Dr Fauci has been the physician leader of the United States’—and in many ways the world’s—COVID-19 response. Judging by the comments I receive, I would say there’s a split between those who believe his words to be absolute Gospel truth (Saint Fauci), and those who are more critical of him, including within the medical community. Maybe a lot of people are in-between somewhere. I’m not going to get into all of that, but as a doctor who focuses on lifestyle and preventive medicine, I’d like to say share with you something I have rarely agreed with him more on. Please watch the last 1 minute of his interview on The David Rubenstein show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaYDxJfatYg
Music to my ears considering what I do. The 4 holy mantras of healthy living that I advise: Good nutritious well-balanced diet, a solid exercise regimen, adequate sleep, and stress management. This is something that most of us already intuitively know, and is the core of keeping our immune and metabolic systems robust. All factors within our control. In fact, if somebody held a weapon to me and said: “Dr Dhand, tell people the one thing that is most important to maintain their immune and metabolic health?!”…I would say just that: practice healthy lifestyle medicine, and keep your body in good shape and as strong as possible. This may be more difficult at advanced ages or if anyone is unfortunate enough to be suffering with any medical illness, but for most younger people, it holds true. You can certainly practice other public health measures, which may well be additive—but trying your best to maintain a healthy lifestyle is undoubtedly the factor I would pick if I had to choose only one.
In the west, we have witnessed soaring rates of obesity over the last few decades. This hasn’t happened by accident because our genetics have suddenly changed. It’s happened because we eat the wrong foods and are too sedentary. Having excess body fat has been scientifcally shown to be a significant immune system suppressant and places an additional stress on the lungs during a time of need.
Think about this too: Over the last 18 months, things have gotten even worse, as we’ve driven people to be more sedentary and eat more junk food! Obesity has further increased (alarmingly also doubled in children) and continues to head in the wrong direction. What we should have been doing is shouting the healthy lifestyle message from the rooftops in amongst all the other public health advice. What a failure on the part of the medical community that we haven’t. If this wasn’t a chance for us to address this, then there never will be. Working on this problem, and let’s be frank, it’s also a public health issue, will not only help with our immune systems—but also dramatically with other chronic diseases including diabetes and heart disease. I’m not under any illusions here, there is no easy fix. But to not even make a serious effort, is unforgivable (and we can absolutely do so gently and sensitively).
My goal as a lifestyle medicine doctor is for you to be as healthy and happy as possible. I want my patients not to have to see me and be on as few medications as possible! I know this may sound odd, but I know people will always get sick and need a doctor. The message though is simple: Your body is your temple, you’ve only got one, so take good care of it—and in doing so, you have your best chance of staying away from doctors!
Going back then to Dr Fauci’s comments where he said the same thing. I know he’s been really busy with a lot of things in his in-tray, but it would have been nice to see him empasize the healthy lifestyle mantra a bit more since Spring 2020…
Suneel Dhand is a physician, writer, and YouTuber. He is Founder at MedStoic Lifestyle Medicine and DocsDox . Follow him on YouTube and Facebook.