Healthcare has seemed to come under something of an attack ever since Covid. Imperfect data and game time decisions left many with a distrust of medical providers and medical systems in general. The resulting frustration has also led to a surge in the Wellness Industry. Below is a defense (with some caveats) of our healthcare providers, and a plead for mindful discernment when consuming information and products from non-professionals.
Let's start with the wellness industry. Basically any product, equipment, program, or information that is health related but not does come from a physician can be lumped into the wellness industry. Obviously, much of this industry can have positive effects in people's lives and are a necessity for a healhty society. We need businesses who develop equipment, gear and apparrel to make exercise more available. We need gyms and access to quality protein, electrolytes, and creatine. We need a society who understands the importance of taking care of their health.
Where the wellness industry runs afoul is it's tendency to capitalize on the fears of healthcare that we discussed earlier. Influencers, supplement developers and equipment manufactures recognized a massive demand for alternative health information following Covid. They also clearly recognized the money that could be made by bucking against the advice of physicians and healthcare in general. There are a few, very few, science based weightlifters/influencers who have given consistent, good advice concerning exercise and health while selling little more than their exercise programs; But the vast majority of anyone giving health advice online is hawking whatever company's product(s) were willing to pay them a few bucks.
This is where I encourage you to be wary. Is someone, who is unassociated with an organization that is beholden to the peer review process, selling you a product or telling you about an exercise that will *magically fix* some issue for you? Are they telling you this new product fixed their tight back? Or this one exercise loosened up their hip flexor? Well they're lying to you. They're lying because someone has paid them to sell a product and they're lying because big claims drive engagement and earn them more views. But the one consistent piece of evidence across all health and medicine is that there is NEVER a single, quick fix.
Being healthy is a practice. It is a lifestyle that has to be maintained. Being healthy, putting on muscle, improving VO2 max, cutting weight, or eliminating pain is a process of a thousand movements and meal choices. No one who you think of as being healthy would ever point you to a single product or exercise that got them there (unless they're being paid to).
Now, a quick defense of medicine. I hear it often said that docs only want to give you pills and keep you sick so that they make more money. Of the physicians I know, this could not be further from the truth. I want you to be honest here, has your doctor ever told you to exercise and eat healthier? I'm certian they have. The problem that physicians run into is that patient's don't listen. Not entirely the patient's fault if their health knowledge is poor, but our physicians don't have the time to walk all of their patients through an exercise program. That's a task for me, your Doctor of Physical Therapy, to perform. So as a last line of defense, pills are prescribed to treat the symptoms that result from a lack of exercise and moderate diet.
My last point of defense for physicians is that they REALLY REALLY prefer to treat healthy people. They have far too many people to treat with far too many conditions that inflate healthcare costs and take up a majority of these physician's time. Every medical professional you know would prefer to see patient's for check ups and minor issues while keeping their population of care healthier in general. Now, I can't say the same for insurance companies and some hospital systems, but let's be wise where we lay blame; the doctor's don't deserve our ire.
To wrap things up, don't buy into the quick fixes and products that are thrown into your face online. Health and wellness is complex, it requires consistent practice and lifestyle changes, and trust your doctor. Ready to adopt a healthier lifestyle? Come in and see us.
Thomas Emiren
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