Health

Have you ever noticed how many heavy healthcare workers there are? Pick a profession...nurses, physicians, pulic health, pharmacists. (OK, it seems like most physical therapists put it into practice, but they are probably the exception.)

Today I'm at a conference for health educators. I'd say that this group is probably more fit than mosts...maybe only half are in the "overweight" or "obese" category. (I'm including myself; BMI is currently 25.5--so close!) Healthcare is not known for healthy lifestyles. Twelve-hour (or longer) shifts powered by Diet Coke really aren't conducive to living a balanced, healthy way of life. Stress elvates blood glucose, which takes its toll on the body. Feelings of not having enough time make it easy to excuse yourself from exercising.

A cardiologist touched on the role of physical exercise as preventive care, commenting that his patients were too "busy" to exercise--too busy to take care of themselves. Some didn't understand why they weren't losing weight even though they exercise regularly. (The example he gave was of a woman who spent 20 minutes on a stationary bike two or three times a week--no where close to the recommended 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week.) Then he shared that he got up to exercise from 5:30 until 7:00 each morning. He was a pretty trim guy who recognized that knowledge doesn't matter much if you aren't willing to put it into practice.

As I see it, I've got a year and a half to figure out how to strike a balance. Now, I recognize that most people don't really think of medical students as living a "balanced life," but I do believe balance is always a worthy goal. If I can't make my peace with food and find myself regularly working up a decent sweat before med school starts, I'm not going to magically live that lifestyle afterwards. It just strikes me as so painfully ironic that healthy living is so easily dismissed by those who are regularly advising people how to live.