HEALTH COACH is a longitudinal; large-scale; Canadian-focused; physiology-based, health research project and a comprehensive guide for a healthy lifestyle
1993 - Present
What is Health?
Does health involve extreme fitness? Weight loss dieting? Micro-nutritional supplementation? Exogenous detoxification treatments? Ant-aging?
Health Trends
When Canadians think about health it is almost exclusively in terms of extreme fitness, weight-loss dieting, nutritional supplementation, and detoxification. These health trends are fuelled by aggressive marketing and mass popularity of an idealized body image and anti-aging. Rarely, are choices made, with health as the goal.
HEALTH COACH research has been collecting detailed data about the ideas, language, and beliefs about health; basic health habits; health complications; medical treatment; pharmaceutical drug use, and orthopedic surgery trends in Canada.
Ninety-eight percent of the people on my massage table, who engage in fitness behaviours, are chronically dehydrated, suffering with chronic injuries that do not heal; with poorly developed aerobic conditioning, because they are mouth-breathers.
Read about the adverse effects of mouth breathing on facial, structural development: Basic Health Habit No. 5: Breathing, that has led to an epidemic of orthodontic, nasal cavity, and TMJ structural issues.
Health is Not a Trend
Canada has two new eating disorders related to health dieting trends, and a new psychological disorder: Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), that now includes a growing number of young boys and men, as well as girls and women; engaging in extreme fitness, health dieting, detoxification, surgery, augmentation, drug use, and supplementation behaviours.
Unfortunately, most people that I treat have extreme fitness habits, unsupported by basic health habits - with effects compounded by unhealthy habits. I have been charting the short and long term damage of this behaviour for more than 25 years.
While the goal of basic health habits is the creation and support of health, the purpose of a health trend is focused on a specific result such as weight loss, detoxification, or physical fitness. Health trends are temporary measures for achieving a limited outcome - often at a cost to our health, while basic health habits are essential, sustainable, and fundamental for the health of all humans.
When health is the goal, rather than weight loss or an increase in body size, better choices are made, the health benefits are more comprehensive and sustainable, and include: beauty, weight management, muscle development, and healthy aging.
Health is not defined by fitness; weight loss dieting; nutritional supplementation; detoxification; pharmaceutical medications; surgery; augmentation; natural remedies, or an idealized body image. Trends are not inclusive or sustainable, and almost always come with a cost to health; especially without the 13 Basic Health Habits.
A knowledge of health identifies the needs required for physiological function; the maintenance of health, and for physical structural integrity. An understanding of health includes healthy habit formation. This would fulfill the need for a foundation that would facilitate informed and effective choices.
Health in The 21st Century
The theme of the 21st century, Information - Technological Age, is the man-made versus the natural and the born. We have chosen control and change versus knowledge and care of the human body.
I agree that there is a moral imperative to develop the technologies that will allow us to change the human body in preparation for life off-planet; it could be argued that survival of humans depends upon it.
However, the addition of health literacy would still be helpful now.
Knowledge is a Power Struggle
Health is controversial like politics and religion. The basic difference is that politics is ruled by opinion, and religion by belief and faith, while health is a knowable. It is possible to obtain accurate information, instruction, and the tools necessary, to facilitate behavioural change that leads to the creation and maintenance of health; with ease and pleasure.
Health Illiteracy
HEALTH COACH Basic Health Quiz
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Health is The Goal
The human body is an ecosystem of complementary, co-dependent, and cooperative systems, functioning together to maintain health, and designed to heal itself. Regarding our personal health care, our primary behaviour should involve the support of these natural functions with the practise of the 13 Basic Health Habits.
HEALTH COACH 13 Basic Health Habits is a comprehensive, sustainable system for the creation and maintenance of health; to reduce the risk of disease, and for healthy habit formation; essential and fundamental for the physiological health of all humans.
The 13 Basic Health Habits are also a dependable system for evaluating health. Conventional medical tests indicate the risk of particular conditions - high cholesterol warns of impending heart disease, for example, while high blood sugar predicts diabetes. Basic Health Habits, by contrast, help us to evaluate the basic needs to support healthy physiological function; give us an overall reading of how healthy we are; supply the practical application to address any issues, and for healthy habit formation.
Neglect of Basic Health Habits leads to physical deterioration, malfunction, a cascade effect of health complications, and finally, to disease.
As long as we are made of flesh and blood, we are bound by natural laws. If your present system of health care is not built on a foundation of understanding and support of the natural functions of your body, then it is a faulty system.
HEALTH COACH provides the information, instruction, and the tools to facilitate behavioural change that leads to the creation and maintenance of health, rather than the suppression of natural physiological function and the symptoms of an unhealthy body.
About THE HEALTH COACH PROJECT
The principle life, and health-supporting physiological functions are involved in:
- cellular function
- cellular building and repair
- elimination of waste by-products
- maintenance of health
- physical structural integrity
Physiological health relates only to an intact, fully functional, flesh and blood body. The necessary elements for the physiological functions of health are dependent on and supplied by your Basic Health Habits.
In humans, health is also the ability of individuals or communities to adapt and self-manage when facing physical, mental, or social challenges.
Canada is Ground Zero for Health
Statistics
Disease in Canada
Canadians are leading the worldwide epidemic of chronic inflammatory disease with high blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar levels, and body mass. 89% of all deaths in Canada, compared with 63% in the world, are from noncommunicable disease such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases. We are leading by more than a 30% margin. Noncommunicable diseases country profiles 2011 WHO global report
The majority of patients in the Canadian medicare system are living with one or more chronic inflammatory diseases and are the most common causes of hospitalization and premature death in Canada. Together, these chronic diseases account for 80% of primary care visits and more than two-thirds of medical costs. Canadians spend more than $200 billion a year on publicly funded medicare.
Metabolic Syndrome (MetS)
1 in 5 Canadians = 7, 259, 642 people have Metabolic Syndrome. MetS is a condition that describes the clustering of risk markers that increase an individual's likelihood of developing chronic disease: high blood sugar, increased girth, high blood pressure, high serum triglycerides, and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL). A number of leading chronic conditions have been shown to be associated with MetS. These include cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes, cancers, and chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Child Obesity
31% of Canadian children and youth, aged 5 to 17; an estimated 1.6 million, are overweight or obese. Of these, four in five will grow up to be overweight adults. The number of bariatric surgeries (for obesity) performed on obese Canadians rose by 300 per cent in recent years; one million Canadians meet the eligibility criteria for bariatric surgery.
Congenital Defect
One in 25 Canadian babies are born, or still born, with a birth defect = 508,082 birth defects, according to a 2013 Public Health Agency of Canada report (1998 to 2009). Canada’s rate is 32 per cent higher than the US.
Infertility/Sterility
11.5% to 15.7% = more than 5 million Canadian women are affected; doubled since the last report in 1992. The older the woman, the higher the prevalence of infertility, yet infertility appears to be rising among younger women as well, a government study finds.
Chronic Pain
In Canada, the prevalence of chronic pain for adults older than 18 years of age is 18.9% of the population, or more than 7 million people. Approximately one-half of those with chronic pain reported suffering for more than 10 years. Approximately one-third of those reporting chronic pain rated the intensity in the very severe range.
Pharmaceutical Drug Use and Abuse
In Canada, in 2017, 39.8 billion dollars was spent on prescription drugs. 41% of Canadians = 15,080,399 people, take two or more prescription drugs, among the highest of the 11 other OECD countries surveyed (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
Use and Abuse of Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Drugs
The three classes of drugs are opioid pain relievers, stimulants, and tranquillizers and sedatives: 24.7% of youth, aged 15-24, 6.3% = 410,000 people abused; 16.6% of users experienced some harm in the past year due to their pharmaceutical drug use. You know you have a problem when you see official government commercials on TV warning of the danger of prescription drugs for adolescents.
Mental Health and Addiction
In 2012, a total of 2.8 million Canadians aged 15 and older, or 10.1%, reported symptoms consistent with at least one of the following mental or substance use disorders: major depressive episode, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and abuse of or dependence on alcohol or other drugs.
6 million Canadians met the criteria for substance use disorder, while 3.5 million met the criteria for mood disorder.
Health Canada reports 4 to 5 million Canadians engage in high risk drinking, which is linked to motor vehicle accidents, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and other health issues, family problems, crime, and violence; the numbers have increased for both genders since 2003. The Canadian Centre on Drug Abuse reports an annual cost of 14.6 billion.
Life Expectancy
Health adjusted life expectancy: Statistics Canada 2017: average healthy, disease-free longevity is 69.7 years. A 2014 Health Canada report also computes how two chronic diseases affect total life expectancy: women with cancer: 27 years, a woman with diabetes: 62 years.
Death
Leading causes of death in Canada (2015), by-the-numbers: 1. Cancer 75,000, 2. Heart Disease: 49,000, 3. Medical Error: 23,000 (conservative statistics), 4. Stroke: 13,000, 5. Respiratory: 11,000, 6. Accident: 11,000, 7. Diabetes: 7,000, 8. Alzheimers: 6,300, 9. Flu + Pneumonia: 5,700, 10. Kidney Disease: 3,327
According to the annual report on the health care system by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal: 25% of Canadians = 5 million people, experienced a preventable, medical adverse event, resulting in an estimated 23, 000 deaths annually, The estimated economic burden of preventable patient safety incidents in acute care in Canada was $397 million (2009 – 2010).
The Sustainability of Canada's Medicare System
Spending on medical care in Canada continues to outpace growth in government program spending and economic growth (Canadian Institute for Health Information 2005b). A study by the Fraser Institute found that if recent trends persist, provincial government spending on medicare will consume more than half of total revenues from all sources in six of 10 provinces by the year 2020. These trends leave the provinces with three immediate options: increase revenue (most likely through a variety of tax schemes, including premiums or higher marginal rates) to pay for the increasing cost of medicare; aggressively reduce the costs of medicare; or reduce spending on other areas of provincial responsibility such as education, social services, income support, roads, and other physical infrastructure.
HEALTH COACH proposes comprehensive health education for individuals, and for health and medical professionals, starting with a pre and grade school health curriculum, and changes to primary care of health, to better address increases in chronic disease.
HEALTH COACH Research References
Stayed Tuned:
- Anecdotal Stories From My Practice
- What change have I noticed in thirty-four years of practicing massage? Are my clients healthier?
- Soft Life Era: My life before and after the pandemic: A surprising benefit
DO YOU KNOW?
- There is no need to sacrifice natural remedies, medicine, or health trends - you can have it all ... however, HEALTH COACH recommends the addition of health literacy, and the practice of the 13 BASIC HEALTH HABITS.
- If we live in harmony with nature, health education is not necessary.
- Nature is a human, recent modern construct.
Question:
- What happens if the body gets what it needs (to function; maintain health, and for physical, structural integrity. What happens if it doesn't?
- What would happen if we included health in our knowledge, understanding, education, policies, and choices?
