My temperature was a sizzling 97.8 degrees

00:06:07.165 --> 00:06:10.295
as I stared into your father's eyes.
(Laughter)

00:06:10.992 --> 00:06:16.208
Oh, yeah. Twenty-two more years,
we're telling that story.

00:06:18.409 --> 00:06:21.451
But we were confident to leave
because we had been collecting data.

00:06:21.451 --> 00:06:23.326
Now, what does that data look like?

00:06:23.326 --> 00:06:25.614
Here's a standard chart

00:06:25.614 --> 00:06:28.523
of a woman's waking body temperature

00:06:28.523 --> 00:06:30.251
during the course of a cycle.

00:06:30.251 --> 00:06:32.335
So from the beginning
of the menstrual cycle

00:06:32.335 --> 00:06:33.829
till the beginning of the next.

00:06:33.829 --> 00:06:36.119
You'll see that the temperature
is not random.

00:06:36.119 --> 00:06:38.097
Clearly there is a low pattern

00:06:38.097 --> 00:06:40.197
at the beginning of her cycle

00:06:40.197 --> 00:06:43.206
and then you see this jump
and then a higher set of temperatures

00:06:43.206 --> 00:06:45.093
at the end of her cycle.

00:06:45.093 --> 00:06:46.565
So what's happening here?

00:06:46.565 --> 00:06:48.860
What is that data telling you?

00:06:49.221 --> 00:06:51.719
Well, ladies,
at the beginning of our cycle,

00:06:51.719 --> 00:06:54.933
the hormone estrogen
is dominant and that estrogen

00:06:54.933 --> 00:06:58.585
causes a suppression
of your body temperature.

00:06:58.943 --> 00:07:01.590
And at ovulation,
your body releases an egg

00:07:01.699 --> 00:07:05.785
and progesterone takes over,
pro-gestation.

00:07:06.518 --> 00:07:09.480
And so your body heats up in anticipation

00:07:11.391 --> 00:07:14.838
of housing this new little fertilized egg.

00:07:14.973 --> 00:07:17.715
So why this temperature jump?

00:07:17.715 --> 00:07:21.181
Well, think about
when a bird sits on her eggs.

00:07:21.181 --> 00:07:23.809
Why is she sitting on them?

00:07:24.148 --> 00:07:25.871
She wants to keep them warm,

00:07:25.871 --> 00:07:27.451
protect them and keep them warm.

00:07:27.451 --> 00:07:30.005
Ladies, this is exactly
what our bodies do every month,

00:07:30.005 --> 00:07:31.831
they heat up in anticipation

00:07:31.831 --> 00:07:34.389
of keeping a new little life warm.

00:07:34.389 --> 00:07:37.551
And if nothing happens,
if you are not pregnant,

00:07:37.551 --> 00:07:41.925
then estrogen takes back over
and that cycle starts all over again.

00:07:42.312 --> 00:07:44.301
But if you do get pregnant, sometimes you

00:07:44.301 --> 00:07:46.987
actually see another shift
in your temperatures

00:07:46.987 --> 00:07:50.194
and it stays elevated
for those whole nine months.

00:07:50.194 --> 00:07:53.501
That's why you see those pregnant women
just sweating and hot,

00:07:53.501 --> 00:07:56.594
because their temperatures are high.

00:07:56.594 --> 00:08:00.794
Here's a chart that we had
about three or four years ago.

00:08:00.859 --> 00:08:03.448
We were really very excited
about this chart.

00:08:03.448 --> 00:08:05.589
You'll see the low temperature level

00:08:05.589 --> 00:08:08.546
and then a shift and for about five days,

00:08:08.699 --> 00:08:11.399
that's about the time
it takes for the egg to travel

00:08:11.399 --> 00:08:13.908
down the fallopian tube and implant,

00:08:13.908 --> 00:08:17.433
and then you see those temperatures
start to go up a little bit.

00:08:17.433 --> 00:08:20.764
And in fact, we had
a second temperature shift,

00:08:21.039 --> 00:08:24.797
confirmed with a pregnancy test
that were indeed pregnant

00:08:24.922 --> 00:08:27.973
with our first child, very exciting.

00:08:27.973 --> 00:08:29.963
Until a couple of days later

00:08:29.963 --> 00:08:33.816
I saw some spotting
and then I noticed heavy blood flow,

00:08:34.101 --> 00:08:38.270
and we had in fact
had an early stage miscarriage.

00:08:41.017 --> 00:08:43.011
Had I not been taking my temperature

00:08:43.011 --> 00:08:46.937
I really would have just thought
my period was late that month,

00:08:46.937 --> 00:08:48.931
but we actually had data to show

00:08:48.931 --> 00:08:51.824
that we had miscarried this baby,

00:08:51.824 --> 00:08:53.819
and even though this data
revealed a really

00:08:53.819 --> 00:08:55.363
unfortunate event in our lives,

00:08:55.363 --> 00:08:58.018
it was information
that we could then take to our doctor.

00:08:58.018 --> 00:09:00.348
So if there was a fertility issue
or some problem,

00:09:00.348 --> 00:09:01.555
I had data to show:

00:09:01.555 --> 00:09:03.944
Look, we got pregnant,
our temperature shifted,

00:09:03.944 --> 00:09:05.645
we somehow lost this baby.

00:09:05.645 --> 00:09:09.214
What is it that we can do
to help prevent this problem?

00:09:09.214 --> 00:09:12.095
And it's not just about temperatures

00:09:12.095 --> 00:09:14.854
and it's not just about fertility;

00:09:14.854 --> 00:09:18.787
we can use data about our bodies
to tell us a lot of things.

00:09:18.787 --> 00:09:22.471
For instance, did you know that taking
your temperature can tell you a lot

00:09:22.471 --> 00:09:25.533
about the condition of your thyroid?

00:09:25.533 --> 00:09:29.499
So, your thyroid works a lot like
the thermostat in your house.

00:09:29.499 --> 00:09:32.399
There is an optimal temperature
that you want in your house;

00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:33.650
you set your thermostat.

00:09:33.650 --> 00:09:36.405
When it gets too cold in the house,
your thermostat kicks in

00:09:36.405 --> 00:09:39.302
and says, "Hey, we need
to blow some heat around."

00:09:39.302 --> 00:09:41.573
Or if it gets too hot,
your thermostat registers,

00:09:41.573 --> 00:09:44.692
"Turn the A.C. on. Cool us off."

00:09:44.811 --> 00:09:48.379
That's exactly how your thyroid works
in your body.

00:09:48.379 --> 00:09:50.774
Your thyroid tries to keep
an optimal temperature

00:09:50.774 --> 00:09:51.909
for your body.

00:09:51.909 --> 00:09:54.933
If it gets too cold, your thyroid
says, "Hey, we need to heat up."

00:09:54.933 --> 00:09:57.612
If it gets too hot,
your thyroid cools you down.

00:09:57.612 --> 00:10:01.999
But what happens when your
thyroid is not functioning well?

00:10:01.999 --> 00:10:04.117
When it doesn't function, then it shows up

00:10:04.117 --> 00:10:05.817
in your body temperatures,

00:10:05.817 --> 00:10:08.315
they tend to be lower than normal
or very erratic.

00:10:08.315 --> 00:10:09.839
And so by collecting this data

00:10:09.839 --> 00:10:12.377
you can find out information
about your thyroid.

00:10:12.377 --> 00:10:16.032
Now, what is it, if you had a thyroid
problem and you went to the doctor,

00:10:16.032 --> 00:10:17.924
your doctor would actually test

00:10:17.924 --> 00:10:21.765
the amount of thyroid stimulating hormone
in your blood.

00:10:22.637 --> 00:10:25.878
Fine. But the problem with that test is

00:10:25.878 --> 00:10:28.541
it doesn't tell you how active
the hormone is in your body.

00:10:28.541 --> 00:10:30.571
So you might have
a lot of hormone present,

00:10:30.571 --> 00:10:32.756
but it might not be
actively working to regulate

00:10:32.756 --> 00:10:33.843
your body temperature.

00:10:33.843 --> 00:10:36.030
So just by collecting
your temperature every day,

00:10:36.030 --> 00:10:38.539
you get information
about the condition of your thyroid.

00:10:38.539 --> 00:10:41.332
So, what if you don't want to take
your temperature every day?

00:10:41.332 --> 00:10:42.538
I advocate that you do,

00:10:42.538 --> 00:10:44.780
but there are tons
of other things you could take.

00:10:44.780 --> 00:10:47.656
You could take your blood pressure,
you could take your weight —

00:10:47.656 --> 00:10:48.995
yeah, who's excited about

00:10:48.995 --> 00:10:51.630
taking their weight every day?
(Laughter)

00:10:52.040 --> 00:10:56.229
Early on in our marriage,
Donald had a stuffy nose

00:10:56.355 --> 00:10:59.753
and he had been taking
a slew of medications

00:10:59.945 --> 00:11:03.997
to try to relieve his stuffy nose,
to no avail.

00:11:04.260 --> 00:11:07.675
And so, that night he comes
and he wakes me up and he says,

00:11:07.788 --> 00:11:11.628
"Honey, I can't breath out of my nose."

00:11:11.911 --> 00:11:16.449
And I roll over and I look, and I said,
"Well, can you breath out of your mouth?"

00:11:16.534 --> 00:11:18.429
(Laughter)

00:11:18.618 --> 00:11:23.664
And he goes,
"Yes, but I can't breath out of my nose!"

00:11:24.940 --> 00:11:28.104
And so like any good wife, I rush him

00:11:28.104 --> 00:11:30.360
to the emergency room

00:11:30.706 --> 00:11:32.603
at 2 o'clock in the morning.

00:11:32.603 --> 00:11:34.949
And the whole time
I'm driving and I'm thinking,

00:11:34.949 --> 00:11:37.572
you can't die on me now.

00:11:37.572 --> 00:11:39.841
We just got married,

00:11:40.753 --> 00:11:44.788
people will think I killed you!
(Laughter)

00:11:45.527 --> 00:11:48.962
And so, we get to the emergency room,
and the nurse sees us,

00:11:48.962 --> 00:11:51.567
and he can't breath out of his nose,

00:11:51.567 --> 00:11:54.114
and so she brings us to the back
and the doctor says,

00:11:54.114 --> 00:11:55.672
"What seems to be the problem?"

00:11:55.672 --> 00:11:57.812
and he goes,
"I can't breath out of my nose."

00:11:57.812 --> 00:12:00.119
And he said,
"You can't breath out of your nose?

00:12:00.119 --> 00:12:03.805
No, but he can breath
out of his mouth. (Laughter)

00:12:04.698 --> 00:12:07.794
He takes a step back
and he looks at both of us

00:12:07.794 --> 00:12:11.472
and he says,
"Sir, I think I know the problem.

00:12:11.475 --> 00:12:13.335
You're having a heart attack.

00:12:13.335 --> 00:12:15.285
I'm going to order an EKG and a CAT scan

00:12:15.285 --> 00:12:17.473
for you immediately."

00:12:19.073 --> 00:12:21.878
And we are thinking, no, no, no.
It's not a heart attack.

00:12:21.878 --> 00:12:24.347
He can breathe, just out of his mouth.

00:12:24.347 --> 00:12:27.497
No, no, no, no, no.

00:12:28.315 --> 00:12:30.575
And so we go back and forth
with this doctor

00:12:30.575 --> 00:12:33.519
because we think
this is the incorrect diagnosis,

00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:36.959
and he's like, "No really, it'll be fine,
just calm down."

00:12:36.959 --> 00:12:38.945
And I'm thinking, how do you calm down?

00:12:38.945 --> 00:12:41.529
But I don't think
he's having a heart attack.

00:12:41.529 --> 00:12:44.601
And so fortunately for us, this doctor
was at the end of the shift.

00:12:44.601 --> 00:12:47.329
So this new doctor comes in,
he sees us clearly distraught,

00:12:47.329 --> 00:12:50.056
with a husband who can't breath

00:12:50.056 --> 00:12:52.667
out of his nose.
(Laughter)

00:12:52.898 --> 00:12:55.540
And he starts asking us questions.

00:12:55.789 --> 00:12:59.057
He says, "Well, do you two exercise?"

00:13:00.271 --> 00:13:05.732
We ride our bikes,
we go to the gym occasionally.

00:13:07.548 --> 00:13:09.494
(Laughter)

00:13:09.494 --> 00:13:11.691
We move around.

00:13:12.301 --> 00:13:15.337
And he says, "What were you doing
just before you came here?"

00:13:15.337 --> 00:13:17.940
I'm thinking, I was sleeping, honestly.

00:13:17.940 --> 00:13:19.994
But okay,
what was Donald doing just before?

00:13:19.994 --> 00:13:23.176
So Donald goes into this slew
of medications he was taking.

00:13:23.176 --> 00:13:26.638
He lists, "I took this decongestant
and then I took this nasal spray,"

00:13:26.638 --> 00:13:29.275
and then all of a sudden
a lightbulb goes off and he says,

00:13:29.275 --> 00:13:32.965
"Oh! You should never mix this
decongestant with this nasal spray.

00:13:33.052 --> 00:13:35.614
Clogs you up every time.
Here, take this one instead."

00:13:35.614 --> 00:13:37.714
He gives us a prescription.

00:13:37.714 --> 00:13:40.277
We're looking at each other,
and I looked at the doctor,

00:13:40.277 --> 00:13:42.353
and I said,
"Why is it that it seems like you

00:13:42.353 --> 00:13:44.517
were able to accurately diagnose
his condition,

00:13:44.517 --> 00:13:46.605
but this previous doctor wanted to order

00:13:46.605 --> 00:13:48.939
an EKG and a CAT scan?"

00:13:48.939 --> 00:13:51.194
And he looks at us and says,

00:13:51.194 --> 00:13:55.669
"Well, when a 350-pound man walks in the
emergency room and says he can't breath,

00:13:55.669 --> 00:13:57.598
you assume he's having a heart attack

00:13:57.598 --> 00:13:59.984
and you ask questions later."

00:14:00.877 --> 00:14:05.734
Now, emergency room doctors
are trained to make decisions quickly,

00:14:06.145 --> 00:14:09.144
but not always accurately.

00:14:09.377 --> 00:14:11.174
And so had we had some information

00:14:11.174 --> 00:14:13.608
about our heart health to share with him,

00:14:13.608 --> 00:14:16.747
maybe we would have gotten a better
diagnosis the first time.

00:14:16.747 --> 00:14:19.543
I want you to consider
the following chart,

00:14:19.543 --> 00:14:21.386
of systolic blood pressure measurements

00:14:21.386 --> 00:14:25.142
from October 2010 to July 2012.

00:14:25.250 --> 00:14:27.175
You'll see that these measurements start

00:14:27.175 --> 00:14:30.418
in the prehypertension/hypertension zone,

00:14:31.838 --> 00:14:34.287
but over about the course
of a year and a half

00:14:34.287 --> 00:14:37.384
they move into the normal zone.

00:14:37.384 --> 00:14:40.465
This is about the heart rate
of a healthy 16-year-old.

00:14:41.455 --> 00:14:44.504
What story is this data telling you?

00:14:45.475 --> 00:14:48.097
Obviously it's the data from someone

00:14:48.097 --> 00:14:51.136
who's made a drastic transformation,

00:14:51.136 --> 00:14:55.179
and fortunately for us,
that person happens to be here today.

00:14:56.150 --> 00:15:00.115
So that 350-pound guy that walked
into the emergency room with me

00:15:00.115 --> 00:15:03.665
is now an even sexier and healthier

00:15:03.665 --> 00:15:08.971
225-pound guy,
and that's his blood pressure trace.

00:15:10.293 --> 00:15:13.245
So over the course of that year and a half

00:15:13.245 --> 00:15:15.105
Donald's eating changed

00:15:15.105 --> 00:15:17.554
and our exercise regimen changed,

00:15:17.554 --> 00:15:19.671
and his heart rate responded,

00:15:19.671 --> 00:15:21.852
his blood pressure responded
to that change

00:15:21.852 --> 00:15:24.093
that he made in his body.

00:15:24.093 --> 00:15:25.507
So what's the take-home message

00:15:25.507 --> 00:15:28.587
that I want you to leave with today?

00:15:28.587 --> 00:15:33.808
By taking ownership of your data
just like we've done,

00:15:34.209 --> 00:15:37.533
just by taking this daily measurements
about yourself,

00:15:37.533 --> 00:15:40.021
you become the expert on your body.

00:15:40.021 --> 00:15:42.092
You become the authority.

00:15:42.092 --> 00:15:44.546
It's not hard to do.

00:15:44.546 --> 00:15:46.779
You don't have to have
a Ph.D. in statistics

00:15:46.779 --> 00:15:48.166
to be an expert in yourself.

00:15:48.166 --> 00:15:50.058
You don't have to have a medical degree

00:15:50.058 --> 00:15:52.219
to be your body's expert.

00:15:52.402 --> 00:15:55.482
Medical doctors,
they're experts on the population,

00:15:55.482 --> 00:15:58.593
but you are the expert on yourself.

00:15:58.593 --> 00:16:00.406
And so when two of you come together,

00:16:00.406 --> 00:16:02.432
when two experts come together,

00:16:02.432 --> 00:16:04.698
the two of you are able
to make a better decision

00:16:04.698 --> 00:16:07.125
than just your doctor alone.

00:16:07.125 --> 00:16:10.115
Now that you understand
the power of information

00:16:10.115 --> 00:16:12.652
that you can get through
personal data collection,

00:16:12.652 --> 00:16:16.467
I'd like you all to stand
and raise your right hand.

00:16:16.467 --> 00:16:18.435
(Laughter)

00:16:18.435 --> 00:16:20.490
Yes, get it up.

00:16:24.217 --> 00:16:29.753
I challenge you to take ownership
of your data.

00:16:31.145 --> 00:16:34.334
And today, I hereby confer upon you

00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:38.466
a TEDx associate's degree
in elementary statistics

00:16:38.466 --> 00:16:42.995
with a concentration
in time-dependent data analysis

00:16:43.694 --> 00:16:47.566
with all the rights and privileges
appertaining thereto.

00:16:47.839 --> 00:16:51.258
And so the next time
you are in your doctor's office,

00:16:51.258 --> 00:16:54.248
as newly inducted statisticians,

00:16:54.297 --> 00:16:56.645
what should always be your response?

00:16:56.645 --> 00:16:59.642
Audience: Show me the data!
Talithia Williams: I can't hear you!

00:16:59.642 --> 00:17:00.965
Audience: Show me the data!

00:17:00.989 --> 00:17:02.120
TW: One more time!

00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:03.841
Audience: Show me the data!

00:17:03.841 --> 00:17:05.153
TW: Show me the data.

00:17:05.153 --> 00:17:06.119
Thank you.

00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:08.396
(Applause)