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Journey to Wellness

The Crisis

There is a serious epidemic in American health care. It has been estimated to account for over a million deaths per year and there is good evidence to believe that most of these deaths could be prevented. The cause is not some rare and exotic disease or infectious organism. We ourselves are the cause through our own inability or unwillingness to change. Today the leading causes of illness and death are not due to some genetic or other uncontrollable factor such as infection. Lifestyle is the major cause of disease and death in modern society. (Edlin, et.al., 1999) We are a nation desperately in need of impactful, preventive health care programs

When deaths are examined for their actual cause statistics have shown that approximately HALF of the 2.1 million deaths in the United States each year are due to lifestyle factors that could be prevented by changes in lifestyle behaviors. (McGuinnis and Foege, 1993) . Next to tobacco use, unhealthy diet and activity patterns contribute the most to deaths in the US These are all preventable deaths. Diseases such as heart disease, cancer and other chronic degenerative disease result from environmental factors, people’s behaviors and the ways in which they choose to live their lives.

Heart disease and cancer, the two major causes of death in the United States, are lifestyle diseases. They are not caused by infectious organisms nor do genetics play the major role. Heart disease is related to stress, lack of control in one’s life, overeating and eating the wrong kinds of foods, eating over processed foods, cigarette smoking, lack of exercise, and high blood pressure and high cholesterol which are also mainly lifestyle diseases related to diet, exercise and stress. Cancer is believed to be associated with nutritional and environmental factors. Half of all cancer deaths are related to nutritional problems. (Edlin, et al., 1999). Improper nutrition, exposure to hazardous pollutants in the environment, and cigarette smoking all initiate biological changes that can result in cancer. In 1997 The American Cancer Society stated that "if everything known about cancer prevention were practiced by everyone up to two-thirds of all cancer could be prevented". (Edlin, et.al., 1999)

According to the United States Public Health Service 7 of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States could be substantially reduced if people would change their behavior. (DeLeon, et.al., 1996) All of the top seven health risk factors in the United States – tobacco use, diet, alcohol, unintentional injuries, suicidal behavior, violence, unsafe sex – are behavioral. Unhealthy life style habits, unbalanced lifestyles and destructive personal behaviors are at the root of suicide and homicide (alcohol, drugs, stress), accidents and injuries (alcohol, drugs, and stress), HIV infection (unsafe sexual practices), cirrhosis of the liver (alcohol abuse), and diabetes (improper nutrition and lack of exercise).

Tobacco use is the number one unhealthy lifestyle behavior. "In the United States approximately 47 million Americans continue to smoke. Over 400,000 preventable deaths per year are attributable to smoking. Globally the problem is catastrophic. Of the people alive today in the world 500 million are expected to die from this single behavior, losing approximately 5 billion years of life to tobacco use. If even modest gains could be made in behavioral science and the practice of smoking cessation, millions of premature deaths could be prevented and billions of years of life could be preserved."(Prochaska, et.al., 1996)

Contact me to see how a Nutritional Wellness Program could improve your health.
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Today’s Lifestyle and Disease Creation

We live in a society and a time that is geared toward the creation of disease. More than one-third of the American population is chronically ill. (Null, 1999) That number represents only those people who have actually been diagnosed with a condition or illness. It does not count all of those people who are unwell before they are diagnosed with a condition or illness.

It can take some fifteen or twenty years for a cancer tumor to grow. (Null, 1999) At the time of diagnosis years and years of damage and attempted adaptation has occurred in the body before the body just could not adapt any more and finally developed the actual tumor.

Before you would manifest signs of heart disease your arteries may need to be 90 percent occluded. Some believe that it may take as long as 40 years for your arteries to become that badly occluded. (Null, 1999)

Some researches estimates that as many as 100 million people may be walking around who are processing a disease that is not yet diagnosed. There may be another 50 million people who are in the early stages of disease.

Fifty percent of ten-year-olds already have the beginnings of coronary heart disease, arthritis, loss of smell, or taste due to over-stimulated lives. Today’s children eat more processed foods and less naturally prepared foods than ever before. They spend more time watching TV and playing video games than ever before. They spend less time exercising and being outside than ever before. They spend more time in closed, indoor polluted school environments than ever before. They spend more time in high-pressured academic pursuits than ever before. They spend more time achieving and less time in childhood playing, day dreaming, imagining, and following the natural rhythms of their body than ever before. (Edlin, et.al., 1999)

Lifestyle and normal vision

Lifestyle is even affecting the development of normal vision. Many children and adults today wear glasses as a result of our modern lifestyle Being outside and looking at distant objects tends to produce normal vision. Today almost all children have less time spent outside and tend to watch TV and computer screens and read a lot – all of which require close-up vision. These activities lead to the development of myopia (near sightedness) in many children. The increase in the need for glasses to correct for nearsightedness has been documented in the United States and other countries and attributed to the adoption of modern lifestyle behaviors such as watching more TV, working with computers and increased reading. (Edlin, et.al., 1999)

Poor dietary habits

Only one in five children eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, and nearly 25 percent of all the vegetables they consumed are French fries (which of course are not really vegetables). (Mortimore, 1998) The food that we eat everyday makes a difference in how we feel and in our long term and short term health and wellness. Eating more vegetables and salads will create a stronger immune system; help you fight fatigue and maintain a healthy weight. Fresh vegetables and salads contain essential minerals and vitamin. They also supply powerful phytochemicals that are protective against cancers and other degenerative diseases. Numerous population studies have repeatedly demonstrated that a high intake of carotene rich and flavonoid rich fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, and strokes. (Mortimore, 1998)

One of every two American women consumes inadequate amounts of almost every vitamin and mineral studied. On any four consecutive days, only 14 percent of women eat even one dark green vegetable. Almost 50 percent of all women avoid fruit. .Four out of five Americans believe that it is all right to eat whatever they want whenever they want it. (Mortimore, 1998)

Americans believe this in spite of the fact that the US Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services promote dietary guidelines designed to help prevent disease that result from poor nutrition including: heart disease, cancer of various organs, and obesity from diets high in total fat, cholesterol, and saturated fat; cancer of the colon from too much consumption of meat; diseases of the gastrointestinal tract from not consuming sufficient fiber; tooth decay and high blood pressure from unbalanced diets. (Edlin, et.al., 1999)

The cost of our sleep habits

Our sleeping habits also promote the creation of disease. We are a nation of sleep deprived individuals. Over the last couple of generations we are sleeping less and less. In a study commissioned by the US National Commission on Sleep Disorders the total cost of sleep related accidents in 1988 was $56 billion dollars. There were a total of 24, 318 deaths that resulted from accidents related to sleepiness. Disabling injuries resulting from accidents in which the decreased mental efficiency and attentiveness due to sleep loss was the major underlying factor totaled 2,474,430. The total time lost due to sleep related accidents plus the future time lost due to these same accidents is an astonishing 204,650,000 days of productive work. (Coren, 1996)

The cost for the individual in terms of their high level health and wellness is just as great. Adequate amounts of sleep are necessary for strong immune system functioning. Our immune systems are more active when we sleep. During sleep there are regular waves of immune system activity, which seem to be synchronized with the working of our digestive system. Our deep immune responses are most active during our periods of deep sleep. This is one of the reasons that you tend to get sleepy when you are getting sick or when you are really sick. Your body is trying to activate its full immune response. The increased activity of the immune system during our periods of deep sleep defend the body from any microbes that our challenging your body. Recent studies show that after a loss of just a few hours of sleep the normal pattern of the immune system response will be disrupted. (Coren, 1996) Less sleep equals a weaker immune response. Sleep deprived individuals have shown reduced numbers of lymphocytes and their immune system seems to be weaker in many other ways as well.

Studies show that rats deprived of sleep first start to lose weight then lose the ability to regulate body temperature and then die of a bacterial infection. (Coren, 1996) The fatal bacteria are strains that the rats come into contact every day and that normally their immune systems have no trouble eliminating. In the sleep-deprived rats it appears that their immune systems crash and their body didn’t have a chance. In humans, the immune system may not crash with deprived sleep but the overall long-term effect is unhealthy. Several large studies show that the people (controlling for the original health status) at greatest risk for dying early are those who slept the fewest hours each night. (Coren, 1996)

When researchers looked at the natural length of the sleep cycle of humans deprived of clocks and artificial timing they have found that the natural sleep needs might be closer to 10 hours a night rather than the 7-71/2 hours that is typical today. (Coren, 1996) Extending the sleep time to 9-10 hours of sleep at night has consistently shown improved alertness, performance, and functioning, higher test scores, greater enthusiasm, relief of depression, improved psychological status and mood, and more energy. Still Americans live lifestyles that do not make room for sufficient amounts of sleep even though the benefits to their health and well being would be great.

Too busy to exercise

Only 22% of Americans engage in regular, leisure time physical activity. The vast majority of our population is sedentary. Study after study demonstrates that regular physical activity contributes to our health and well being. (Edlin, et.al., 1999) Exercise lowers the risk of many diseases, including high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, osteoporosis, colon cancer and ovarian cancer. Regular exercise also produces a relaxation response in your body, reduces the effects of stress, increases energy and overcomes fatigue, relieves depression and lifts mood, boosts your immune responses, and helps you cope more effectively with life’s ups and downs.

Your overall risk of a heart attack is about 50% less if you exercise regularly than if you inactive. (Edlin, et.al., 1999) With regular exercise you can reach a level of physical fitness comparable to an inactive person 10 to 20 years younger. Regular exercise increases the output of the neurotransmitters and endorphin like substances that produce feelings of euphoria, increased alertness, inner peace, concentration, and creativity. (Edlin, et.al., 1999)

Thirty minutes a day five days a week is all that is required to obtain these health and wellness benefits. With all of these benefits so easily within their grasp 78% of Americans still do not exercise on a regular basis. How much is your life worth to you? Enough to change…?

"It should be obvious to anyone involved directly or indirectly with medical care that most of the costly, chronic diseases that afflict Americans today are largely a consequence of how they live their lives: what and how much they eat, how they move their bodies, how they manage stress, whether they abuse alcohol or drugs or smoke cigarettes, and even whether they use seat belts. If you take an honest look at how Americans live, you might be forced to conclude that most have a death wish. Far worse though, than dying is living longer while ill. Chronic, debilitating, and fun-robbing diseases tarnish far too many Americans’ so called golden years." (Brody, 1999)) People need to adhere to their medical regimens, eat a more healthy diet, stop smoking and abusing drugs and alcohol, and start exercising. They need to be as liberal in adapting lifestyles and behaviors that promotes health and wellness as they have been in adapting lifestyles and behaviors that promote disease and illness.

To reverse the tide of chronic degenerative diseases and the tendency toward less than optimal human development our lifestyles will have to change. We will have to make choices that lead us away from disability and disease and move us toward optimal health and high –level wellness. The way in which we live our daily lives will have to be radically transformed. We will have to choose the road of preventive care by taking positive actions that create optimal health and high-level wellness and that help prevent acute and chronic illness and neutral or low-level health and wellness.

The Case for Lifestyle Enhancement

Health, particularly before it gets to illness, appears to be a behavioral, psychological and lifestyle choice issue and not primarily a medical issue. Most visits to medical doctors are not for medical issues but are due to stress or the need for reassurance.

What’s the real problem in disease or illness?

An analysis of the records of over 1000 patients followed over 3 years in an internal medicine clinic found that for the 14 most commonly presented complaints a clear organic etiology was established in less that 16% of the cases. Significant psychological distress was present in over 80%. (Newman, et. al., 1996) In another study 1989 patients from an internal medicine clinic were reviewed. Only 16% had clear organic causes established for their problems, 10% had clear psychological problems and nearly 80% had significant psychological distress. (Bray, 1996) It has been estimated that between 60 and 80% of visits to primary care physicians are for stress related problems that are created by behavioral and psychological factors and the resulting lifestyle choices which can be taken care of through self care habits that affect the behavioral issue. (DeLeon, et.al., 1996) Almost all injuries have behavioral risk factors – reckless driving, failure to wear seat belts, abuse.

In the primary care setting the diagnosis of depression is missed in about 55% of cases in those with a major depressive disorder seeking treatment for some other complaint (DeLeon, et.al., 1996) These patients often present with chronic headaches, back pain, or gastrointestinal disturbances. And because their depression is not diagnosed it is often not treated. "The translation of psychological conflict and stress into physical symptoms takes a heavy economic toll on our health system. Beyond that, there is the fact when 60% of all visits to a physician are somaticized complaints, the patients are not receiving the appropriate behavioral treatment to ameliorate their pain and suffering. Repeated visits to a physician who attempts to reassure the patient by repeating medical tests only strengthen patient’s conviction that a physical illness exists and will be found during the next round of tests". (Cummings, 1996)

Behaviors Lead to Chronic Disease

Behavioral factors are significant contributors to the development of many chronic diseases, some of which are currently the most serious and most costly threat to the nation’s health, including cancer, heart disease, hypertension, chronic back pain, diabetes. A variety of behavioral and psychological protocols for a number of physical conditions have been shown to be at least as effective and less costly than medical and surgical interventions (e.g. for back pain) and they compare favorably to long-term medication for some conditions (e.g. hypertension). "Virtually every medical authority (textbook, organization, journal, et.), including the Joint National Committee on Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure, has recommended that non-drug therapies be used in the treatment of borderline to mild hypertension in place of drugs. (Pizzoron, et.al., 1999) Significant and clinically meaningful decreases in several measures of cardiovascular health have been found to occur with behavioral interventions with patients with severe heart disease. (Ornish1982) Brief presurgical psychological intervention has been consistently associated with fewer postsurgical complications, less medical usage, and an average of 1.5 fewer hospital days. (Bray, 1996) The provision of psychological services also results in the reduction of overall health care costs. A variety of protocols for a variety of physical conditions that are at least as effective and far less costly than surgical interventions (e.g. for back pain) and even compare favorably to long-term medication use aimed at the same conditions (e.g. hypertension)

Your psychology impacts your health

Psychological interventions have improved a number of physical symptoms and conditions including:

• Asthmatic episodes
• Pain during dressing change in burn patients
• Fecal and urinary incontinence
• Cramping and diarrhea in irritable bowel syndrome
• Anticipatory nausea with chemotherapy
• Vasopasms associated with Raynaud’s disease
• Dyspnea with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Headache severity, frequency, and duration
• Muscle spasms
• Insomnia and other sleep disorders
• Itching in neurodermatitis (Blear, 1996)

Psychological factors can also have an impact on health and disease other than through the direct effect of behaviors. Stress can negatively affect immune functioning and result in immunologically mediated diseases including viral and bacterial infection, autoimmune diseases, certain forms of cancer, lower thyroid functioning, and HIV related illness. (Newman, et. Al., 1996) Also chronic conditions and medical illness can easily result in emotional distress. " Research has demonstrated that emotional distress can complicate medical treatment and thus elevate medical cost and that psychological interventions targeted to those with chronic diseases can actually reduce medical costs. In fact, there is an extensive body of knowledge concerning the medical cost offset of psychological services that in and of itself has been used to argue for the availability of psychological services in health care."(Belar, 1996)

The limitations of our medical system

Our current medical system is an emergency/ crisis care system and not a lifestyle management / preventative health care system. Even our national health policy is geared more toward a "general hospital policy and not a health policy". Hospitalization and extensive inpatient testing and procedures are given priority over preventive health care measures. Insurance payment favors payment for medical interventions focused on managing existing symptoms and illness. Insurance coverage for prevention and early interventions in outpatient settings for healthy lifestyle patterns and habits for the most part does not exist. In some cases there are even economic disincentives for such strategies. (Newman, et. Al., 1996) Serious behavioral and psychological preventive measures to maintain health before a disease, illness, or condition arises are not promoted. It is imperative that greater focus be put on behavioral and psychological interventions for medical conditions.

The prevalence of psychological and behavioral problems – anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, substance abuse, obesity, and domestic violence – and the resulting lifestyle choices in persons seeking care by physicians puts great strain on our present medical system.

Biomedical treatments alone are not sufficient in the management of these and other mental health and behavioral problems and lifestyle choices. Our current medical system is not equipped to handle that 60 to 80% of visits to medical doctors that are arising from behavioral and psychological factors. There is a tremendous economic drain on our medical services in trying to care for "the millions of physician visits by somaticizing patients". Through the appropriate behavioral and psychological interventions and the resulting lifestyle changes a significant reduction in the inappropriate use of medical surgical care can occur.

The changing viewpoint

We are starting to recognize that "understanding disease mechanism is entirely insufficient without understanding both the psychological mechanism underlying the use of and adherence to treatments and the prevention behaviors individual can engage in so that they will not need to be treated at all – and they will stay healthy." (Parks, 1996) As medical costs increase and the large population of baby boomers gets older Americans will likely need to take more responsibility for their own health care. Health and vitality are important contributors to well being throughout the life span and people will need to know what behaviors lead to good health. Until recently the focus of most research within the National Institute of Health has been on basic disease mechanisms and treatment with less attention being paid to behavioral factors. (Park, 1996) This is changing however.

The Task Force on Aging Research, 1995 has released a document prioritizing research objects for the future with respect to aging. There are a total of 192 goals specified across the 10 domains. "What is particularly exciting is that 131 of them (68%) have a behavioral component or objective. Of course, one would expect categories such as social and behavioral functioning to have behavioral objective. But what is most telling is that behavioral goals permeate every category, even basic medical objectives. For example in the category of disease and disabilities there are numerous goals that are primarily behavioral, including frailty prevention; exercise, strength training, and metabolism, cancer prevention and early detection in older persons, and the effect of aging on biomechanical efficiency. Under the category of health care, behavioral objectives include, compliance with health promotion and disease prevention measures, prevention of falls, smoking cessation and autonomy in health care decision making." (Park, 1996)

Change your behaviors … change your health

Interventions for these and other psychological and behavioral factors must be available if treatment is to be successful in preventing those million deaths per year attributable to life style factors. It is clear that behavioral and psychological intervention is needed for that 60% -80% of physician visits that are either translating emotional distress into physical symptoms or have a real physical illness complicated by psychological factors or brought on by lifestyle choices. It is necessary to provide behavioral interventions through lifestyle management and modification for many health problems including weight management, stress reduction, heart disease, cancer, smoking cessation, and alcohol abuse and many other conditions. It important to understand what these behavioral factors are and to educate and train both the practitioner and the general public in what will lead to maintenance of health and well-being throughout the life span. By including a strong focus on behavioral and psychological preventive health care along with lifestyle enhancement a significant impact on the quality of life for millions of people can be made. "… 100% of all medical visits are psychological and that Cartesian mind-body dualism simply does not belong in any conceptualization or implementation of the health care system. Behavior and health are inextricably intertwined …" (Belar, 1996)

Successful health outcomes

Behavior is the fundamental variable in obtaining successful health outcomes. Medical knowledge, services, and technology are important but will make little impact unless people engage in the appropriate preventive or adherence behaviors. "It has become increasingly evident that health is not just a result of genetic and environmental contributions, but the behavior of the person plays a critical role in disease prevention as well as health outcomes once a disease process has begun." (Park, 1996)

But people can not adjust their health behaviors in the direction of optimal development and successful adaptation unless they know what behaviors not only prevent disease but also what leads to optimal wellness. The successful treatment of illnesses or the obtainment of preventive goals may also require that people understand what to do, how to do it, and why they should do it. To deliver effective treatments it may be necessary for medical and health care providers to know how to deliver their care in accordance with their clients needs, goals, attitudes and beliefs. To implement successful health care behaviors and lifestyle enhancement it is important to: understand more fully the relationships between health and behaviors; to know more about what the important health and well-being objectives are; to understand how different environments, roles and expectations, activities, education, family, support systems, and other life and lifestyle conditions affect health and wellbeing; to be more aware of the characteristics of well being in different developmental stages and for males and females; and to have a better understanding of the social, cultural, mental, emotional characteristics of each particular life stage.

The Potential of Behavior and Lifestyle Enhancement

It is important to develop a paradigm that bridges the gap between psychological functioning, behavior and lifestyle choices and biological functioning. It is important to know what the psychological and behavioral components of an illness are; what the important psychological and behavioral components of delivering medical and health care are; what the psychological and behavioral components of getting people to adhere to medical and wellness regimes are; and what the psychological and behavioral components of getting people to not only adhere to medical regimes are but also how to move beyond that to implement restorative and preventive practices and behaviors.

What you do, how you think, how you feel and how you life your life every day is important for health. The accumulative data clearly shows the importance of your choices and behaviors in the prevention and treatment of and recovery from illness and disease. Addressing behavior, behavior changes, and behavioral interventions has great potential for assisting people in changing unhealthy health habits and lifestyle patterns. Effective behavior change technologies and education methodologies that will significantly enhance health promoting behaviors and lifestyles can be and already are created. Lifestyle enhancement can make a significant impact not only on illness and disease but also on the critical aspects of health and well being. Prevention approaches can amass or access the knowledge base necessary to design systems, programs and interventions that will appropriately and effectively treat behavioral and psychological aspects of health conditions and relieve the strain on the over utilization of the medical and surgical system. The involvement of behavioral change and lifestyle enhancement in health care is essential to providing clinically effective programs and treatments.

"This, now, is the challenge facing [us] in the late twentieth century and beyond: How to help people adopt and stick with lifestyle changes that foster continuing good health. We all can, if we choose to, achieve the goal established for humanity by the ancient Greeks: to die young – as late in life as possible". (Resnick, et. Al., 1999)

Changing your beliefs

Because of the predominance of behavioral and psychological factors in all aspects of health and well being in determining lifestyle choices understanding behavior and how people change can have the key role to play in improving health and health care. In some research done by Essi Systems, a research based consulting firm, they found that the only factor with significant relationship to a person’s ability to cope with work related stress is personal power. "Our testing revealed that out of 21 stress related factors we examined, personal power was the only factor that could predict who got sick and who stayed healthy in work situations with high amounts of pressure." (Childre, 1994) Assisting people in changing their attitudes and moving from "helplessness and hopelessness to the determined optimism of the little engine that could" (Belar, 1996) is necessary. Increasing personal power and self-belief – become essential foundations for action.

Developing a longevity preventive approach can encompass mental and physical health and all aspects of well being. In one APA survey of 1200 men and women in the United States more than 8 in 10 people surveyed said they believed that good psychological health plays an important role in maintaining good physical health. In a separate series of focus groups it was revealed that the public believes strongly in a connection between the mind and the body and saw psychological and behavioral services as "an important part of treatment for physical illness and disease, enhancing both the ability to cope with the disease and the recovery from it." (Newman, et. Al., 1996)

In our evolution towards addressing total health care and wellness concerns we can focus on all aspects of health and wellness throughout our life span in all the developmental stages of human growth. In order to improve the quality of our life we can take the lead in balancing beliefs that favor hospitalization and acute care with beliefs and programs that promote shifting from focusing on taking something to alleviate symptoms to looking at behavioral changes that are needed for long term preventive care. The split between mind and body is no longer useful in understanding health care and health and well being and we can be the advocate for its elimination. A comprehensive knowledge base can be built based on both clinical and scientific practice as we move towards a way of living with a much broader involvement and influence that will improve the total life span and its quality for millions of people. Our medical system is ill equipped by itself to do this but we can take the lead by understanding the importance of mind and behavior and how they impact how long and well we live.

The longevity preventive approach

People go to medical doctors to be reassured and for direction in how to live their life - both of which medical doctors are not equipped to do. There is a need for more than what the current medical community can provide. More mention needs to be made of the many, many mind-body, dietary, exercise and other lifestyle changes that could positively impact a condition, prepare someone for surgery, or help them implement more appropriate life style management techniques. Giving up faulty lifestyle behaviors such as working late into the night to finish work by a deadline, and adoption of more healthy lifestyle behaviors such as including regular exercise require a good deal of adaptation and fundamental changes in attitudes and choices about how to live your daily life. People need to be helped to understand the life quality and behavioral implications of the different choices for lifestyle behaviors– all of which will significantly impact how they live the rest of their life. It is important to make mention of these psychological considerations and offer help with these issues. Health is not just a matter of explaining the medical issues involved. Working with someone who can help address and coordinate all of these behavioral, psychological and lifestyle issues can certainly enhance the experience of the entire interaction with a medical condition and the medical community and the prevention of destructive diseases.

Doctors are not trained as the profession to provide this direction themselves. But there are many programs, resources and practitioners who can work with the psychological, behavioral and lifestyle interventions that might improve the quality of your life now and in the future.

Longevity preventive care is long –term occurring in periods of both health and illness. The care is comprehensive affecting many levels of health and wellness drawing from a multidisciplinary approach. The care is personal and has continuity and integration over time and across individual and community resources. Its emphasis is on prevention, education, consultation, coaching and changing attitudes and behaviors that enable relinquishing faulty living habits and adapting healthy lifestyle choices. It includes focus on adherence with medical and preventive health care regimes, reducing complications from surgery and medical conditions, facilitating recover from somatic conditions and the mental, emotional and psychological components of physical conditions. It also includes focus on the bio-psycho-social perspective and focus on patient issues of health and illness as well as on environmental and support systems issues, doctor- patient issues and system- provider issues.

Getting from here to there

How is it that the arena of "faulty living habits" is defined. If you look solely in the scientific realm of empirically proven medical practices and techniques that have arisen from the medical community this eliminates the "art of healthy practices" that many people seek.

It is not in the best interest of promoting health and wellness for the fullest development of people to simply adopt or borrow healthy habits solely from the medical profession. Most medical health practices are by nature restrictive in their application because they are designed to prevent emergency problems. They do not arise from a paradigm that is designed to promote expansive health and well being. They do not arise from a longevity preventive approach. The most effective recommendations for healthy habits and life style choices should promote optimal development and not simply be designed to just avoid acute problems. It is not necessarily just a matter of facilitating compliance only to medical regimes. It is more a matter of facilitating the client in making informed choices about their health care and in looking for a variety of options. Longevity preventive care requires the establishment of an independent base of knowledge that defines effective health care regimes and healthy lifestyle choices and behaviors – for the long term.

A Paradigm for Bridging the Gap Between Acute Care and Longevity Preventive Care

The World Health Organization states that "Health is more than the absence of disease. Health is a state of optimal well-being…a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity." (Edlin, et.al,1999) Wellness goes beyond the curing of an illness or resolution of a condition. Not being sick is an important aspect of health. But health is really beyond that. It is more an optimal state of well being: physically, emotionally, mentally, psychologically, and spiritually.

Wellness is multifaceted and multidimensional. Wellness is the result of wholeness and integration. Health and wellness are obtained by achieving a balanced and harmonious lifestyle and taking responsibility to reduce your health risks and maximize your healthy choices. Wellness achieves a synergistic balance and interplay among all the many and varied aspect of a person and their lifestyle. Wellness is an integrative process that is ever-evolving toward optimal health. Health is "a condition of the individual that makes possible the highest enjoyment of life, the greatest constructive work, and that shows itself in the best service to the world. Health as freedom from disease is a standard of mediocrity; health as a quality of life is a standard of inspiration and increasing achievement". (Edlin, et.al., 1999)

Health, Healthcare, and Responsibility

To achieve a state of optimal health you must move beyond acute or emergency care. Surgery, drugs, and invasive diagnostic tests may preserve the life and functioning of the body. However, by themselves they are not capable of achieving a state of wellness. They have limited value in preventive care. Although they are useful in understanding the biological contribution to disease they have limited value in understanding the emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual aspects that affect health and contribute to disease or wellness. They have limited value in helping you design a healthy life for peak performance. Western medical health care is an acute or emergency health care system and it was never designed to deliver preventive health care. A comprehensive preventive care system would draw from world wide traditional health care systems and from complementary wellness fields such as human development, psychology, nutrition, spirituality, coaching, counseling, religious, and motivational fields.

You are the only one who can create wellness for yourself. Your health is your responsibility. You are responsible for choosing appropriate health care providers and you have the final say in making the decisions that contribute to you achieving a state of wellness. You are the only one who can take the steps to move yourself away from unhealthy behaviors and lifestyles and towards health promoting lifestyle behaviors that result in optimal health and well being.

Knowing which steps to take in the journey toward wellness requires learning and education. It requires creativity and preservation. Most of all it requires the willingness to expand one’s focus beyond the habitual way that they have always done things in the past. If you continue to make your health choices from the same attitude and beliefs that you have in the past you will continually create the same state of health for yourself.

The Many Dimensions of a Healthy Life

Health and wellness are multifactoral in nature. They demand multifactoral changes in lifestyle behaviors. Changing only a part of your diet is not enough. Walking a few times a week is not enough. A total lifestyle evaluation and incorporation of healthy habits is mandatory. Making a few changes here and there is certainly better than nothing but any one single change by itself will not bring about the great potential for health and vitality inherent in the human body. You must work on all dimensions of health and wellness, nutrition, nourishment, activity, rest, patterns of behaviors and thoughts, emotional well-being, social connection, spiritual rejuvenation, and more.

Wellness is a dynamic and progressive process. No one dimension of wellness functions in isolation. A high level of wellness is reflected in harmonious and integrated functioning of a whole person within their whole environment. Wellness has many dimensions including:

Physical- a healthy body maintained by a nutritious diet; regular exercise; plenty of sleep and rest; avoiding harmful substances and risky behaviors; maintaining a balanced activity schedule; adequate exposure to light and air; clean drinking water; seeking the appropriate health care when needed; informed responsible health care choices

Emotional – flexible coping styles; constructive emotional expression; emotional intelligence; experiencing a full range of emotional states; stable and harmonious internal emotional environment; positive, pleasurable experiences; presence; charisma; energy dynamic

Mental – creative, open and flexible mind; active attention, focus, concentration, and memory; stimulating mental pursuits; peace of mind; effective problem solving; intuitive development; effective communication; mastery; wisdom; logic and reasoning; looking newly

Psychological – adaptable attitudes, belief systems, values and principles; healthy processing techniques; adequate internal resources; healthy prioritizing of life demands; healthy assimilation and accommodation; congruence and integrity; meeting personal needs; efficacy; self-actualization

Spiritual – balance and harmony between yourself and the world; evolutionary development; internalization; relatedness; aliveness; sourcefull awareness

Career – meaningful, enjoyable, satisfying work in the world; balance and integration in your personal and professional life; sense of accomplishment and contribution;

Social – supportive interactions and relationships; family and community connections and contributions; intimacy; world citizen; able to express many different roles effectively and congruently; communal awareness

Financial – adequate monetary resources for providing healthy options for food, shelter, clothing; building a secure foundation of exchange for the present and the future; adequate resources to fund your development and evolution and to enable you to achieve your heart’s desires.

An effective longevity preventive care program would provide direction, guidance and support in each of these areas. Comprehensive preventive care points out the stresses and difficulties in each dimension of health and wellness and provides a pathway to affect the return to wholeness in each dimension. The focus needs to be on taking responsibility to reduce risky behaviors in each of the dimensions of wellness and promoting healthy lifestyle choices in each area.

Genes vs. Lifestyle – Longevity Preventive Health Care

It is not all genetic. Our genes are not the sole determinant of the length and healthy quality of our life (although they do make a contribution). Our lifestyle choices are.

Our bodies were designed to live past 100 years. Scientists are now saying that our genetic potential is at least 120 and some are even saying it is 150 years. (Warshofsky, 1999) It is estimated that a third of males and half of all females recently born in developed countries will live to 100. Not only can we live longer but we can also live better. We do not have to accept the supposed degeneration of aging including dementia, heart disease, fatigue, weakness, loss of muscle mass, digestive problems, overweight, and diminished vision, smell, hearing and taste

Only a small percentage of the American population is healthy. And they are healthy because they make it a priority. They work at it consistently over time. Every lifestyle choice they make is a vote for health or a vote for disease and suffering. They have taken the self-responsibility to optimize their well being, to support and activate their self-healing mechanisms, and to create the conditions in their life that generate health and prevent disease.

How long before you change?

It is not easy to make the changes in your lifestyle that will be needed to build true health and wellness. Change is hard. We all resist change. Sometimes we only change when things get so bad that we can not go on. Or when we lose everything. We usually get warning signs along the way that our choices are not the best for us. Little telltale signs come up that urge us to change our choices and head in another direction. Often we don’t pay attention. Or we think we’ll just go on a little longer and we’ll get started on a better path tomorrow. After a while we don’t notice these warning signs. Our body gets tired of alerting us to possible damage and it starts to habituate. The warning signs go underground. They become subtler. They go deeper into the body. They turn from warning signs to disturbances in the body’s homeostasis (internal state of balance and harmony). The signs and symptoms of discomfort and disease are a signal that your total state of being is out of balance not merely that there is a malfunction of a particular organ or process in the body. The solution is to find the source of the problem, eliminate the source of the problem and repair any damage done.

For instance, when an allergic food is first encountered it may cause acute reactions such as hives, stomachache, and nausea. However if this is not recognized as an allergic response and you continue to eat the allergic food the symptoms will gradually take on a more generalized, subtle and chronic reaction. (Null, 1999) Eventually they may become indistinguishable from what you think of as your natural personality or way of feeling. But the reaction in the body does not just go away. As it becomes more generalized and the body continues to attempt to adapt to the stress it develops into more serious disruption internally and manifests as some chronic condition such as arthritis or migraines. The real resolution of the condition would require that you eliminate the allergen and restore the diminished functioning. The resolution is not to just take some medication to relieve the symptoms of the condition.

Sometimes even when we hit the bottom and things are really bad we still hold onto the idea that we can live anyway we want and make any number of poor health choices. We want to continue to believe that our migraines or arthritis have nothing to do with our allergy to milk. Research shows that most people who have by-pass surgery actually go back to living the same way they did before the surgery. (Null, 1999)

Making choices for a long and healthy life takes courage and never ending persistence. It is easy to think about everything else that can distract you and lead you off the path to wellness.

Contact me to see how a Nutritional Wellness Program could improve your health.
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Making the Choice to Change

Why don’t people change unhealthy behaviors and self-destructive daily behaviors that lead to damage and illness? People must be ready to shift their awareness in how they think about health and this is not easy to do. Adding a few supplements, or taking a few herbs will not undo damage that has been years in the making. Even basic nutritional and exercise changes are not adequate to "reverse damage incurred in the course of a lifetime of neglect". (Null, 1999) To regenerate and rebuild our bodies we must shift our behaviors at least to the degree that we have neglected to follow a healthy lifestyle. Creating health from a body that has undergone years of abuse and neglect requires enormous healthy input.

Relinquishing the Old ways and Beliefs

We seem to find it very easy to create disease. We find it acceptable to work all day without taking breaks or eating nourishing foods in a nourishing environment. It’s okay to be so busy that we only sleep four, five, six hours a night. It’s just the way that it is that we have to consume coffee all day to keep going. It seems natural to smoke cigarettes to keep us relaxed and comfortable. We can’t stand drinking water but can consume soda after soda all day long. We are afraid of any negative side effects of taking vitamin and mineral supplements but we consume trans fatty acids in all of our processed foods when even the FDA is telling us that trans fatty acids harm our heart, weaken our immune responses and lead to numerous other unhealthy conditions in the body.

We worry about taking herbs that have been used for thousands of years without harmful effects and we think nothing about taking the numerous drugs recommended by our doctors when deaths from drugs occur at alarming rates. Sure herbs may cause side effects. Not all herbs are safe and not all herbs are appropriate in certain conditions for certain people. You need to be educated and aware of what herb to take and when and how to take it. But the fact is that approximately 100,000 Americans die annually from taking prescription drugs. Far more Americans die each year form adverse reactions to prescription and over the counter medications than succumb to illegal drug use. Up to 11% of hospital admissions are the result of "drug induced suffering" and more than a quarter of US inpatients have adverse reactions to the drugs they are given in the hospital. (Fried, 1998) Researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimate that deaths from prescription medicines may be the fourth leading cause of mortality in the United States. Every year prescription drugs cause 1 million injuries so severe they require hospitalization, and another 2 million drug-related injuries occur during hospital care. Long term use of just one class of over the counter drugs- anti-inflammatory agents such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and Naprosyn- causes an estimated 70,000 hospitalization every year. (Moore, 1998) And most of us never even bother to question taking a drug and if there is an alternative that might be better.

In order to create real change in our health and to create wellness and vitality for ourselves we have to retrain ourselves so that we find it as easy and as natural to live a healthy lifestyle and make healthy choices on a day to day basis as we now find it to create disease. We have to be as liberal in creating health as we now are in creating disease

Each Change In Its Own Time

Trying to make changes too quickly does not work. It is important to adopt a preventive health approach in phases. Your body has learned to adapt to your present lifestyle. The body has come to need the sugar or the caffeine you eat every day. It has become used to a sedentary lifestyle. If you suddenly make dramatic changes in your activity levels, in the foods you eat, in the way you process your life experiences you will overwhelm your body and it will not have sufficient time to shift its functioning and accommodate the new changes that you are making. You are almost sure to fail in such an attempt.

To be successful you must gradually support the body in its rejuvenation process. You must allow the body time to return to its normal functioning. You must allow the body time to regrow in a healthy way. For example Omega-6 oils can be damaging to your health and have been tied to increases in breast cancer. Through dietary changes you can counteract the negative effects of omega-6 oils. But the body stores such an enormous amount of omega-6 fats that it would take at least three years to wash them out of your system. (Arnot, 1998) You would need to follow those dietary changes for at least three years before you would realize the full effect of them.

It is important to approach a preventative health care program in phases. Taking it step by step in an orderly fashion through the series of changes that build and naturally allow the next rejuvenation changes to occur. The body will naturally right itself given the appropriate support. You can not force and push it into a state of wellness it has to naturally grow into that state. Quick fixes do not work to create long term health and wellness. Quick fixes are how we got into the state of affairs in the first place. Along the way you will be restructuring destructive behavior patterns, thoughts, emotions, and beliefs tied to the unhealthy activity. In a coordinated preventive care approach each change will make the succeeding changes easier and less stressful. Each phase of the preventive approach will prepare you and your body for the next phase. Remember you are rebuilding health step by step not just expecting it to arrive on the scene ready-made. Health is an ever-evolving process, a way of life not just the end result or product.

Using the Knowledge Base – We Have Enough to Begin

You can create the energy, motivation, and persistence to succeed in achieving high level health and wellness. There is a road map that will lead you step by step to your goal. We have the knowledge and wisdom to create optimal human development and peak performance. It is not a mystery what we need to do. There are strategies that can be employed day by day that will rebuild damaged pathways, regenerate worn out resources, repattern unsuccessful habits. There are guidelines which you can follow that will help you be your best every day. The knowledge you need to create a sense of control over your health and your life and to create within yourself the biological support for success is available. It needs to be organized and tested. But we know enough to begin preventing those million deaths per year.

We have a knowledge base that points to the foods, activities, environments that will activate more alertness, shift your moods, and increase your attention, focus and concentration. We know that if you eat protein in the afternoon and avoid starchy carbohydrates then that you will have more energy and will be more focused and alert. (Khalsa, 1997) We do know that lack of sufficient light creates fatigue, depression, and lack of motivation and that the minimum amount of light needed for us to experience the benefit of light is 1000 lux of light. Most rooms do not exceed 600 lux of light. Daily exposure to early morning bright sunlight is crucial to the health of our immune responses, endocrine, and hormonal systems. How few of us are ever out in the morning sun? (Arnot, 2000)

We can draw from many sources to structure your day, pace your activity level and support your natural rhythms so that you have more energy and are more productive and produce results easier. We have evidence that suggests that creating rituals in your day simplifies, clarifies, and creates order, symmetry, and familiarity in chaos and high stress situations. (Arnot, 2000) We know how to create those rituals.

We have practices and procedures that show us how to get you to sleep more soundly, how to regulate the production of your neurotransmitters, what kind of music to play to keep you relaxed, aware and calm throughout the day. We have research that tells us that when you drink coffee in the morning before you eat a good breakfast that the rapidly falling blood sugar and the rising adrenaline will leave you shaky and in a bad mood for the rest of the day. (Arnot, 2000) We have research that suggests that when you listen to classical music that your brain waves synchronize and shift into a more creative brain wave pattern. (Campbell, 1997)

We have information about when you should eat protein and when you should eat carbohydrates, and what kind of carbohydrates you should eat and in what combinations you should eat them to keep you from craving sugar, caffeine and other stimulants. We have people looking at the nutrients you need, the kind of exercise you need, and when you should exercise to keep the effects of stress from ravaging your body. We know that stress rapidly depletes vitamin C and the entire B complex and that these vitamins are essential for healthy brain and immune function. (Khalsa, 1997) We know that thirty minutes of moderate exercise five days a week can help lower blood cholesterol, moderates insulin levels, and is one of the most effective methods for relieving tension and stress in the body, (Edllin, et.al., 1999)

Creating an environment of health and wellbeing

We have enough to begin to create the carefully constructed environment of health, wellness and success. It is not an accident. It does not just happen. It is not naturally present in our society. But we do know enough to begin building it. Each element can be specific. The whole can be carefully crafted to support optimal functioning. But it does require crafting. It does require step by step implementation. You can tough it out in any kind of environment but you won’t be your best. Mental performance can be reduced by 30 percent at temperatures above 70 degrees. Skipping breakfast keeps your body in a starvation mood and slows down your metabolic rate. (Arnot, 2000) Of course it is not all double blind tested. Of course, it needs to be adjusted for different cultures, populations, genders, ages. We are a long way away from the definitive paradigm that is applicable to all. But we know enough to begin. The longevity preventive knowledge base that we have available to us now has the potential and the promise to be so much better than our current standard acute care practices and procedures. A million people a year die because they do not have adequate direction as to where to change and how to change their faulty behaviors and lifestyles. We must do what we can do now to carefully build the lifestyle structure that will offer the best possible support for producing the best possible results.

People have only one life to live and only one body in which to live it. The quality and length of life can increase dramatically by being willing to adopt a longevity preventive care approach. From that approach we can make the choices that support long term health and wellness and by begin using creative solutions for removing obstacles that get in the way of healthy lifestyle changes. We are not working simply to eradicate a symptom or illness. We are working at rebuilding health and wellness. We are working to keep us functioning at our peak for as long as possible. We are working to avoid unnecessary suffering and decline. We are working at restructuring living so that it is compatible with the needs of health at all levels. We are working to allow our own natural vitality, brilliance, creativity, compassion, and vision to emanate from a well and healthy person now and in the future. We are working to save at least 5 billion years of human life.

Will yours be among those?

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