A NATURAL LIFE
There is one question that I am asked every day by a patient
in my practice. It is always the same question and even though it is never the
same questionner the gist is always the same.
Last year GNC (General Nutrition Centers) a nutritional and vitamin seller with 6,900 stores worldwide reported a 27% increase in annual revenue from the previous year…. And this was during the depths of a global financial meltdown!
So what is the truth. Do these vitamins, anti-oxidants and extracts of everything from cod livers to cactus fruit actually make you more healthy? The sad and concise answer to that global question is a resounding NO!…
IF you are depending on a handful of pills to erase the consequences of a McDonald Fast food, high-caffeine, on the go lifestyle, then I have a certain bridge in Brooklyn that I would be able to sell to you.
After being a physician for nearly half my life-span and after thousands of visits in hospital ICU’s and Coronary Care Units and after signing hundreds of death certificates, I have a rather unique perspective on the nature of these two ancient friends of mine… Health & Disease. What I have learnt is surprisingly simple, profoundly humbling and yet deeply saddening.
With exception of a few infectious diseases and injuries caused by traumatic accidents the vast majority of illnesses are actually directly related to the choices that people make in their lives.
Take for example something as simple as sleep. The average urban dweller presently sleeps less than 6 hrs each night. Now try as you might no amount of rejuvenating vitamins is going to compensate for a chronic sleep deficit of nearly 700 hours each year. The consequences of this sleep deficit is (a) higher resting heart rates, (b) lower neurochemical levels in nerve endings, (c) higher rate of neuronal atrophy (meaning you lose brain cells at higher rate over time), (d) shorter attention spans with reduced ability to handle multiple variables in complex decision making processes…. And that is just the beginning of a list of deficiencies that is considerably longer, but I had to keep it short due to the short attention span of my sleep-deprived readers!
But try telling your friends that when they are trying to fill up your glass with single malt scotch for the 3rd time at 11 pm, with the cajoling statement “The night is still young! Come on live it up for once!”….. Live it up??? Accelerated dying is what is being sold here! …. Still there have been many times when I have decided that it is OK for me to die a little faster tonight rather than be the churlish boor who would ruin the atmosphere by leaving to do nothing better than …God Forbid! Sleep!…. After all an extra pill of melatonin is all that would be needed to re-grow all those lost brain cells and nerve endings.
Let us consider food habits. A large proportion of my patients are very successful executives. Most of them spend a significant portion of their time jetting through multiple time zones several times a month and dining several times a week in business lunches and dinners. A college athlete in his 20’s consumes an average of 2200 to 2400 calories per day, and this is essential to fuel the phenomenal feats of physical prowess that he performs. Now a single business meal can easily contain 2000 calories!! Consider this! The average middle-aged executive consumes a 2000 calorie dinner which he uses to perform the physical feat of lifting 50-80 pounds of fat laden gut and behind from one meeting room chair to another, while his 20 year old college son fuels his entire day with the same meal while in addition scoring dunk-shots on the basketball court!
Now here is the really strange thing. I would tell this obviously successful, intelligent gentleman that I have to put him on cholesterol lowering or anti-diabetic medication because his cholesterol is high or that he has diabetes. Immediately there would begin a conversation that would frequently go something like this:
“Mr. XYZ I need to prescribe you medication to lower your cholesterol”, I would say.
“Doc! Really a cholesterol pill?”, Mr XYZ would exclaim.
“What are it side-effects, Doc?”
“Well, the side-effect of high cholesterol is a heart attack!” I would remind. “Compared to that… what side-effect are you concerned about?” I would ask innocently.
Then would come the inevitable question… “Is there a natural herb or substance that I can take to make……”
In a world where eyebrows are tattooed, eyelashes glued, hair extended, lips collagenized, foreheads cemented with botox, breasts siliconized, muscles inflated with steroids, tummies surgically tightened and behinds rubberized… the only thing natural is predictably of course is now found in a bottle.
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