Over 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates is believed to have said: “The greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it.” As with much of classical history, it is almost certainly not a direct quote, but a reasonably accurate reflection of his belief in the power of lifestyle choices to ensure good health.
We all understand this intuitively, and every time we check our step count on our phone, or carefully read the ingredients list on our groceries, or put on a sleep tracking ring, we are making an effort to ensure that our lifestyle choices are optimal. With the smart wearables available to us, and inexpensive medical diagnostics that can track hundreds of biomarkers precisely, one would assume that we’re living healthier lives, especially when it comes to preventing lifestyle diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, strokes, and chronic kidney disease. But, paradoxically, the incidence of precisely these diseases continues to rise globally.
While we have richer access to our health data than ever before, life often gets in the way of effectively monitoring and managing our health - there’s just too much data to look at and too much to do. And there are other factors that are responsible:
■ A lack of immediate traceability from lifestyle choices to disease risk. If I skip my walks for several weeks, or eat unwise quantities of carb rich desserts, and only see a rise in HbA1c levels after a few months, it’s easy to rationalize poor choices in favor of immediate gratification.
■ Limited actionable guidance on lifestyle choices - platitudes like “eat more fibre and vegetables” do not help. Something specific that reviews my current food choices, breaks it down into macro and micro nutrients and points out precisely what parts of it need to change, along with suggestions for replacements, has a much better chance of getting my attention.
■ The complexity that is a consequence of more health status data. I don’t just know how long I slept, I now know precisely the percentage of REM sleep, deep sleep, my oxygen saturation levels during that time etc. Similarly, I know my V02 max, my resting HRV - but all that seems to do is soak up more “analysis time” trying to understand their individual impact on my biomarkers and disease risks without helping me make better choices.
At 78Health, we are on a mission to solve these problems holistically. If you are serious about your health, Primary, our Personal Health Management system will free you from the need to obsessively monitor your health data - Primary will track and analyze all your sensor data, nutrition data and biomarkers to give you detailed visibility into your disease risks and alert you about urgent issues to be addressed. Primary will provide traceability from your lifestyle to disease risks, and insights along with actionable guidance to truly optimize your lifestyle choices and your health.
Join us at www.78health.com on the journey to mastery over your health!
CEO and Board Certified Health Coach
2moI would be interested in earning this certification. I believe this is aligned with health coaching and a great opportunity to partner with nbhwc.org. Maybe a CE program that NBC-HWC coaches could complete. I'd like to stay in the loop on this.