Peek-a-Boo Ailments

“Illnesses do not come upon us out of the blue. They are developed from small daily sins against Nature. When enough sins have accumulated, illnesses will suddenly appear.”
—Hippocrates of Kos

“I can’t believe my uncle had a stroke,” an acquaintance said to me last weekend. She was very upset, and I supported her.

But I wasn’t surprised her uncle had a stroke.

Strokes should rarely be a surprise.

In most cases, this is also true for type-2 diabetes, cancer, dementia, chronic neuromusculosketetal pain, anxiety, depression, and related ailments.

These are lifestyle ailments.

They aren’t the result of accidents as broken bones are. They aren’t inherited as Down’s syndrome is. They aren’t contracted as influenza is.

Lifestyle ailments develop over time, giving you plenty of time to prevent them.

And scientific evidence from countless scientific studies makes clear exactly how lifestyle ailments develop and how to prevent them.

A large, longitudinal scientific study conducted at Harvard University serves as a good example.

The researchers followed more than 123,000 subjects for 34 years. They took various measures of behavior from the subjects and noted which subjects died during that time period and when they died.

What did they find?

“We estimate that adherence to a low-risk lifestyle could prolong life expectancy at age 50 years by 14.0 and 12.2 years in female and male US adults compared with individuals without any of the low-risk lifestyle factors. Our findings suggest that the gap in life expectancy between the United States and other developed countries could be narrowed by improving lifestyle factors.”

The salutary lifestyle they studied (refraining from smoking tobacco, moderating consumption of alcoholic drinks, eating nutritious food, exercising, and maintaining an optimal weight) was worth an average of 13.1 years of life.

Subjects who lived this salutary lifestyle had an 80 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 60 percent lower risk of dying from cancer. (1)

Lifestyle ailments don’t sneak up on you over the weekend.

As soon as you let go of the notion of lifestyle ailments as peek-a-boo ailments, you can get to work preventing them.

How?

By proactively meeting most of your needs most of the time.

For starters:

1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat nutrilicious food.
3. Do moderate exercise you enjoy.
4. Move your body in other ways you enjoy.
5. Get plenty of sleep.
6. Get plenty of rest.
7. Engage in fulfilling work.
8. Engage in fulfilling relationships.

And as is helpful to you:

1. Spend time with nature.
2. Create and take in art.
3. Employ relaxation techniques.
4. Participate in a spiritual practice.
5. Do anything else you consider self-care.

Prevention is the cure.

(1) Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Factors on Life Expectancies in the US Population. Circulation, 2018, 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032047.

About Jason Gootman
Jason Gootman is a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach as well as a certified nutritionist and certified exercise physiologist. Jason helps people reverse and prevent type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other ailments with evidence-based approaches to nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, holistic wellness, and, most importantly, lasting behavior improvement and positive habit formation. As part of this work, Jason often helps people lose weight and keep it off, in part by helping them overcome the common challenges of yo-yo dieting and emotional eating. Jason helps people go from knowing what to do and having good intentions to consistently taking great care of themselves in ways that help them add years to their lives and life to their years.