Health Maintenance
I just moved into Center City, Philadelphia. It’s been a bit of a transition but overall I am enjoying this new experience. While the convenience is a definite plus, mostly I am enjoying the energy of the city and especially the growing number of intelligent and dynamic people I am meeting. As more and more of these people are becoming patients at my Functional Medical and Nutrition Center, I am reminded of how little the most intelligent and accomplished of us often know about…well, about themselves, their health and health needs. If only the human body came with a care and troubleshooting manual! As one newer patient put it, “clearly we all have our own areas of expertise!”
There has been somewhat of a common denominator to my caseload thus far – very few of you are doing basic health maintenance to stay out of trouble! Maintenance? Like for a car or my house? Yes, very much like the mayhem you can experience from neglecting a property, you can get into trouble with your own body’s systems. At 52 years of age I have come to realize that everything requires maintenance! Relationships, cars, houses, careers, and most importantly (well to me) people! OK for clarity I am not talking about external maintenance.
Yes, hair color, makeup, the mani/pedi, that spray tan, Botox, tuck, tweeze, laser, peel, all great but they are not going to keep you out of those medical offices that no one wishes to be in! You’ll just look great while you are there.
Do a quick tally in your head of the time, attention, and resources you allot for each of the following:
- Your house/apartment and car – includes furnishings
- Recreation, travel, dinning out…
- Personal items – clothing, jewelry, makeup, hair….
- Silly little things like your heart, arteries, glands, immune system, lungs, digestive tract, hmmm… your brain!!
If you’re relying on your annual PCP visit – and I am sure these providers are smart and well-intended – truth be told, their expertise is primarily in disease and pharmaceuticals. The “disease care” system as I call it. And “health” insurance to me is disease insurance – mostly they cover when you get sick. Much like a home owner’s policy covers when the tree falls on the roof. Homeowners is not helping you paint, shingle, replace the heater… Dr. Mark Hyman reminds us when quoting from Robbins & Cotran, The Pathology of Disease, “every single physiologic change is proceeded by a biochemical and functional change.” Robbin’s and Cotran is a required text book in nearly every medical school.
Functional Medicine, “upstream medicine” or “21st Century Medicine” is the paradigm shift from conventional medicine, that seeks to target and reverse those “biochemical and functional changes” that proceed the progression to disease. The wise words of my grandmother, who was a nurse, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, have never felt more true!
Thank You, Grand Mom…
“You are either a voluntary customer in the wellness industry,
or an involuntary customer in the sickness industry”
– Katherine Knapp
