In the beginning
From an early age, I was interested in science, medicine, health and fitness. In our home, we had books on nutrition, yoga, and meditation. At a time when yoga, and even more so, meditation were considered as “kinda weird,” it seemed normal in our home and in the neighborhood. A yoga teacher would go from house to house amongst the neighbors. Each family took turns to host the lessons.
The books on nutrition in those days were mainly about the wonders of vitamins and minerals. It seemed that the more healthy vitamins and minerals that you added to your diet the healthier you would be.
Disease stalked our community
Our neighbors were like extended family and we spent so much time together.
Despite this, an epidemic of heart disease and cancers seemed to be on the prowl. Heart attacks savaged middle aged men. They landed up in hospital or died of heart attacks. Also, men and women got cancer and died from it.
Eating a diet rich in animal protein, including lots of red meat, chicken, and dairy products such as whole milk and cheese, and animal fats including butter and cream and other tasty delights, they succumbed to disease.
Most people from our area worked in sedentary occupations, went everywhere by car, and overall were not physically active. Cigarette smoking was popular.
Losing so many of the older generation when they were in their fifties or early sixties was difficult.
Why was this happening? I was convinced then and I am convinced now that it was mainly lifestyle.
Medical school taught me about disease
When I trained to become a physician, it was a privilege to learn about the parts of the body and how they worked. We learned about the biochemistry, the cells, tissues, and organs of the body. The components interacted with one another to maintain balance or to restore balance. We covered these interactions in the subject of physiology.
We also learned about pathology addressing the things that could go wrong with the body. Our teachers taught us about how the body becomes ill. The genetic and inherited diseases, the microbes, such as viruses and bacteria, heat, cold, trauma, and many other attacks inside, outside and on the body.
We studied pharmacology, which is what medicines do to the body and what the body does to medicines, such as metabolizing them and clearing them out of the body.
We learned how to evaluate patients, diagnose their conditions, and how to treat a host of diseases, including some mental disorders. Our teachers taught us about public health and about social factors that contribute to disease.
Mostly, we learned that doctors could not cure so many diseases. We could just work to slow diseases, alleviate suffering, and support our patients.
Overwhelmingly, we learned about disease – not health.
After medical school the focus on disease continued
Working in hospitals, I saw plenty of disease. My admiration for my patients grew. How brave they were! Some of them had been through repeated rounds of unpleasant or painful treatments, but continued to the next treatment with great courage.
In research laboratories, I studied certain diseases, and later I moved on to epidemiology and clinical trials in an academic setting. Then, I went into industry and worked to develop new treatments.
We will need new treatments for diseases for the long term.
We also need better prevention. While I was interested in this, the main focus in hospitals, academia, research and industry was on diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Where are we now?
Until recent times doctors learned more about disease than health. Medical schools gave little attention during the training of doctors to nutrition, physical activity, and other lifestyle interventions that we know benefit health. This is beginning to change.
For most of my life, I have been interested in health. Despite gaining considerable knowledge about health, I know it is not always easy to apply. This is partly because we are immersed in an environment where unhealthy choices abound.
- New technologies attract people to their screens helping them to stay more sedentary. They certainly don’t help in person face-to-face social connections.
- Cars and elevators decrease walking and climbing stairs.
- All manner of labor saving devices also encourage a decrease in physical activity.
- Unhealthy comfort foods are everywhere, easy to find, and cheap.
The sheer variety of “health foods,” and extensive advice on the best diet and exercise, as well as health in general is happening at a time when obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancers and a number of other diseases are on the rise.
Something is not right here. In my own experience, better answers are out there.
Join me to explore how you might improve your own health!