Diet/sleep/exercise/sunlight are always the first step, and if you don’t at least get those, you’ll be hard-pressed to feel decent no matter what else you do, regardless of whether you have other medication-dependent conditions.
That said, there are way too many people out there who have no experience with conditions which require medication, who seem to think that those things are a substitute for medication rather than a baseline that must be kept up alongside medication.
I’m no psychologist, but I tend to assume that a driver to thinking this way might be the sense of safety that comes with self-righteousness. Similar to victim-blaming in crimes, where people pick at the personal faults of crime victims (however slight) in order to reassure themselves that a similar thing couldn’t happen to them. Imo it’s a coping mechanism for a world where long-term suffering can be brought on totally at random.
- 30 minutes of cardio, 3x a week is a bare minimum. The more cardio the better, so consider endurance sports.
- Resistance training is necessary too, and can be done at home with no equipment
- Get at least 10 minutes of sunlight right after you get up or right after the sun comes rises, even if it’s cloudy, if possible
- Don’t drink more than 2 drinks in a day
- Try to reduce stress as much as possible
- Get plenty of sleep
- Cut out digital distractions
- In general try to eat as many natural foods as you can, especially more fruits and vegetables. Avoid eating chemicals if you can, hydrogenated oils, etc.
Now you’ve heard it, as well as everyone else reading this thread. It’s up to you to do it. But odds are, for the most part, you’ve heard it before and don’t need reminding.
If you’re confused about any of the details on this list, you are all people who are in the top quartile (at least) in learning things on the internet, and can figure the rest out yourselves.
And I actually do all of that. Not because anyone told me to, or because I should, but because that's just how my life ended up being arranged.
Not sure how that's related to my point, though.
I think a doctor absolutely should gently remind people that those things improve a variety of conditions, and occasionally push a little harder in certain situations (you need to start doing X now or your condition is going to be a big problem). Many of them already do, of course.
What I was saying is that if I go see a doctor for a condition, and the proper way to resolve that condition is to make a lifestyle change, then that is what I want the doctor to tell me.
What I don't want the doctor to do is to just give me a prescription if the actual treatment is to behave differently in some way.
Everything else is either a straightforward treatment, is untreatable, or has a lifestyle change that the doctor will tell you about (like with IBS and a low FODMAP diet for instance).
Retail managers have the lowest suicide rates.
I don't trust them either.
Just to clarify, because this one tripped me up: you specifically mean alcohol, right?
The research vehemently disagrees with you, especially if you’re a woman.
5 hours at 3 MET (a 2.5 mph walk is 3 MET) a week lowers your risk of cardiac disease by 70%. It’s not affected by gender for the basic numbers. This is from one of the bigger meta analyses I’ve ever read. The US’s exercise guidelines are based on it.
Can’t speak for the recommendation of endurance sports. Definitely not a requirement. The research does show that, in general, the more cardio the better.
only stretching back a few decades, my grandfather was working his own land as a subsistence farmer without much "automation"...probably doing the equivalent of three hours of CrossFit a day, basically every day. looking back at pics of him now...he was strapped, even in his late 70s (what was also known as "normal").
my genetics probably come from hundreds of generations of people who led similar lives, yours too
I achieved my "normal" body weight with a minimum of two+ hours per day, every day, of exercise...just like all of my ancestors who shaped my genes
90 mins a week is probably not enough to even slow down weight gain, we are dramatically underestimating how much exercise we need, and dramatically underestimating how much we need to clean up our diets...in 1880 basically anyone doing subsistence farming (most people) was the equivalent of a CrossFit nut with a "clean" diet...everyone
Glad you’ve found something that works for you though
In general more is better, but it’s diminishing returns, and you could argue that more time than this could be better spent doing other healthy tasks.
Patients refuse treatment all the time. I’m not so sure it ought to be a doctor’s job to cater to the patient’s every whim.
In the end, it’s the patients right to have the treatment they want and can afford so long as it’s efficacious.
How you gonna make lifestyle changes without permission from your lords and masters who write your paychecks?
While I did manage to eat decently I also had the benefit of years of working in kitchens and I opted for vegetarianism years prior so I had to delve into a novel culinary discipline which served to broaden my horizons both in what I considered a meal, and what I was willing to eat, and how I was willing to eat. Looking at the rest of the cohort: yeah, it was bad. A lot of industries we interfaced with had a lot of very evident cases of poor diet. I expect among the whole the chronically single and childless were the few that could manage their health in the context of that schedule or any modern American regime, really.
Beyond diet it's physically taxing, especially considering that my industry, and every industry touching it worked some variation of swing shifts and if not that, 24/7 on-call. That alone is extremely taxing and has prolific long-term implications. Alcohol and drug abuse are commonplace, whether licit or illicit substances. And there's a huge emotional layer to it as well, if that isn't obvious. Mind you these are the people paid by the companies that keep your lights and heat on, transport all your food and fuel...
But even outside of that extreme edge case the other jobs I've had can have their own sets of challenges. It's not always overeating that gets you, but undereating is a hazard as well. And workplace injuries are not so avoidable as the institutions like to profess. If you're pressured, your peers are pressured, your customers are pressured, etc... the culture itself becomes go fast or die trying — they'll tell you to work safe but God forbid if you do you'll be punished for it, ask me how I know. And that's without factoring in RSIs, which in some occupations are virtually inextricable.
>Beyond diet it's physically taxing, especially considering that my industry, and every industry touching it worked some variation of swing shifts and if not that, 24/7 on-call. That alone is extremely taxing and has prolific long-term implications. Alcohol and drug abuse are commonplace, whether licit or illicit substances. And there's a huge emotional layer to it as well, if that isn't obvious. Mind you these are the people paid by the companies that keep your lights and heat on, transport all your food and fuel...
Looked at your profile and see your admission from "someone who sorta bootstrapped from a pretty shitty starting position"
Really there's not much difference between overwork to recover more completely from disaster, compared with ambition to make faster progress when opportunity exists.
This is the kind of situation where things like drugs are never the answer, seems like sometimes the toxic effects of chemicals are on steroids when the "setting" does not allow for much recovery between toxic exposures. If the medical benefit were not clearly in excess of the toxic load or significant side-effects I would not want to take the pill.
Each pharmaceutical is like any other consumer product. It didn't used to be as bad when mass-marketing direct to patients was still widely recognized as too unethical for serious consideration.
Once a consumer product reaches the most satisfying rapid market saturation on its own merit, the main way to continue the bonanza is to create desire among the nonengaged consumers who don't actually need the product but who can be convinced that it might be nice to have anyway for some reason or another. By then anybody with any interest at all knows it's already popular and accepted.
Then after the drugmakers and insurers got into a fortuitous spiral (for the corporations) on prices the incentive got even more extreme. Even though the insurers have to pay more for each dose, they just raise the premiums and "everybody wins".
Plus there are still really not enough doctors to go around but it used to much worse. However in the 21st century I think doctors are much more likely to recommend a simple pill (or more than one these days) rather than a more complex treatment.
Also when doctors were spread much thinner people went to them much less often, long ago it was like only going to the doctor when you needed to be cured of a cold or flu or broken arm or something.
So they got the exam, took one bottle of medication, got over the cold, and they were cured.
Then it was discovered there was no cure for the common cold. OTC approaches to treat symptoms proliferated with mass-media television and it was seen consumers would continuously purchase more pills on their own initiative to treat the same disorders which had not had that scale of returns in the form of doctors' prescriptions.
The prescription-industrial complex was going to have to advertise to compete.
Attitudes began the gradual change to continuing visits and ongoing treatment for more & more conditions, not just the things that would be expected to require a continuing lifetime of medication, such as insulin.
And a whole generation of doctors who have been influenced by very persuasive drug companies that have carefully built a reality distortion field where any tendency to discontinue medication once prescribed has been de-emphasized like never before.
>I opted for vegetarianism
I don't think the full risk is known when it comes to steroids in meat or pesticides in vegetables, but looks like vegetarians these days are more conscious of avoiding toxic additives than average, so this may be the safer move for that reason alone.
Those who do have far bigger problems than regular exercise.
How come? They certainly don't work any fewer hours than Westerners do.