The Doctor Of The Future: Prescribing Lifestyle As Medicine | Mark Rowe | TEDxUCD

[Music] this tape measure is my favorite piece of medical equipment doctors use it to measure what we call the abdominal circumference when size really does matter belly fat patient called Billy was Whitney recently and after I'd examined him I asked him his age he said he was 45 they caught the tape next I asked Billy what age he thought he was going to live to be he said easy I caught the tape again finally I asked Billy how many are asleep to get each night he said you know seven seven and a half hours I cut the tape a third and final time and then as I asked Billy to hold up the remaining piece of tape just like this I said to him Billy that's all the time you have left to dream your dreams do those things that matter for you Confucius once said we all have two lives and our second life starts the day we realize we only have one life thank you my name is Mark Rowe I'm a medical doctor grounded in science I've grown up with a pill for every ill the promise for every problem and today I'm going to share with you three key insights that you won't find in medical textbooks three ideas that have changed how I see the world and I hope they do for you - my first key insight is the concept of lifestyle as medicine when my grandfather DJ qualified as a medical doctor back in 1912 just like nowadays they used the status cope dispense advice and wrote prescriptions like all physicians he took the Hippocratic oath which essentially means premium non-natural or first do no harm of course prescribing options were far more limited back then perhaps the listening year more valued from the latest breakthrough drug and of course back then some things are very different infectious disease was rampant and so it was such an exciting discovery when penicillin arrived on the scene now for the first time infections like diphtheria pneumonia even rheumatic fever could be successfully treated but just as all the glitters is not gold so more of a good thing isn't necessarily better fast-forward to nowadays and I've had to ask myself so often are we truly living by the Hippocratic oath of first do no harm that we all choke as doctors when we qualified from medical school because right now we're dealing with what I call the calamitous and catastrophic consequences of the pill for every ill the numbers are absolutely shocking more than 100,000 deaths in the United States and the side effects of legally and properly prescribed pills death by prescription right now we're dealing with the tsunami of lifestyle related chronic health conditions I see it every day in my surgery from diabetes and dementia to coronary heart disease even some cancers the answer is so often found in the prescription pad and the truth is if someone's suffering from chronic health conditions were to be treated according to evidence-based guidelines that person may be taking more than 15 pills a day more than 450 pills a month more than 5,000 pills a year that's a lot of side effects nowadays there's pills for all sorts of things we even have a pill for internet shopping disorder pills that promise protection against aging the increasing medicalization of normality and in the background big pharma the poster boy with their persuasive advertising Fanning the flames funneling an illness based model of healthcare towards what I call Farmageddon the pill for every year now I'm not anti pale in fact penicillin if available would have successfully treated my granddad DJ's rheumatic fever prevented the later heart complications that led to his untimely death modern medicine saves lives but so often it's simply seen as the sticking-plaster solution papering over the cracks when what we need to do really is get down and address the root causes I'm reminded of Thomas Edison the inventor of the electric light bulb who had a lesser-known lightbulb moment about healthcare many years ago when he said the doctor of the future would prescribe no medication but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease such words of wisdom because I believe the doctor of the future will prescribe lifestyle as medicine and that's why I've become part of this new emerging global movement called lifestyle medicine that positive lifestyle habits can become part of every consultation about health and well-being that we can embrace lifes are not just for treatment but for prevention and even reversal of disease so our challenge is to face down Farmageddon and the pill for every year and instead embrace lifestyle is your best medicine eat real food move much more sleep much better because your DNA is not your destiny your lifestyle is your destiny my second key insight is learning to grow from setbacks I just like you all to think for a moment about something that's giving you a real sense of achievement and personal satisfaction perhaps a painting you did at school perhaps some prize or promotion something that's made you feel really proud you see that's how I felt when I started out in my practice almost 20 years ago we rented a space over a corner shop right across the road from a write growing up where my parents still lived at the time really local and really personal we worked really hard to make that place warm and welcoming bright blue paint and the waiting room walls we even had a coffee machine back then we worked really hard in the practice grew and everything was going really well until about a year later I'll never forget that morning when I got the call are you mark Rowe the doctor I said yes why you better come quick your practice is on fire I rushed over there the fire brigade had already done their stuff smoke billowing neighbor standing around for me it was a time Stood Still all I could see was my livelihood my future everything I'd worked so hard for going up in smoke I felt no a few hours later I was allowed to enter the premises I'll never forget the smell that all pervasive powerful stench of smoke and charred wood and I could see what looked like the remains of a red party balloon on the wall getting closer I realized it was what was left of the fire extinguisher the computers and coffee machine were melted beyond recognition the equipment was totally destroyed the once bright blue walls of the waiting area had turned into a grim Stone Age wreck I felt broken but we were doctors and we people that depended on us we worked through the weekend we were back in business the following Monday but I took that fire so personally fear and anxiety consumed me CCTV footage had found the two young guys had broken in four separate fires were set this was no accident this was deliberate arson would they whether they were come to my home next my sense of safety and security in the world was badly shaken I felt angry I felt guilty I mean no one was hurt in the fire and I mean people all the time who suffer from real health challenges and I also felt ashamed because back then I believed bad stuff only happened if you deserved it a few weeks later I realized I had a choice I could keep on feeling sorry for myself wallowing in my meat needless negativity replaying the events of the fire over and over again but it wasn't gonna turn back the clock so I chose to see things differently I chose forgiveness to let go of the fire and then each no why and instead to embrace accept on to accept that what had happened it happened and to move on today I can put my hand on my heart maybe 20 years later and tell you how grateful I feel for that fire that experience has taught me so much about guts and graft and gritty persistence about real resilience you see we all face fires in our lives far as in our health far as in our careers far as in our relationships I've had plenty of fires we all experience pain we all suffer but that fire became a spark for me it sparked for new possibilities and that's my hope for you too that you can embrace the inevitable inevitable fires in your life get to know yourself better and really grow as a human being find the spark of opportunity and become wiser stronger and better my third key insight is the importance of self-care so when I was a young boy at home in school in church I often heard at the Golden Rule perhaps you have to you know treating other people as you would like to be treated keeping your agreements being the person you'd like to spend more time with because some are seeking to find the best and others helps to bring out the best in ourselves so I'd like to take that idea of the golden rule and turn it on its head to say treat yourself as you'd like others to treat you because self-care is not selfish care self-care is a gift to you and everyone that matters in your life and it's not about your indispensability at work I mean that's a myth we're all dispensable I'm talking about you're irreplaceable 'ti as a human being being able to prioritize yourself as well as others to truly live a life of purpose and meaning simply poor self-care means looking after your physical psychological emotional and relational health needs listening to your heart living by your values so often self-care goes by the wayside and people are suffering from stress and so often as a doctor I meet people who believe that self-care is selfish care sometimes the most giving and generous people you could imagine giving to everyone everyone that is except themselves sometimes with a mindset that says if you've got time to look after yourself you're clearly not important enough because if you were you'd be busy doing something else self-care allows you to think feel and be at your best to realize you are your own best investment to simply express a better version of you in the world and it's so incredibly contagious emotion positively spreads outwards through three degrees of separation in patching your work colleagues and their connections affecting your friends their friends and their friends to people you don't even know can benefit from you choosing to live by the golden rule of self-care and I believe self-care should be the starting point the essence of a life of leadership and real vitality burnout is the new global pandemic in a corporate world that's always on for more people than ever are struggling and searching for meaning now it's a known fact that at least 50% of medical doctors the carers themselves are also struggling from burnout no one is immune caring can be wearing ask many doctors confidentially about their burnout problem and they'll say which born their problems you want me to talk about I know a doctor very well who was in that place years on a treadmill trying to be all things to all people years of simply working to hard years for no matter how much he did the treadmill just got faster and faster because he was good at what he did was not so good at looking after himself sleeping and exercising less eating on their own more than anything this doctor felt emotionally exhausted and I know that story really well to be true because that doctor was me just at the fire of my past Bohr enjoyed my work premises so too I began to feel the flames of professional burnout just a few short years ago Hippocrates the father of Medicine once said physician heal thyself and that's true for everyone I learned to make some radical but simple changes I took time out to recharge and come back stronger than ever I learned to keep a journal and express gratitude to reduce my exposure to negative noise embrace meditation and simplicity and reboot my purpose of serving others by focusing on my strengths too often doctors lead unhealthy lives themselves simply telling their patients what to do instead of also showing them by example I chose to let my actions speak as it allowed to use my advice as an advocate for lifestyle medicine so far life as a doctor has taught me three important insights firstly that we can face down Farmageddon in the pill for every ill and instead embrace lifestyle is the best medicine secondly the inevitable inevitable fires in our lives can become gilt-edged opportunities to grow and thirdly that self-care is the essence of the life of real vitality I want to leave you with a question what would you do if you could live your life over again if I was asked that question I would say the first thing is that I can't go back to the beginning and start again but starting again you can create a brand new ending your life your lifestyle your legacy it's just like a tape measure how are you going to measure yours thank you all very much [Applause] you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 137,846

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Health, Grit, Life, Medicine, Meditation, Mental health, Positive Thinking, Public health

Id: G0Vd5mOxbEM

Length: 17min 54sec (1074 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 13 2017