Signal and noise are common terms in economics and finance. When trying to figure out what matters in healthcare and wellness there’s a lot of information. Some of it matters more than others. There’s a tendency to focus on things that may provide minimal or no value. These distractions can inhibit people from making better decisions around their health. Focusing on minute details, while neglecting high value behaviors is often what limits most people from reaching their potential.
If you’re concerned about heart disease the major risk factors are - high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol (LDL-p, ApoB, ox-LDL, >Triglyceride:HDL ratio - the marker doesn’t matter), elevated blood sugars (diabetes), smoking/secondhand smoke exposure, obesity, an unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity. To simplify - exercise, eat whole foods, limit stress and limit tobacco and alcohol and sleep.
The percentage of people who exercise consistently in the US - 28%. 70% of Americans will have high blood pressure in their lifetime and only 25% have their blood pressure controlled. 42.4% of Americans are obese. 11.5% of Americans smoke cigarettes, and this does not include the number of teens, young adults, and adults using nicotine products which is increasing and closer to 25% of Americans. Americans over age 18 spend on average 8 hours and 34 minutes per day on screens.
If you’re not exercising consistently, getting at least 7 hours of sleep at night, limiting sugar sweetened beverages/alcohol/tobacco, and don’t have 3 people you can call at any time of the day - these are the things that you should be working on prior to debating about a fad diet, supplement or device.
Why do people not do the basics - because simple isn’t easy. Humans tend to be creatures of habit and have poor insight/recall. We under-estimate our calories, free-time, work load, screen time and ability to change over the course of the year. We overestimate our activity level and sense of social connectedness. This is why tracking and intentional development of positive habits is so powerful. Little things add up over time. Days quickly turn into weeks, weeks into months, months into years and years into decades.
Dan John has a quote that the easiest way to lose weight is to not get fat in the first place. The same thing can be said about alcohol and soda intake - the easiest way to reduce your drinking is to not start. The easiest way to stop smoking is to not start. The easiest way to not eat junk food, don’t buy it. The easiest way to stop eating after 10PM, go to bed at 9:30p. The challenge for many people is they already have the habit in place for many of these detrimental reasons. Once the habit is in place it’s very hard to change it. Hard is defined as it takes any amount of energy to change the behavior. Why any amount of energy, most people run out of decision making capacity by the end of the day so any energy required is too much energy required. Thomas Carlyle is attributed with the statement, “Make yourself a slave to good habits,” and maybe that’s the answer to many of our problems.
Most people know what they should do - sleep, love other people, move their body, eat less junk food, avoid drugs and alcohol. However, most people don’t do these things. The answer to this problem is not going to be the next drug or supplement that comes on the market. The answer to this problem is a little bit of energy, focused on 1-2 of these things, over time. If you only have limited decision making capacity, stop wasting it on minute details. Focus on the fundamentals, doing them more often, over time.
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