This week is the third in my trilogy of posts about the great Ben Bocchicchio, PhD. I really like something that he shared at his talk from last year’s Low Carb USA online conference, so I asked him about it during our interview for my YouTube live series.
During the talk, he shared the following graphic:
“In my mind,” he said, “the health spectrum goes from illness on the left side, to absence of disease in the middle, to health on the right side.” Seems simple enough, but dig into it, and the implication of this fuel gauge is that most of our “health care” system is not really about promoting health, per se, it’s about the elimination of disease.
Wait — isn’t that the same thing? Isn’t “health” the opposite of “disease?” (Well, technically maybe “ease” is the opposite of dis-ease, but let’s not get crazy with semantics here). Not so much, says Dr. Ben.
“Most doctors deal with illness,” he says, “and their goal is to get their patients to an absence of disease state, so you no longer have problems, you no longer have bad labs numbers,” even if that requires two and three medications.
Health, however, is a step further: “Health in my mind connotes vibrance, vitality, a high level of function.” It’s an interesting distinction.
my hips don’t lie
I’ve been thinking about Dr. Ben’s graphic lately, as I’ve been trying to shake off my pandemic torpor and get active again.
On one hand, my body has suffered the ravages of sitting all day in front of a Zoom screen: I’ve developed persistent tightness and soreness in my left hip. The pain finally got so bad that I started seeing a physical therapist, and after a few months of twice-weekly sessions and (mostly) daily stretching, it’s gotten so I can sleep, get around, and walk the dog without pain.
In Dr. Ben’s world, I’ve gone from the left to the middle part of the gauge. But to truly get to “health” will take further work — more exercise, more strengthening of the muscles around the joint, more stretching and mobility. I need to go from viable to vital. As I get back into my routine of rowing out on the water and of doing some resistance training, I’ll be trying to move the needle in that direction.
The same is true in the world of food and health. My book tells the story of how I found the ketogenic diet in an attempt to lose weight and improve my health, but how I found along the way that it could also help treat my epilepsy. I did it all backwards — I was fixated on the right side of the gauge, but ended up circling back to left.
When working with clients, Dr. Ben says he’s always striven to get people all the way to health — specifically metabolic health. I asked him to break that down for us a bit. He says that metabolism is all the chemical processes that take place in the creation and use of energy in the body. So metabolic health is when these things are functioning optimally. Diet and exercise together have the ability to influence these processes and pathways, which is why lifestyle, he says, is key to reaching that high level of functioning called health.
For more on these ideas, check out the audio file above, my latest “Small Bites” mini-podcast. And for even more, check out Dr. Ben’s book, 15 Minutes to Fitness: Dr. Ben's SMaRT Plan for Diet and Total Health.
That’s it for this week. Thanks again for joining, and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and all that good stuff!
Note: The ramblings published on this blog re the opinions of the author alone and shared for entertainment purposes only. The author is an English major with no medical or scientific background; thus, his words should never be taken as medical advice. Consult with your doctor or medical professional before undertaking any diet or exercise program.
check your gauges