In medicine, there are very few certainties. You’ll rarely hear a good physician speak to patients in terms of absolutes. Biological systems like human beings are far too complex for that.
Most of the time, physicians speak in terms of probabilities. They use terms like “risk reduction,” “odds ratio,” and “survival rate.” This is because there is a very large number of variables, the aggregate of which determine how healthy you are currently and whether you’re likely to remain that way in the future.
Here’s a very small sample of such factors that determine how healthy you are currently and your odds of living a long, healthy life:
- Diet (what you’re eating now)
- Nutrition (what you’ve been eating recently)
- Fitness Level
- Cholesterol levels
- Seatbelt usage
- Tobacco Exposure
- Safer sex practices
- Alcohol/Drug usage
- Average Blood Pressure
- Average Blood Sugar level
- Family History of:
- Heart Disease
- Colon Cancer
- Breast Cancer
- Prostate Cancer
- Depression/Suicide
- Alcohol Abuse
I just fired off eleven variables in that list, and there are without a doubt hundreds if not thousands of others. Those eleven are very important however, since they’re measurable and, except for family history, modifiable. Much of what I plan to write about in this blog will concern steps you can take to easily lower your risk for death and disability with readily attainable medical technologies that exist today and are proven to be effective.
Nearly every decision you make on a daily basis contributes to your life odds (a made-up term I just coined, which means your probability of living a long, healthy life). Some decisions have a much greater impact on your life odds than others, but they all have some impact. How you choose to spend your time, what you decide to put in your body, and the manner in which you go about your daily activities all impact your life odds.
As an example, let’s look at an imaginary “day in the life”:
- You wake up and brush your teeth (!ching, you just improved your life odds a tiny amount)
- You decide to grab a dougnut instead of an apple (!ching, your life odds just worsened a tiny amount)
- You forget to put on your seatbelt and drive aggressively while going to work (!ching, your life odds just dropped a bit more)
- While at work, you remember to call and schedule that colonoscopy your doctor advised (!ching, you just improved your life odds substantially)
- Later that night, you put in 40 minutes of exercise on the treadmill (!ching, guess what just happened?
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Anyway, we could go on and on with this, but I imagine you get the point. Nearly every decision you make feeds into your life odds, and makes it a very dynamic probability calculation, fluctuating to at least a very small degree nearly moment to moment.
That’s not to say some decisions don’t have much more impact on your life odds than others. Obviously, a decision to start smoking crack cocaine would have a greater impact on your life odds than a decision to take up ballroom dancing.
Most of the decisions that affect your current and future health individually have a very small effect. However, just as a relatively small river can carve the Grand Canyon over large periods of time, the cumulative, combined, additive effects of the choices you make tremendously influence your overall odds of living a long, healthy life.
One reason physician’s must speak in terms of probabilities rather than certainties when it comes to your health is because other factors over which neither you nor your physician have any control also impact your life odds. Besides the decisions you make that affect your health, three other factors are major players in determining your life odds: Environmental Factors, Genetics, and Chance. Environmental factors are things to which you’re exposed either unavoidably or unknowingly, such as Mercury in fish, or second hand smoke/smog if you live in L.A. Genetics is your hereditary gift from your parents that bestows you with certain predispositions for various diseases. Chance is just what it sounds like - the probability that through no fault of your own some random event will cause your death or disability, such as being struck by lightening, mugged, run over by a drunk driver, etc.
The interaction of these four factors - your own decision-making, environmental factors, genetics, and chance - all interact, combining their influence, to determine how long you’ll live and how healthy (and therefore happy) you’ll be while you’re alive. Only the first factor, your own decision-making, can you do a darn thing about. Chance events, your genetics, and unknown/unavoidable environmental factors are influences on your health over which you have no control. Let those things go, and focus on what you can control (and if you’re wondering what these things are, keep reading my blog!).
The good news is, by making smart decisions and taking some simple steps, you can improve your life odds dramatically. For example, you can’t pick your parents and thereby lower your risk for heart disease, but you can make sure your average blood pressure falls within target ranges and lower your risk for a heart attack dramatically. In fact, there are a very large number of steps you can take, the additive effects of which will improve your health now and in the future. Those steps, and why you should take them, are what this blog is all about.
Remember, life is an odds game, and it’s never too late to start stacking the deck in your favor.
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