What Does It Mean to Be Healthy?

What does it mean to be healthy? To be truly healthy?

Many patients come into my office claiming that they are healthy. I ask each of my patients in the initial visit whether they have any such problems. "I'm healthy," they say. "No medical problems." I ask about medications, assuming there are none to list. Then starts the list... "lisinopril for my slightly high blood pressure, atorvastatin for my cholesterol, metformin for my sugars, omeprazole for my reflux." And on it goes.

It's surprising to me that conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure), hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol levels), prediabetes or diabetes (high blood glucose levels) are occasionally overlooked by a patient assuming they are just slight abnormalities when nothing could be farther from the truth. As it so happens, these are the very conditions at the top of the list of causes of the number 1 killer in the US - heart disease.

Where did this misconception come from? Perhaps it came from the current culture of health care that values more complexity in medical diagnoses. Perhaps it came from the normalization of elevated blood pressures, cholesterol levels, and blood sugars. After all, everybody knows someone in the family with at least one of these conditions.

On that list of causes of heart disease are also the following - obesity, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity. Yet, it is unusual for someone to report their unhealthy diet as a medical problem.

Beyond this misconception lies a new way of thinking. What does being healthy mean if not simply being free of these medical diagnoses? Being healthy, in my opinion, means much more than that.

It means fueling the body with predominantly unprocessed plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds and avoiding animal products, which numerous studies have shown lead to the risk factors above. It means maintaining a healthy weight, across all ages. It means moving the body regularly. 

It means finding healthy ways such as meditation or yoga to cope with the stresses of life. It means minimizing or eliminating risky substances such as alcohol and tobacco. It means getting a good night's sleep on most nights. It means cherishing and loving others through family and community. It means being able to stay active and able well into the later years of life.

So let's come together and strive to not just be "healthy," but be truly healthy in a way that adds life to our years and allows us to be examples for our family, our friends, our larger community, and beyond.