04 Apr Experts: Which one is for you?
Want to know how to live? Read what the experts say. Experts make recommendations for what to do. What to eat. When to eat. How much sleep you need. How much water to drink. And so on.
But should you put all your faith and trust in experts? Are they infallible? And which experts? What about when they disagree or conflict? And, many of us are confused about health recommendations.
Here’s an example: the food pyramid. That’s been replaced by My Plate. Which Harvard improved on with the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate. If you’re old enough, you might remember that a previous recommendation was to balance among four food groups: meat, milk, veggies/fruits, and breads/cereals.
Recommendations do change over time, but conflicting recommendations exist right now. For examples, some experts say to eat many small meals. Some say to never snack. Others say to fast occasionally with one meal a day.
Why are there so many different recommendations?
Good question. Lots of reasons. First, we are always adding new information to our existing body of information. Hence, the food pyramid is an update. And there is also the matter of perspective. How people look at a situation is colored by their background and motivations. You could call this bias, but it’s not necessarily intentional. It’s just the way people think–you use what you know and what you want to make decisions and form ideas.
So, with many perspectives, come lots of different experts. Here are some different perspectives, each with their own experts, and their own point of view. Each has valuable contributions and each has limitations. And I let all of them influence my health coaching.
The expert approaches
Functional medicine
This is my favorite. I’m a functional medicine health coach and I studied at Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. Functional medicine has a holistic perspective, with a focus on bio-individuality. So there’s personalization, and addressing the body as a whole unit, not just individual body parts. There’s focus on prevention and the root causes of disease, often found in lifestyle. A well known functional medicine doctor is Dr. Mark Hyman. He has a blog, podcasts, and TV appearances. He explains functional medicine principles and lifestyle choices in easy to understand, everyday terms.
Ayurveda
This natural system of healing is at least 3000 years old. It comes from India and strives to balance the mind and the body to prevent or cure disease. Their gifts to the world include yoga, meditation, and herbal remedies. I enjoy yoga for exercise, and for stress relief.
Modern healing systems
Naturopathy, homeopathy, chiropractic, osteopathy, and/or integrative medicine are different healing approaches. They each have their own focus and unique contributions to health. Naturopathy is wonderful for herbs and natural cures. Homeopathy relies on the energy of remedies, more so than their biochemistry, to achieve results. Chiropractic and osteopathy have a whole body approach. Integrative medicine can mean a conventional approach that makes use of any of these other approaches.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
TCM is likely the oldest healing system, and makes excellent use of life energy, herbs and your pulse. A practitioner can listen to your pulse to help determine your health needs. It takes years of practice to learn, as you might think. But TCM can achieve results where conventional medicine falls short. I’ve gotten good results from a Chinese herbalist. Similarly, acupuncture and acupressure can have benefits.
Religions
They offer their own guidelines for diet and health, and these usually pre-date modern, conventional guidelines. For example, there are kosher dietary guidelines, and there’s fasting on Fridays. Ancients didn’t rely on science to determine guidelines, but because they’ve persisted, with apparent benefit, we can take note. And we need to respect each person’s practice of their own faith.
Conventional medicine
Most of us rely on this. Conventional medicine excels in trauma and surgery. It’s also great for diagnostics, high tech, and pharmaceuticals. The three letter agencies that provide us with guidelines, like CDC, AMA, AHA, and so on, are conventional medicine agencies. Conventional medicine does not excel in prevention and holistic, natural treatments. Which is why so many turn to the above mentioned experts as an adjunct or alternative to conventional medicine.
Which expert should you believe?
It’s you. You are your own best expert. Your body has “body wisdom.” It gives you cues all the time: hunger, cravings, fatigue, pain, strength, focus, energy, sleepiness, and so on. If you tune into your cues, you can make better decisions about lifestyle choices. You also have life experience. For example, maybe eating burritos at midnight didn’t sit well with you so you never did that again.
You are an individual with individual genetics and the individual environment you live in. What works for many may not work for you. One-size-fits-all recommendations that we constantly see in headlines and internet searches can only go so far. Health coaching can be helpful because I can help you sort all this out and choose personalized healthy habits.
I’m an expert too
I am an expert in behavior change. Health coaches help people change their behavior so that it supports health. And, I know a lot about health, chronic disease, good nutrition, and movement and exercise, as well as stress management and supporting relationships. I have to know all this to be a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach and an instructor of health coaching.
I use my knowledge about health and behavior change to help you find what work for you. But I’m not the one making the recommendations. Other experts can do that. I can make referrals for all kinds of healthcare practitioners, if needed. I host a meetup so I can get to know the competent practitioners in my area.
Contact me. Let’s see if we can work together. If you could do this on your own, you would have already. Try gaining health and losing weight with an ally.
Comments: Which experts do you favor?
Harvard Healthy Eating Plate
Dr. Mark Hyman website
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