Modern Health: The Need For a new focus

Sustainable Healthy Living – Guest blog by Mark J. Mc Ginley, M.D. – Feb. 18, 2012

“The greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it.” This quote from Hippocrates is as relevant now as it was in 300 BC.

The current medical system in the United States needs both financial and philosophical reform. The current system leaves many patients and doctors dissatisfied and frustrated. The system is driven by economic incentive. Hypercholesterolemia is not a Lipitor© deficiency and obesity is not a Lap-Band deficiency. Physicians get little time to understand the person with the disease. Our medical training conditions us to quickly prescribe drugs and perform procedures.
The word doctor derives from the Latin “docere,” which means to teach. Health is not something we give to patients. The human body has an innate intelligence that will gravitate to perfect health. This is the reason that a 2007 US Centers for Disease control and Prevention (CDC) survey of 30,000 Americans revealed that 33% of patients reported using complementary or alternative medicine in the previous year.
Many of us cause our own illness
Five of the seven leading causes of death in the USA are strongly influenced by behavioral/lifestyle choices i.e. heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular accident (Stroke/CVA), emphysema (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease COPD) and diabetes. These “lifestyle diseases” were virtually nonexistent 200 years ago.

Many people in the modern era suffer from excess stress, insufficient exercise, obesity and loss of contact with their divinity, soul and the spiritual dimension to their being. The path back to health has to integrate these multiple facets of a person’s life. The CDC estimates that eliminating three risk factors – poor diet, inactivity and smoking – would prevent 80% of heart disease and stroke, 80% of type II diabetes and 40 % of cancers.

"Second Chance" often goes untaken
A frustration of my current practice in the ICU is that a great amount of work is put into saving the patient’s life and “giving them a second chance,” yet when the patient leaves the hospital, they frequently go back to their disease-promoting lifestyle. It is not too long before they are back in the hospital with another health crisis.

I believe we should have Wellness Centers instead of Disease Centers. At a Wellness Center the focus is on education and an integrative team approach to the whole patient. The area I wish to focus on today is nutrition.

Obesity: the self-inflicted epidemic

There is currently an epidemic of obesity in the USA with 33% of children and 35% of adults meeting the definition of obesity (BMI ≥ 30). The annual refined sugar intake for an American is 142 pounds per year. The fat cell (adipocyte) is not a benign cell. It is an inflammatory organ and secretes numerous hormone-like molecules and inflammatory molecules that interfere with glucose metabolism and promote vascular inflammation. This is the reason why obesity is so closely linked to cancer, hypertension, diabetes and dyslipdemia (abnormal cholesterol). 

Many of the foods we eat today are completely novel substances from an evolutionary perspective. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is grossly imbalanced with processed food. Food supplies us with both nutrients and calories. All calories come from only three elements: carbohydrates, fats and proteins. The key to nutrition is the nutrient density of your diet. Nutrients are derived from noncaloric food factors, including vitamins, minerals, fibers and phytochemicals. 

Eating well is not that hard

A high-nutrient density diet is high in fiber and potassium and “anti-inflammatory”. It does not require calorie counting or carb counting or the purchasing of proprietary products. It requires a return to what is grown in the ground and what grows in trees. We are genetically engineered to thrive on such a diet. Such a diet is rich in fruits, nuts and vegetables. This diet includes small amounts of animal protein (10% of the diet). The way to find this food in a supermarket is to “shop the periphery and stay away from the isles”.

In summary, you are what your metabolism gets to digest. Eat from nature’s food pyramid.
Suggested reading to get you started
I would encourage you to read the following two books as a way to transition to superior nutrition and start back on the path to vibrant health.  

• Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.  
• Anti Cancer: ANew Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D.

About Mark J. Mc Ginley, M.D. – Dr. Mc Ginley is currently the Medical Director of the ICU at Wyoming Medical Center. His interests are in preventative medicine and Mind-Body-Spirit medicine. He is board certified in Integrative and Holistic Medicine and Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Medicine.