Rhodadendrons can be good medicine. Really

Did I have other things to do? Yes. So much to do!

But today was important. And I mean that in more than just “spending time with your children is highly recommended.” (Of course, it is, and I do — but it’s more than that)

Physical exercise, being outdoors in afternoon sun, taking a break from routine, connecting with others (my tiny humans, in this case) turning off the phone (did you know that camera still works in “flight mode”?) — these are all ways of looking after our health.

I’ve worked for broken healthcare systems for years. Broken for patients. Broken for doctors.

I prioritise taking healthy steps now —because I personally found a cognitive dissonance everytime I gave advice I couldn’t follow. Advise a patient to eat veggies when my “lunch” was chocolate I stole from the nurses station and half a diet Coke I chugged in the hospital stairwell?

There are more than a few of us in Ireland – hospital docs and GP – who are trying to not only live healthier but bring this into our practice for patients. This takes changing our own practices, and how we practice medicine.

#LifestyleMedicine is actually the foundation of conventional medicine. Clinical practice guidelines for many chronic diseases recommend lifestyle medicine as the first line of treatment, before medications. It’s literally the first thing on the list. But in a broken healthcare system, too often we are straight on to pills and procedures because of delay (waiting list) or doctor shortage (not enough time to have adequte patient education discussions.)

And the rise in chronic disease in many countries is unsustainable. Type 2 diabetes alone is a looming global pandemic.

It’s just all money? Most of our healthcare budget is related to treatment of conditions rooted in unhealthy lifestyle choices (one third of HSE budget is related in some way to alcohol misuse alone). Conditions such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity and multiple types of cancer are among the most common and costly of all health conditions—but they are also preventable and treatable by addressing the lifestyle choices.

And attached to this post are way too many flower pics because it was amazing.