What Do Habits Have to Do With Health?

Bad habits can drive us nuts…

But they can also be at the bottom of health problems too.

It’s no secret that there is an epidemic of overweight, diabetes and stress.  Yet, if we know about these things, which almost all of us do - and we know at least some of the things we should do to make them better - then why, oh why, aren’t the problems going away?

Because a lot of the solution has to do with changing our habits!  And that can be hard to do.

Feel free to weigh in on your biggest bad habits and the roadblocks to changing them.

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Sugar In, High-Fructose Corn Syrup Out…

Who are we kidding?

Sugar is back in packaged foods and drinks, and HFCS is out, as the NYT reports.  But do we really think switching from high-fructose corn syrup to sugar is going to solve all of our sweet tooth induced problems?

High fructose corn syrup may be the evil product of corn subsidies and high tech food manipulation in all of it’s sugary madness, but thinking a switch from one sugar to another is the answer to our problems is just a silly mind game.

Take a walk into almost any grocery store.  Walk down the middle isles which, in most stores, is most of the store.

There lives the sugar coated cereal, the sugary soft drinks, the sugar laden “vitamin” drinks, the sugar coated pastries, the sugar spiked frozen dinners, salad dressing, etc, etc, etc.  The variety is mind boggling.

It’s hard to find yogurt without sugar for Pete sake.  Yogurt!

In all reality, if we didn’t buy this stuff, the stores wouldn’t stock it.  Supply and demand.

It is time to get a national grip!

I do apologize for the rant, but we are drowning in sugar, regardless of the form it comes in.  Our bodies and their million of years of accumulated know-how are beside themselves trying to figure out what to do with it all the sugar we are dumping into them.

How many of us need to struggle with obesity and overweight?  How many of us need to struggle with diabetes?  How many of us need to struggle with heart disease?  What do we have to suffer with before we get it?  Our kids are dealing with adult onset diabetes and hyperactivity.  What is the future we are giving them?  Especially when it doesn’t have to be that way.

We are like a country of addicts for sugar!

Ah.  Bingo.  Actually, the brain is hard wired to covet sugar.  That makes it easier to fool ourselves into making it o.k. to sweeten almost every food we can.  That has a way of making foods irresistible too.  That’s a boon to repeat sales.

But we get to pay with our health…and our medical bills.  That’s not so sweet.  And there is no health care restructuring plan that can make that better either.

It’s funny though.  Once you break the habit of sugar, the craving goes away.  And, you feel better.  And you discover that other healthier things taste good.  Really good.

Then, when you want to have something once in a while, with real sugar, it’s o.k.  No guilt.  Nada. Zip.  Zilch.

So, give me real sugar, yes, but not so much, and not very often.

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Can Gene Testing Help Diabetes & Heart Disease?

Are diabetes, heart disease and cancer risk determined by our genes?

The other night I went to a little presentation by Navigenics, where the topic of the evening centered around predictive genomics testing, genetic predisposition and the idea of personalized medicine.

To my mind, the subject is not so easy to discuss because how genes behave is heavily influenced by the environment you put them in, from what we eat to what we live in.  Personally, I’m happy about that, because self direction is empowering.

But, nevertheless, we talked about how the evolution of genomics is upon us.  Coming to a doctors office near you.  Knowledge never more to be an unattainable mystery…

And, perhaps useful in actually helping people achieve better health.

We’ve been seeing predictive genomics testing companies, like 23andMe, cropping up all over the place.  What is different about the Navigenics plan?

As opposed to companies that offer large numbers of SNP’s , as these  little “snippets” of genetic information are called, Navigenics offers a core group of SNP’s that correlate best with chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease, as well as some cancers.  The idea being that it is most useful to test for things that you can then institute preventive intervention for.  And, to do that through your doctor, who is in a position to help, whether it be through behavioral change, a medication regimen or screening tests.  In the case of functional and integrative medicine, the preventive strategy is even broader and more holistic.

Ahhhh.  But shouldn’t we all be doing all that preventive stuff anyway?

Yes.  We should.  With should being the key word here.

But a funny thing happens when people are actually presented with their genetic proclivities.  Like a very seductive behavioral carrot stick…it actually gets people to behave better.  To take action.

OK.  Well, how much out of pocket health care money is it worth?  Because, it’s not covered by health insurance.  Who will benefit the most and who will be interested?

Good questions.

Stay tuned.

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