Are YOU healthy?
We talk about health every single day here in our clinic, in our newsletters and our podcasts.Not only is it our job, but as many of you know from being around us…
It is our passion.
We truly enjoy talking health… BUT we absolutely LOVE playing a part in helping others get better or staying healthy.
Which brings up an interesting question…
What does it REALLY mean to be healthy?
This may seem like an easy question, or even a silly one…
But think about it for a minute…
It’s amazing how this simple question can result in many different answers..
…depending on who you ask.
For many years, the definition of health was simply the absence of disease.
But, that is stupid.
Does this mean the day before a person is diagnosed with a disease they were healthy?
Does a person go from healthy to diseased overnight?
Of course not!
There are many people who are disease-free but aren’t healthy.
You will also get a different answer to the “what does it mean to be healthy” question depending on who you ask…
If you talk to a fitness person… they could never imagine a person could be healthy if they have a higher than normal body fat percentage.
Can health be judged simply by weight and body fat?
On the flip side then…
Is a person with a low body fat percentage healthy?
Of course we know that basing health on weight and body fat alone is idiotic.
The fitness industry is loaded with people who have low body fat, abs showing, muscles bursting out of their shirts and yet have absolutely no energy, no immune system and can’t sleep at night.
Now…
If you ask a family physician what it means to be healthy…
You will most likely get a lot of different answers. Some will talk about the lack of disease, others will talk about BMI and cholesterol levels.
Others will say you’re healthy after a bunch of blood tests come back normal.
But, there are a LOT of people who have normal blood tests and yet don’t feel healthy.
We can’t count the number of patients we’ve seen who have no energy, brain fog and terrible sleeping habits, yet every blood test shows that they’re normal.
Are they healthy?
As you can see, defining what being healthy means is not as easy as it sounds. We have our own definition.
It is something that we apply to each and every patient we see in our office.
Here's what being healthy means to us…
A healthy person has sparkling or full of life energy, ages slower than the norm, no symptoms, disease or illness and finally, low to no inflammation.
That may seem like a complicated definition of health, but to us, that is what we strive for in helping others get healthy.
We don’t define health by a number on the scale or where your cholesterol levels are at.