A Culture of Health and Wellness

 

If I could wave a magic wand and change one thing to improve our personal, community and planetary health what would it be?  Jeffrey Bland, PhD, a researcher and thought leader in nutrition medicine posed this question to a panel of physician pioneers in the budding field of lifestyle medicine.  The term “lifestyle medicine” popped up on my radar just this year and I like it.  It describes what I do better than “alternative” or “integrative medicine”, terms I choose not to use. Garry Egger and collaborators define lifestyle medicine as the application of environmental, behavioral, medical and motivational principles to the management of lifestyle-related health problems in a clinical setting. The discipline involves the therapeutic use of lifestyle interventions predominantly in the management of chronic disease. It is not meant to be an alternative to conventional clinical practice, but rather a means to address the health challenges posed by changes to lifestyle in the past three to four decades. 

This gives me hope that a New Medicine may be closer than we think. I long for a day when there is just medicine, rather than conventional versus osteopathic versus naturopathic, oriental, homeopathic and other forms of natural medicine all competing for dominance. Lifestyle medicine could be the bridge that helps us collectively realize that it is far more beneficial to cultivate health than patch people up with pharmaceuticals and surgery once health has been compromised.  Although I don’t use “alternative” to describe my practice of medicine, it is alternative because it is not the norm. 

If I had a magic wand, I would create a culture of health and wellness. The keystone of this culture would be food system that supports our health, making it second nature to be healthy.  There would be no need for CSAs or organic farmers markets because every grocery store would sell fresh picked local and organic produce.  There would be no need to scrutinize labels for high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, common genetically modified foods, flavorings, preservatives and chemicals because we wouldn’t use them.  The overriding question for any economic activity in this culture would be, “does this promote personal, community and planetary health?” and only secondarily “will this make money?” For a long time I’ve wished that share owner profit was not allowed in our food and health care systems.  Food and health care must be economically viable, financially supporting the people, communities and planet they serve.  Yet it’s clear that the demand for ever increasing return on investment has created the mess were in right now--food and health care that makes money but doesn’t keep us or the planet healthy. 

I invite you to join me in creating a culture of health and wellness.  I challenge you in 2012 make a resolution to do one thing that improves your personal, family, community or planetary health and wellness.  Invite a friend or family member to join you. The culture of health and wellness shows no signs yet of coming from government or industry.  If you share my dream, make it happen in your life, step-by-step, but don’t wait.  Do it now.