Your Health Rests on These 4 Things
You might think a cardiologist would spend his time with
patients discussing technical things with complicated medical words. But in
reality, I spend most of my time talking about the four legs of a table: the
table of health.
I explain that their health is like a table. And just like a
sturdy table, it has four equal and strong legs. If one is shorter or longer,
the table wobbles, and eventually breaks.
Here are the four "legs" that keep our health
steady:
1.
Diet.
My main piece of advice on food is to be mindful of it.
Think. Getting heart patients to think about food is the first step. Recently,
while I was examining the belly of an obese man, I asked "What is
this?" I meant his huge abdomen. The wife said, "It's cheese and
crackers." Okay, I thought, that's progress. We talked about reducing
empty calories; we discussed comfort eating. I asked him to think about cutting
back on junk food. The next visit, he had lost weight. "I shouldn't have
been eating that much junk food," he said.
When you start thinking about what you're eating, healthier
choices start to become normal. When you cut back on salt, for instance, it's
not long before salty restaurant meals, which you once enjoyed, don't taste
good to you anymore. It's the same with sweetness and portion size.
2.
Exercise.
Study after study has demonstrated the benefits of regular
exercise. Note that that I used the term "exercise"—not physical
activity. Exercise is a sustained activity that makes you breathe hard and
sweat. I've started writing EXERCISE on my whiteboard in the exam room or on a
prescription pad. I tell my patients they need to consider exercise like a
drug; take it every day.
As a lifelong exerciser and bike racer, I have learned some
tricks about exercise. One is to choose exercise that you'll stick with. Most
middle-aged or older people aren't going to sustain a Boot-camp-like regimen.
Another thing I prescribe is to carve out a protected time in your day for
exercise. That means exercise is not extra, say, if I have enough time, but
rather, it is my time for health.
3.
Sleep.
When I ask my healthy patients how they sleep, they all tell
me they maintain good sleep patterns. Pattern being the key word. Good sleepers
keep a schedule. They plan. They go to bed at a set time and they don't have
media screens in the bedroom. Good sleepers consider sleep as a daily
prescription for health. A great deal of research lately has tied sleep
disorders, especially obstructive sleep apnea, to many common diseases, such as
high blood pressure, depression and heart disease. More and more, before
recommending cardiac procedures, I screen and refer patients for sleep
disorders.
4.
Attitude.
Recently, a patient with a heart rhythm problem told me
during his yearly checkup that his symptoms were gone. When I asked him what he
had been doing differently, he said, "I decided to change my
attitude." I asked him what he meant. "I changed how I approach
stress. I decided that being angry and worried was killing me. I cut back on my
work; I took time for exercise and I forced myself to see more of the positive
in things. It took about a month and my heart problem resolved itself."
Could it be that every angry blow-out is like putting another jellybean in the
jar? Eventually the jar overflows.
I don't mean to suggest achieving mental health and
happiness is easy. But I am suggesting the brain-heart connection is important.
We aren't just treating a physical heart; we are treating a human heart.
Although drugs and devices dominate the field of cardiology, I'd put
generosity, kindness, grace, and love high up on the list of heart-healthy
treatments.
Notice one common thread with each of these legs of the
health table: Each of them require an action plan. Humans lucky enough to live
in wealthy nations have easy access to an abundance of rich food, convenient
transportation, and incessant distraction. We must have a plan to overcome
these luxuries. Health, like the construction of a sturdy table, requires an
action plan.
Thank You