Can “Lifestyle Medicine” Help Us with this Pandemic? Many forward thinkers say yes! (including me).
By “lifestyle” I mean the health behaviors we practice in our life. This includes all the things I have listed in “The healthy Lifestyle Solution” wheel.
- Our diet
- Physical activity
- Sleep
- Stress Management
- High Quality Supplementation
- Digestive health
- Detoxification
- Support Systems
How Can “Lifestyle Medicine” Can Help Us With this Pandemic?
Lifestyle medicine is not talked about very much. During the pandemic we have been very focused on what NOT to do versus how we can support health and the immune system. Please access my free eBook HERE on 12 Lifestyle Tips to Boost Your Immune System. We have known for many years that the chronic disease epidemic we are seeing in the United States is very much based on behavioral factors under our potential control. I wrote the book “Is Your Lifestyle Killing You?” with the specific aim of giving a voice to the importance of lifestyle as a powerful factor in creating creating (or destroying health).
A new study reports that the more obese you are, the more likely you are to either die from infection with the new coronavirus or require lifesaving mechanical ventilation to survive. According to the Journal of American Medicine, more than one-third (34.9%) of U.S. adults are obese. Approximately 17% (or 12.7 million) of children and adolescents aged two to nineteen years are obese. If you’re younger than 65 years old and obese, COVID-19 poses a special danger to you. Obesity has been one of the key factors.
Poor lifestyle choices, such as smoking, overuse of alcohol, poor diet, lack of physical activity and inadequate relief of chronic stress are key contributors in the development and progression of preventable chronic diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and several types of cancer.
This is not about blame or shame. We live in a culture that promotes unhealthy behavior. Culture and society are essential in shaping a person’s choices.
Lifestyle is not just a “medical” issue but also largely a “cultural and social” one.
How Our Culture Promotes Unhealthy Behavior
- Low-cost fast food has paved the way for a massive increase in the rate of obesity.
- The cost of healthy food such as fruits and vegetables is higher than less nutritious, energy-dense food.
- Increased consumption of high calorie, low-nutrition food.
- Food has become our new national pastime and most social events are centered around food. For example, more than 20 million hot dogs are sold at Major League Baseball games every season. Over 60% of people who go to games say they cannot live without hot dogs during the game. (see below)
- Advertisements for highly processed, highly refined, unhealthy food full of artificial sweeteners , fat, and salt aren’t a positive influence.
“Lifestyle Medicine” and the Pandemic
Lifestyle is the underlying causes of almost any chronic health problem and weight issue. Here is a direct quote from my book,
“This epidemic is not of an acute infectious type, but of a chronic nature that plagues more and more of us each day. This epidemic grows steadily and influences every aspect of our health. Being trained as a doctor in the medical field, I see firsthand the disparity between western healthcare and true wellness. Medicine, as practiced in most developed countries, treats and manages disease. Thus, the healthcare system, in all reality, is more like a disease-care system. Lifestyle choices, that can make all the difference in the case of obesity and chronic illness such as type 2 diabetes, are rarely discussed. When they are discussed, it often comes after the diagnosis.”
Dr Karen Wolfe “Is Your Lifestyle Killing You”
Let’s jump on the “Lifestyle Medicine” wheel and take good care of ourselves and the ones we love. CLICK HERE for an interesting article about food at sporting events You will also enjoy these posts on this topic
