What Is Health?
Our traditional medical system is amazing for saving lives from acute trauma and acute illness. However, standard medical training is not effective in managing the current epidemic of chronic disease that is primarily related to lifestyle. According to the CDC, chronic illnesses are now affecting at least 75% of American adults.
To make matters worse, the health care system incentivizes doctors to write medications over focusing on preventing the progression of disease with lifestyle changes; that means hospitals and clinics make more money from insurance companies when doctors prescribe more drugs and perform more surgeries. Many people don’t need a pill to mask a symptom, instead they need a lifestyle prescription to address the root cause. We need to change the way we view chronic disease.
“If the fish tank is dirty, you clean the tank. You don’t drug the fish.”
Calley Means
How to Manage and Prevent Chronic Diseases?
Many chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, and hypertension can be reversible with lifestyle change. According to most research, our genes account for only 5-10 percent of our disease risk with environmental factors including lifestyle habits such as food, exercise, sleep, and stress management attribute to about 90 percent of our disease risk.
Good health can be available to everyone! We must begin at the basis of health which includes:
Food
Movement
Sleep
Relaxation
You truly need all four for optimal health. Our body is a connected system; ignoring one part of your health will likely affect your ability to maintain the others. Our modern world of “go, go, go”, “do, do, do” and “consume, consume, consume” is working against us. We do not have to accept this status quo; we can go against the grain to change our lives for the better!
How do I Manage My Health?
Personally, I feel my best when I eat high quality food, take movement breaks throughout the day, and put away the screens at night to prioritize 8 hours of sleep. It’s amazing the boost of energy and mental clarity I get from taking a simple walk around the neighborhood. And we all know these days that scrolling on your phone too much often leads to stress, not relaxation.
Speaking of relaxation… that’s my weakest spot. I constantly have to remind myself to “clock out” of work which is sometimes difficult because I love what I do and the sense of accomplishment when I complete a project. Plus, my home office is just steps away. But I know when I don’t prioritize relaxation and I overwork, I am susceptible to burn out; it’s happened before and it’s hard to get out of the downward spiral.
What exactly is relaxation? Isn’t relaxation and sleep basically the same? Unlike sleep, relaxation happens while you are awake. To relax is to release tension and stress from your mind and body. Relaxation methods look different for different people. Some people love to meditate while I prefer to soak in an Epsom salt bath or drink a soothing cup of warm tea. I drink hot tea everyday, even in the blazing days of a Louisiana summer. My friends joke that I’m really an 85 year old stuck in a 40 something year old’s body.
The goal is not perfection because that’s not really possible. Instead, we can look into our strengths, blind spots, and biases in a noncritical way to find a realistic path for change for our own lives. It will never be a one size fits all solution. Different people will have different challenges. It is empowering to build habits of health to feel our best. Which area, Food, Movement, Sleep, or Relaxation, is the biggest roadblock to your optimal health?