If you want to really thrive, you need to be at your best health wise. Peak health requires you to take a proactive role in your own wellbeing. We have so much information available to us now that just wasn’t easily accessible until the digital era, but we now have doctor Google at our fingertips as well as many qualified and extremely experienced (and passionate) medical professionals who want to help us take charge of our health and wellness journey,
Growing up, the GP was held in high regard in our family, and my parents were always ready to defer to his opinion. In those days we had a family GP who was the same one for years and who knew my parents, which I do think was helpful as having the background knowledge is useful to support medical conversations. They just do it a bit different these days, it lives on a computer and whenever you present with a symptom you’re asked various questions to gather that information.
The problem with believing the GP is an expert and they’re always right is that it’s far from the truth. A GP has a little bit of knowledge about a lot of things, kind of the opposite of an expert and more of a gateway to get you to the correct one. The world is changing quickly and information we have based on latest studies takes a long time to work it’s way back into medical training. Historically medical information has often been based on men, and trials and tests have been done using men because us women have hormones and times of the month that create complications. Simplifying to the extent that half the population is excluded doesn’t seem sensible at all but I can see why it’s easier. Significant woman’s conditions have been misunderstood, women have been made to feel like they’re making a fuss and should calm down and carry on, even in the midst of great pain and suffering. There is also the other perspective that comes from pharmaceutical companies who want to promote their profit-making products and convince both the medical professionals and general population that these are the next magic pills and everyone would be better if we just took them.
The truth is, we don’t always know what works and why. For example, is depression caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, or might it be caused by a change in society, additional demands on us with less support and community than ever before? The short answer is that we don’t know, and with a lot of things there is no black and white, undeniable root cause. Many diagnoses are based on tick box exercises including some of the Neurodiverse conditions for example. Also, why do some people get certain illnesses and others don’t? There are general factors that seem to be at play but they’re not necessarily definitive. We use those general factors and guidelines too rigidly too. If your test result is below a certain number which then puts it into the satisfactory category, it also completely ignores whether it’s just below the limit, and whether it has been steadily creeping up for years and so you need to make a change to stop it moving to it the point where it’s going to cause you an issue.
Ultimately what I’m saying here is that you can have all the information but still not actually know, and it might be inaccurate or there might be a hidden agenda (for example to get you onto medication that will ultimately make a company more money). Relying on all of this is disempowering. I’m not suggesting you don’t see your GP, far from it, I think they are amazing and Ive been lucky to have some excellent experiences with mine. But you know your body. You have access to information, opinions and education to help you optimise your health, so start now. Conventional medicine is centred around waiting for a problem and then fixing it. If you want to thrive, you need to be in optimal health. You need to manage it proactively. You need to deal with the minor issues as soon as they arise so they don’t become major. You need to educate yourself to get the best out of yourself.
So what does that mean in practice? Well as an example, this is what I do ( I appreciate I’m in a privileged position to be able to do these things). I have an annual medical for a full check of everything, which includes an hour with a doctor during which we discuss any concerns, including the embarrassing ones! It gives me confidence in my health, tells me where to focus, and gives me a measure year on year so I can check progress or pick up issues. There are ways to know your numbers, including free tests so talk to your GP about what’s possible. I also take a whole food supplement which covers the range of vitamins and minerals I need, as an insurance policy to make sure I’m getting enough, as well as a probiotic, and Omega 3. That’s based on my personalised needs, including allergies that mean I can’t always get what I need from my diet, but again it goes back to understanding yourself and what you need. Finally, I follow health professionals on social media who share their knowledge and expertise and that of other experts. Dr Rangan Chaterjee (recommended by my GP originally) has a podcast “feel better live more” and I’d say I’ve listened to most of the c.300 episodes now. Professor Tim Spector and Dr Mark Hyman are also both incredibly helpful.
If you really want to thrive, you need to optimise your health. It’s hard to be at your best when you’re in pain, or tired, or run down. You are the right person to do that, don’t delegate such a fundamental and important thing to anyone else. Be proactive, make time for appointments and check ups and don’t wait for issues to arise. Prevention is better than cure and resolving an issue is easier the earlier it’s addressed. Of all the things you can do to be more resilient, this is the most important.