medicine hardly a week goes by without
the announcement of some brilliant
invention or some breathtaking operation
how about Dolly the sheep
she was cloned in the 1990s and she
lived another seven years and what about
those implantable brain pacemakers used
to control Parkinson’s disease recently
significant progress in growing human
organs in other animal species but how
meaningful are these captivating news
stories are there really any miracles in
medicine perhaps not and perhaps health
is rooted in the simple and not the
fantastic
I was one of those that saw technology
is the cure for all of our health woes
my career in cardiology began the dark
ages patients would come in and with
heart attacks and we simply put them to
bed and gave them round-the-clock
narcotics soon a compound was invented
that was essentially injectable Drano
and I became a clot buster on to
roto-rooter angioplasty and later the
placement of stents
in blood vessels of all types I was a
hero and for some I was especially for
my mother I brought people back from the
brink but slowly a sobering recognition
came to me that these heroic
interventions were doing little for the
long-term health of my patients in fact
some of the examples I cited as well as
other significant landmark developments
in medicine may have little impact on
the health of our civilization let alone
my health or your health we’re finding
perhaps to no surprise that health is
significantly rooted in how we live
actions as constructive as a daily walk
or destructive as that hard to resist
cigarette I often tell my patients that
our lifestyles how we live this found
this foundation of our health is like
the foundation of a building if built
well the building will stand erect and
if Bill poorly the building could crack
or crumble there are many examples of
adverse lifestyles effect on health and
and at diseases that our crew from that
but perhaps more no more so than in the
area of cardiology cardiovascular
diseases are the number one health
challenge facing the Western world and
many developing countries this crisis is
fueled in many instances by our Western
lifestyle
chronic stress high caloric and sugar
loaded eating excessive sitting and
sedentary lifestyles on the Indian
subcontinent cardiovascular diseases are
epidemic diabetes is flourishing and
obesity is rampant whereas on the island
of Okinawa people often live into their
100’s why might that be
at first glance how we live that is our
lifestyles seems very simple in fact
it’s much more complex and probably more
complex than the design of the next
artificial heart valve as we have
explored this area of preventive
cardiovascular medicine that is trying
to change people’s lifestyles we’ve
discovered that our lifestyles are
significantly structured in our habits
so those day in and day out activities
and actions that are scattered through
our lives
habits are like the metal rebar in that
concrete foundation they lend it
strength and they provide reinforcement
some years ago 20 no more more now I met
a fellow named Archie Archie was a 66
year old businessman and he came to us
in the throes of a heart attack well by
then that compound that we had actually
pioneered 10 years previously that
injectable Drano was available and
that’s we gave him stop the heart attack
in its tracks and he went on to have an
angiogram that road map of the heart
arteries well we found he needed bypass
operation he was not very happy but
Archie was a different kind of guy he
was a get-it-done guy and so we got it
done he actually sailed through surgery
in his early recovery and he has done
very well since why might that be Archie
has applied some discipline habits to
his life he began and still does a
hundred sit-ups and a hundred push-ups
every day later he added a weekly climb
up to 4,000 foot mountains that neighbor
our city
he continues to eat very few carbs
except his nightly shot of whiskey the
brand I can’t mention and now does
better at age 88 than most younger
people on his yearly treadmill stress
test he’s had other life challenges as
have we all but he would suggest and I
would certainly concur that it’s his
discipline and habits that have allowed
him to endure those other challenges as
well for for many the mere mention of
habit invokes fear
I can’t succeed I tried that before and
I quit I can’t change
but arguably given the importance of
habit to its society in personal health
failure should not be a foregone
conclusion in fact many like Archie do
succeed we have identified several
ingredients to help in habit
transformation the development of
positive habits and sometimes the
removal of negative habits tonight I’d
like to tell you of three of those
number one is today any gap between this
commencement of a habit and the decision
to make it start a new habit and it’s
commencement is fear for is fodder for
failure that is it might not happen
contrast for example I’m going to get
those vitamins that were recommended to
me on the way home today versus I’m
going to get those vitamins that were
recommended to me on Saturday when I
happen to be going to the pharmacy
anyway how likely is that to happen when
your friend calls and says hey can you
go skiing with me this weekend not
likely
number two easy durable habits are
doable they’re simple they’re not
complex I’m gonna have a simple protein
shake every morning for breakfast versus
I’m going to go to the gym for an hour
and a half every day how likely is that
to happen when your grandkids or
grandparents are in town number three
daily the most durable habits are done
repetitively and daily is best I’m going
to a salad at lunch every day in fact
the most durable habits are those that
are done the same time every day I’m
going to brush my teeth in the morning
and I’m going to brush my teeth in the
evening now these three tips may seem
trite today easy and daily but I tell
you they spell success T II D yes
a memory you won’t soon forget now in
spite of those tips you you may still
feel very challenged but I want you to
know that you’re not alone I too have
had to create some discipline habits in
my life so as to maintain some semblance
of mental and physical health about five
years ago I decided to do some
constructive thinking and now every
morning at 7 I can be found a local
coffee shop reading or writing about
some important life topic to me and then
at five-thirty I exercise even if
abbreviated to fit a pretty busy
schedule I made a decision I started
right away my habits are easy and I do
them daily
I follow Ted it’s important to recognize
that many of our health conditions that
we’re faced as a society are rooted in
adverse lifestyles it’s equally
important to recognize that our
lifestyles that as that is how we think
and process stress or change that we eat
and nourish our bodies and how we move
and expend energy serve as the
foundation of our health and it’s most
important to appreciate that this
foundation is significantly structured
and reinforced by our habits you don’t
need another medical breakthrough to be
healthy you don’t need a medical miracle
you can be your own hero
no your habits might not be perfect but
they can be changed and so it’s
incumbent on each of us to ask ourselves
am i living to the best of my capacity
and if the answer is short of yes think
what can change today and remember that habits drive health