Here’s some breaking news on this fine Tuesday: I’m a fan of exercise and healthy eating.
Exercise and eating well—the healthy lifestyle—is about as close to a magical pill as we’ve got. It gets you farther from death and closer to a richer, disease-free life.
And yet … the healthy lifestyle is not really a magic pill. Magic pills cure and prevent everything. They should also be cheap and easy to obtain. A healthy lifestyle can’t fix every woe, and it’s not free or easy.
But if you go online today, there are plenty of messages suggesting exercise and eating right cures all—and a lot of blame thrown at doctors and sick people who “should have just exercised and eaten better.”
To understand the limits of a healthy lifestyle, we’re speaking with Dr. Adam Cifu (watch the video above or listen to the podcast).
Adam is a Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence at the University of Chicago. He sees patients at Uchicago Medicine and has authored over 140 papers on the practice of medicine and how to improve it. He’s also a founder of the Sensible Medicine Substack.
Adam recently wrote a Sensible Medicine post criticizing what he calls “the cult of the healthy lifestyle.” He wrote, guns blazing:
This cult worships diet and exercise as panaceas. Cult members believe that there is no disease that a greater dedication to wellness, and fewer seed oils and nightshades, and more adaptogens and nootropics cannot prevent or cure. Those devoted to the God of the healthy lifestyle seem convinced that healthful living will guarantee a future that is happy, satisfying, and whole, living in bliss with a partner who is not just a soulmate, but also radiantly beautiful and transcendently charismatic.
It is rare that a post on Twitter or Substack about a patient’s illness or a doctor’s use of well-proven medicines is not met with comments about how the patient could have avoided his ills had he just lived better. Commenters also question how the doctor can sleep at night being such a pharma stooge.
This attitude is self-satisfied, ill-informed, insensitive, and short-lived.
So that’s what I wanted to talk to him about: the limits of the healthy lifestyle and what it’s like to actually work with patients.
Watch our conversation above or listen to it in podcast form (link below)
Our conversation covers:
Why Adam wrote the post and the rise of the cult of the healthy lifestyle.
The benefits, realities, and limits of adopting healthy lifestyle changes.
How believing that all of health boils down to a better diet and exercise can lead patients to wrongly believe they are responsible for all of their health issues.
Why criticism of modern medicine is on the rise.
How “medical reversal” highlights the need for evidence-based medical practices.
The rise of longevity and why many longevity practices often lack robust evidence.
Why personalized healthcare is essential for effective treatment.
Problems with over-medicalization.
How finding the right doctor can be a challenging process.
The Sensible Medicine Substack and how it aims to promote thoughtful healthcare discussions.
Housekeeping
We ran our free weekly post on Tuesday instead of Monday so Sensible Medicine could run their own version of this post.
Only Members get full access to Wednesday and Friday Two Percent posts, podcasts, and videos.
Become a Member to get full access to the internet’s best and most practical health information:
ICYMI:
We recently released a new series called My Favorite Exercises. We release one exercise from my “file” each month.
On Friday, we dropped the Two Percent Holiday Gift Guide. Gift gear, not stuff.
Audio/podcast version
This one is great in podcast form.
Relevant links, studies, resources, etc.
Have fun, don’t die, and practice the healthy lifestyle, but don’t join the cult.
-Michael
Partnered with GOREWEAR
GOREWEAR designs endurance gear for Two Percenters. Their products are tailored for athletes and optimized to help us perform in any weather. GOREWEAR leverages the most cutting edge science and works—no matter how hard we train or what Earth throws at us. Use code EASTER30 for 30% off your next order. Discover more at www.gorewear.com.
Share this post