Dr. Bryan shares the top 10 health tips and myths to break that he has heard from patients over the years that kept them from getting well and staying well. Breaking down and tackling those myths one by one is the only way to start improving your quality of life!
Table Of Contents:
- Health Tips and Myths to Break: An Introduction
- Look at How We’re Looking at Our Health
- Take Full Responsibility For Your Health
- Health Is NOT a One and Done Approach
- It’s Okay To Be Flawed
- Be Multi-Dimensional To Your Health
- Everyone Naturally Degenerates…BUT
- The Value Of Mitigating Stress
- You Need To Keep Moving
- Stop Instant Gratification
- Closing Thoughts
Health Tips and Myths to Break: An Introduction
Hello everybody. Welcome back to the wellness connection show. I’m Dr. Bryan Joseph and as usual, I’m your host. This time, unlike most of the other episodes, I’m here in the studio by myself. And I’m going to have a conversation on some of the things that I regularly overhear over the period of years that I’ve been in health care and practice, the last 15 years.
There are just so many different things that mentally need to be called out a little bit if you will. And I think there are way too many assumptions in our population that people have and expect. And some of those assumptions and expectations keep them from actually experiencing good quality life, good quality health. So what I wanted to do on this episode, and this is episode 41 and you’ll find it on thewellnessconnection.com/e41, is I just wanted to be very bold and blunt with you and share what I have identified as 10 health tips and myths to break that patients and people come in with that are continuing to stop them from getting well and staying well.
So here we go.
Look at How We’re Looking at Our Health
The first thing that I think is extremely important that I’ll even mark as the myths number one is our philosophy towards health. We have to really truly understand that health is not an outside-in approach. You know, good health comes from inside and works its way out. In our culture, it’s so easy to believe that there’s a solution that comes outside of us that’s going to fix us. And the reality is if you’re rotting inside and you have poor issues or health issues, your organs and your cells are breaking down, I don’t care what you put in from the outside, it’s not going to overcome the toxicity and the damage that you have inside.
So number one, we have to look at how we’re looking at our health. How are we looking at our body? How are we approaching our overall philosophy of health? Do we expect somebody from the outside to fix it and do it for us? Or are we coming from within? And we know that we’ve got to really, really take care of the temple that we have been given and correct and keep things healthy from within. It’s a question you got to ask yourself. But it’s a common common discussion point that I have with patients at the office.
Take Full Responsibility For Your Health
So let’s move to number two. The second most common myth is that somebody going to do it for you. Now, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had discussions with patients, whether they want to lose weight or whether they want to control their diabetes or whether they want to actually reduce their aches and pains in their body physically. And they come into our office and they have discussions with us as if we are going to be able to save them. I wish it worked that way and I wish we could. We are not saviors and there is not anybody that’s going to save you. You must take full responsibility for your health, period. If you don’t value it and take full responsibility for your health, nobody else will. So that health tips and myths to break: the myth that it’s somebody else’s responsibility.
You’re the only one that chooses what your grocery should be looking like. You’re the only one that decides what you put in your mouth. You’re the only one that decides when you stretch. You’re the only one that decides when you make your doctors appointments. You’re the only one that actually decides when you exercise. And the list goes on and on and on. But if you don’t accept responsibility and you expect somebody else to do those things for you, you’re kidding yourself.
Health Is NOT a One and Done Approach
The third of the myths that must be broken is, it’s a one and done thing. If I’m unhealthy or if I’ve gotten overweight, all I got to do to reverse it is one-time diet. I got to approach things one time, fix them, bandaid them, fix the issues as if those are the symptoms I’m dealing with and then life goes back on.
Folks, I think you know this, I mean common sense tells us it’s really not a one and done thing. Nothing is. Anything that we want longevity out of. We’ve got to look at it with the longterm perspectives. We got to look at things in regards to a lifestyle that would protect us and give us a chance to be well for many, many years to come. There is no diet that actually works where you can just do it for a short period of time and then go back to horrible, unhealthy habits and just expect it to continue on.
I mean, it should be common sense, but truth be told, we must not look at things as a short term solution. We’ve got to look at things as a lifestyle on how we’re going to continue to keep ourselves healthy.
It’s Okay To Be Flawed
Number five, social and outside influences have gotten us to believe, and this is one of the big myths, that we’re meant to be perfect, that we’re not supposed to have any flaws, that we’re not supposed to have any aches and pains, that we’re not supposed to have any thoughts that don’t gel with being happy and joyful 24/7. Truth be told there are the yin and yang of life doesn’t even allow that. That’s why there are morning and night. That’s why there’s an up and a down. That’s why there is day and an evening. It’s hot and a cold. There’s a sugary and a salty.
Everything in life has an opposite, an equal and opposite force. You are meant to have some imperfections because that means you’re alive. That means you lived. That means you are human. That means you made mistakes. You bumped into things. You broke bones, you actually ate a… You made a bad choice in regards to some of the drinks or the foods that you had. But you are not meant to be perfect. And I feel really, really sorry for our kids these days that are actually seeing all the social influences on these web platforms that are making people think aesthetically that you’re not supposed to be flawed.
It’s okay to have a beauty mark. It’s okay to have a scar. It’s okay to have a little bit of imperfection because that makes you, you. And be okay with that.
Be Multi-Dimensional To Your Health
Number six, believing that you can approach your health with only approaching one dimension. Let me talk about that. When I say one dimension, we typically think that we can get away with just focusing on one dimension such as diet, and if I pay attention to my diet, then that’s enough. Or we might think that the one dimension we’re going to focus on is the physicality of our body. We’re going to exercise. And you think that’s enough.
But the truth be told, you know, if we are going to break health tips and myths, we have to think of this in terms of the multiple dimensions that impact your health. You must pay attention to your physical health, your chemical or biochemical health and your emotional health. Those three dimensions must all be looked upon at all times to make sure they’re being protected, keeping things in balance and keeping things healthy. If you want to be healthy for many years to come. It’s impossible to… You can have success if you actually improve one of those dimensions, but you’re ultimately still going to be missing some things from the big picture of keeping yourself completely healthy.
Everyone Naturally Degenerates…BUT
Health tips and myths to break number seven. You know we did an episode earlier in the year where we interviewed Bill Logan, 77-year-old athlete. Myth number seven is right around that same discussion, which is, this is just part of getting old. The way I feel is about just just, it’s part of getting old now. I agree with you to a certain extent. You will naturally degenerate. Everything does. But the rate or the speed in which we break down has nothing to do with age, has everything to do with how well you actually took care of your body and mitigated stress during that journey.
Just because you need glasses, or now my knee hurts, that’s part of getting old or I have gained a few pounds, but that’s part of getting old. Let’s not lean on that as a crutch or an excuse and let’s really, really understand that age if done right has very little to do with how fast your body is going to break down. There’s a lot of other influences that will impact that more than just the number of years or days that you’ve lived.
We have patients that we’ve seen and we have got a lot of them. Actually, who’ve come into the office who are extremely vibrant and in great quality health in their eighties and even in their nineties. And we have people that come in in their forties and they say, “I’m just getting old.” So stop using that as an excuse and break that myth right now that this is just part of getting old. I think what’s actually happening in most cases is that you just stopped accepting responsibility and doing what it takes to be well.
The Value Of Mitigating Stress
So number eight, I think is one of those myths on undermining the value or the importance of stress mitigation techniques. Stress by far is the number one ingredient that will break and tear down people’s health. It will be the number one thing that prevents you from getting well and staying well for many years to come. And if we have, which we do, the ability to mitigate or reduce stress in our life through a lot of the different resources and tools that are available to us in our communities. By us choosing to ignore those tools and resources, we’re putting ourselves in a situation a lot of times where we’re basically allowing ourselves to, to be harmed by the additional stress that’s out there.
So as I said a second ago, you know, mitigating the stress in all three dimensions. Physically, are you doing things on a regular basis to actually reduce your stress physically so that your joints don’t wear down? Are you doing things on a regular basis to mitigate the stress emotionally? So that your body doesn’t break down with toxic hormones and all sorts of negative things that are, that are perpetrating your body? And are you mitigating the stress dietarily?
Are you actually choosing to put things in that are going to benefit you versus actually harm you? Meditation, stress reduction, emotionally, spiritually, slowing down, sometimes, stretching out, getting a massage, getting a chiropractic adjustment, you know, putting healthy foods, fruits, and vegetables versus all sorts of sugars and fats. Are we consciously making choices that are going to mitigate the stress from all the categories of life that we deal with or are we ignoring them?
You Need To Keep Moving
Number nine, this is twofold health tips and myths to break. And number one it says that you think you can be well by actually being sedentary. You have to be moving. We’ve talked about this a number of times. Motion is life. If you’re not moving, you’re literally dying. You can not be healthy over a sustained period of time if you are not moving. And the second part of that one is that food doesn’t matter.
Listen, motion is life and food is medicine. The choices of what you’re putting into your mouth and what you’re digesting or ingesting all ultimately will shape what your cellular structure looks like and what the quality of your health is like. I can recall a time where my father went to a gastrointestinal doctor and his doctor literally told him that your diet doesn’t matter. I have no clue how we can actually get to that point where we believe that’s a logical thought.
Think of it in terms of this. If you drove a sports car and you pulled over my house and I start pouring Skittles and Snickers and ice cream into the gas tank of your Porsche, you know, common sense would tell you that we’re going to run into a problem. That we’re really going to start choking off that engine and we’re going to break it down because we didn’t put quality fuels that are helping to actually get that motor to run efficiently in there. We chose to make choices that were going to be destructive. Listen, everybody, a motion has to happen. You must be moving your body. And food ultimately is medicine. You must be making choices that are going to fuel your body versus harm your body.
Stop Instant Gratification
And the final health tips and myths to break is we’re all looking for instant gratification and quick fixes. Listen, you want to be around for a long time? I’m sure you do. I do. If we’re looking for longevity, we can’t be looking for quick fixes and instant gratification. Yeah, those are fun. They’re rewarding. It’s nice to experience those every so often. But do the work today. You know, whatever is… You know, there’s a saying that says what’s easy now makes things hard later, and what’s hard now makes things easy later.
Do the hard work now if it’s hard for you to make the right choice with diet, mental stress reduction, and physical exercise, but do it. Commit to it knowing that it will be easier later when you’re seeing everybody else around you break down. If you choose to path the least resistance, you want instant gratification, and I want to actually do the easy things now, watch TV, not move around, eat all those sweet, fun things I could possibly have and never slow my brain down to actually reduce my thinking capacity or my mental stress.
I can assure you that you will be in the category that deals with heart issues later. Heart issues like health concerns and health challenges. So today I really just wanted to spend 10 15 minutes with you having a discussion about 10 of the most common health tips and myths to break. And keep people from getting well and staying well for many, many years to come.
Closing Thoughts
I hope you found this valuable. I’m sure some of these may resonate with you. Some of them might not have, but if you feel that you can actually improve one of those categories, break one of those myths and take your health to the next level, then I feel like this conversation was a success. And also on that note, if you feel that you know somebody that’s dragging their feet using one of these excuses, if you will, or not approaching things correctly in regards to their health and expecting someone else to do it for them, share this with them. Maybe sometimes it’s hard for you to actually be that messenger for them.
But if they hear a message from somebody else it might light a fire and actually change the trajectory of their entire life. So until next time, as always, we’re here to help you get well and stay well. Take care of them.
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