The cure to 80% of your chronic illnesses

Andres Zuleta MD | Samasta Health

Throughout medical school and residency I learned many things that help people and also learned skills that save lives, and I am deeply grateful for that education and for all of my mentors and lessons throughout that time.  At the same time I was taught that type two diabetes is controlled with a certain type of medication, and high blood pressure with a certain type of medication, and for cholesterol a certain type of medication, etc....  And I also started realizing that the patients would come month after month to the office back again for more prescription medications.

I also learned that the third leading cause of death in the United States is iatrogenic death which is death caused by the medical establishment as a cause of side effects, or medical errors, or known complications from procedures. This lead me to look deeper and realize that there has to be a way to improve it. My patients needed something more than just a prescription medication. I almost felt that I was tricked into believing that this type 2 diabetes could only be treated with a medication when I first found out that it could actually be erased from a person's list of medical problems with lifestyle modifications. When I realized that type 2 diabetes could be completely eradicated with diet, exercise and a healthy weight I was in disbelief. This and some personal struggles sent me in the a quest to find out how diet, exercise, and other aspects of well-being enhance a persons health. 7 out of 10 deaths among Americans each year are from chronic disease. The World Health Organization has estimated that if the major risk factors for chronic disease were eliminated, at least 80% of all heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes would be prevented, and more than 40% of cancer cases would be prevented.

So went on a journey of discovering what is the science and the experiences that a patient has to have in order to overcome their illnesses. In other words. How can we truly empower patients to overcome their so-called illnesses. And even more,  how do you do this in a 12 minute visit which is the average length of a medical visit in the United States. in this blog I'm going to give you 3 tools that you can use with your patients or clients in less than 12 minutes.

Is your patient or client is ready for change?

I noticed that I was being drained of energy when I start talking to a patient regarding their diet or exercise. Immediately they would tell me that they are not looking for any new inputs regarding this issue. Many of these times I felt like I was drained  of the energy and I felt tired during the day because I knew that they need it so much more than just a refill on the prescription. So I learned about motivational interviewing and I extracted one simple tool that I use very commonly in my practice. You can also use this to empower your patients or clients

1 How important is this issue for you from 0 to 10

2 How important it is for you to overcome this issue in a scale from 0 to 10?

3 How confident are you that you are going to make the necessary changes to overcome this illness in a scale from 0 to 10.

In motivational interviewing  it has actually been  demonstrated that if a patient answers less than 6 in a scale of 0 to 10 they are statistically not likely to make any changes to the current condition. Hence, it is very important for you to “Bless and release”  just move on to the next patient. I have found that this technique has revitalized  my day because I don't feel like I have to tell this information to everybody. And many times I would feel like I was wasting my voice, and also pressuring patients into doing things that they did not want to do. So you can meet them where they are and if they say 5 you can say well that is great that is not a 4. How come is not a 6?  I have found this to be great because you don't feel like you are vomiting on the patient. if the patient says that it is a 10 and that they are ready to overcome this illness then you take him/her to a second tool that I came across.

Where is your patient gaining or draining their daily energy?

 

We think that the energy that we have comes from food but actually a lot of it comes from our career, from our relationships, from our spirituality, or meaning in life, and from our movement. many of you have experienced that if you have something going on that is important you are wired on that day. Well that is the energy that you're getting from the purpose of doing this. Evolutionary, our bodies were wired to run from a bear or to be alert in times where we needed to be. So is not that the patient has to fix one of this issues right away but if they at least do one little thing of progress in one of those areas they will have a better feeling of well-being because progress is happiness.

And Dr. Z, what is the best diet?

If your patient wants to know more and is asking you about diet... well what about diet? When I went in the Journey of discovering all of these diets, I came across for example an expert on Paleo Diet. And it was incredible how this person was so passionate about this diet and how much he had changed his own life so I would go full on and understand how this diet would work and for a month I would take on everything about the Paleo Diet. next I would go into a vegan diet and the person who would teach me this would be so passionate about veganism that I would also become so passionate in, in their eyes it was the best diet ever. Then I came across “Bioindividuality.” And I know what you are thinking, I have heard of this before, but this concept made so much sense. I finally realized how it comes together. That we are all so different and we might need certain diets at specific times of our lives and that some diets work better for some people and some work better for others. We are all different; my poison could be your medicine, and your medicine could be my poison. So bio individuality it is great because it just depends what the patient is trying to do and how fast they're trying to do it.  so asking what the best diet is is like asking how do you get to New York City. So how do you get to New York City? Well it just depends how you want to get there and how fast?. Do you want to get there by plane, do you want to get there by car, do you want to walk there. It all depends what you're trying to do. For instance if a patient or client is training for the half Ironman competition the diet looks different,. If you are  trying to lose weight the diet looks different, if a patient is trying to decrease the chances that they have a seizure, the diet is different. So it just depends what the patient is trying to do.

So What can you do to spearhead the future of healthcare?

The future of healthcare is empowering the patient to become activated and ask this simple question. Do I really need this medication, are there other alternatives, or can my body heal by itself? and then once the patietn is willing to take this one, have all the support necessary from high tech to high touch to accelerate and faciliatate this process.