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Living in such a complicated world can seem so complex. But we’re creatures of habit. Ninety-three percent of our behavior is predictable.
And everyday the media reports on new research that suggests certain things are good or bad for you. It’s all quite confusing. We get so lost and so paralyzed by complicated details, we lose sight of making health simple. Don’t worry about whether or not coffee is good or bad for you. If the “science” of analyzing one substance and its effect on health hasn’t figured it out by now, the implications of that substance is mostly unknown for you as an individual. In fact, even the number one selling drug in America, Lipitor, designed to reduce your cholesterol has very little evidence to suggest it prolongs your life. In reality, our longevity is limited by our genes and our everyday behaviors.
All I ask is that you stop and think about your life today.
We’re all expected to live 82 years or so in the developed world. What do we want out of those years? Do you want to prolong your life at the end? Do you want to live to be 92 instead of 82? Or do you want to feel your best prior to getting old and limited by age? What do you think will give you the most happiness out of life? Living your life optimally as a young person? Or stretching your life out at the end for another decade of life as a slow-moving senior citizen?
Now, think about your everyday. Spend a few minutes and write down how you spend your day. What are you doing? What are you doing that’s probably good for you? What are you doing that’s probably not that great for you? What are you doing too much of? Not enough of? Make a list. It’s actually pretty simple. For everything you identify that’s not so great for you, write a simple way you can change that behavior.
Think about just three things– sleep, food, activity. Changes should be very, very simple. It’s things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator. It could be eating less meat. It could be sleeping 7 hours instead of six. It could be drinking with friends 3 nights a week instead of four. It could be one less hour of sitting in front of your computer.
Life really isn’t about your health. It’s about happiness. Health is just one component of happiness. So take a break every once in a while and sit down and think about a few small everyday things that have huge impact on your happiness.
video portrait of Drew Anderson by me.
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Talented Kids Being Talented of the Day: The fifth-graders of the PS22 Chorus strike cute gold yet again with a heart-expanding cover of Pheonix’s “Lisztomania”.
This must be the longest a sure thing has ever had to wait to become a TV show.
[hyst.]
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The Farm Bill, a massive piece of federal legislation making its way through Congress, governs what children are fed in schools and what food assistance programs can distribute to recipients. The bill provides billions of dollars in subsidies, much of which goes to huge agribusinesses producing feed crops, such as corn and soy, which are then fed to animals. By funding these crops, the government supports the production of meat and dairy products—the same products that contribute to our growing rates of obesity and chronic disease. Fruit and vegetable farmers, on the other hand, receive less than 1 percent of government subsidies. The government also purchases surplus foods like cheese, milk, pork, and beef for distribution to food assistance programs—including school lunches. The government is not required to purchase nutritious foods. (via PCRM)
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Free Wheelchair Mission is an international non-profit organization dedicated to providing wheelchairs for the impoverished disabled in developing nations.
I met Stefan Bucher at Design Indaba last week. He was there speaking about his Daily Monsters. He introduced me to this organization and we think it’s ingenious. We’re big fans of using off the shelf parts to solve the simple problems first. Health doesn’t need to be as complex as it is. It’s mostly about unique thinking for simple solutions that solve 90% of problems for 90% of people.
Each wheelchair costs $59.20! Donate a wheelchair here.
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A little perspective on healthcare in other countries.
People always use other countries as examples of healthcare systems that are “better” than the United States. Here are the populations of those countries:
Norway = 4,861,100
Switzerland = 7,779,200
Sweden = 9,340,682
Cuba = 11,204,000
Australia = 22,174,000
Canada = 34,021,000
UK = 62,041,708
Vatican City! = 800Number of Kaiser Permanente members in California = 8.6 million
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Looks like doctors will be dropping out of government healthcare in droves as of today.
Congress just “awarded” physicians who accept Medicare a 21% decrease in reimbursement fees. In effect, their salary decreased by 21% today. This is huge. Say hello to a very large stimulus in a two-tiered cash-based system in the US. There will be doctors who take insurance. But the best doctors will simply refuse to take insurance and Medicare and instead only take cash.
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Pies 'n' Thighs, Thankfully, Finally, Amazingly Certified Open
This changes my world.
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Tooth Protectors promotional game for Atari 2600 - sponsored by Johnson & Johnson - by http://www.atariguide.com/2/247.php
Wow…the healthcare industry has been trying to do this market for quite some time. And after 30 years, they still haven’t been able to make protecting teeth or killing diabetes cool.
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Hacking technology to provide low cost tools for people with disabilities: The Eyewriter.
The EyeWriter Initiative is an ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people who are suffering from ALS with creative technologies via low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software to draw using only their eyes.”
The important thing here is that technology to support people with disabilities is being created by small firms like this to provide very inexpensive tools at very little cost using off the shelf parts. The “competition” provides tools like this for upwards of $20,000. I’d like to see more of these types of solutions– a “technology hacking” culture to provide low cost tools for people with disabilities.
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Study: Half of Infection Deaths Linked Directly to Hospital Care.
Sepsis and pneumonia, two infections that can often be prevented with tight infection control practices in hospitals, killed 48,000 patients and added $8.1 billion to heath care costs in 2006 alone, according to a study published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The news, principal investigator Ramanan Laxminarayan tells the Health Blog, is that the study for the first time links about half of all infection deaths directly to infections acquired in the hospital in the course of care…
Accompanying the study is an editorial co-authored by Johns Hopkins Hospital safety guru Peter Pronovost, creator of one of the checklists used by hospitals to prevent infections. While he says the estimates in the study may have some “systematic errors” in calculating costs and mortality, “they suggest a substantial opportunity to reduce patient harm.”48,000 deaths is the equivalent of 192 planes full of 250 people crashing every year. Add the other 50,000 who die in hospitals for other reasons associated with medical errors and it’s the equivalent of allowing a plane a day to crash with 250 people on board. The airline industry fixed their problems. And now we live in a markedly safer world, especially considering there are 40,000 flights a day in America alone.
It is criminal for the hospital industry to continue allowing these deaths due to lack of standards and protocols. Hospitals in America are by far the most dangerous places in America. Stay out of them as much as possible. And if you have to be in them, demand that nurses and doctors follow protocols with checklists for infection control. If they don’t, go to another hospital.
I’m a pediatrician and preventive medicine specialist with a masters in public health. Fast Company calls me The Doctor of the Future and one of The Top 10 Most Creative People in Health Care. Esquire Magazine calls me one of 2009's Best and Brightest Radicals & Rebels Who Are Changing the World.
I have a design and consulting firm called The Future Well. We design products and services that have a positive impact on health and happiness. Read more about me here.
