Lifestyle Choices for Longevity - Do No Harm with Pharm

Recently, I watched, with great interest, a documentary with Dr Aseem Malhotra on reclaiming healthcare from profit-driven systems as he believes this revolution is critical if we are both to survive and to thrive. What we eat, and lifestyle choices have a far bigger impact on health and longevity than many people realise and this needs to change. 

Now I should start by saying that I’m not anti-medications, not at all. Many drugs are lifesaving, and they certainly have their place BUT they aren’t always the best, or even the only choice when it comes to solving health issues. Sometimes, medications can be dangerous and that is a problem.

Do No Harm

Doctors, explains Dr Aseem, are taught in the first days of medical school, that their role is to ‘do no harm’, and yet, harm is being caused because of the role Big Pharma plays in the modern-day healthcare system. An investigation, just last year, by the British Medical Journal, found that Royal colleges in the UK received more than nine million pounds in marketing payments since 2015 from drug and medical devices companies. A conflict of interest surely? Can doctors and patients trust academic journals knowing the research they contain is partly sponsored by Big Pharma? Dr Aseem believes not. 

And then there are so-called ‘wonder-drugs’, like semaglutides, which have been hitting the headlines recently. These antidiabetic medications used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes are also being prescribed to help combat obesity and for long-term weight management and whilst I’ve seen first-hand that they have their place, the support for patients taking these drugs can fall short. The root causes of these health conditions – lifestyle choices and nutrition - should be looked at before anything else, but in most cases, they are not, meaning patients find it hard to come off these drugs once put on them, and when they do, fall right back to where they started.

Stop serving up junk

The obesity epidemic itself is one of the biggest catastrophes facing health services worldwide and, in this documentary, Dr Aseem urges hospitals to stop serving junk food to patients in a bid to save money. Sugar, ultra-processed foods and convenience meals are, according to Dr Aseem, linked to 32 health conditions including type 2 diabetes, mental health issues and heart conditions, as well as increased death rates. If poor diet is now considered worse for health than smoking or physical inactivity, why are we so slow to act? 

It’s not just hospitals though. According to Dr Aseem, the rise in cheap, processed, low-fat, sugar-rich foods, combined with the huge increase in medications like statins is the root cause of our chronic disease epidemic. The food industry and Big Pharma are, of course, out to maximise profits and not looking to improve worldwide health outcomes. If they aren’t, then someone should, but who will take responsibility? It surely starts with all of us. 

Live for longevity

Pills have their place, but so too do lifestyle practices that improve health outcomes and lower stress. The problem is, things like yoga, meditation, or simply slowing down, aren’t prescribed. Instead, a pill is seen as a quick-fix solution, when often it is not. 

Even some in the medical profession, Dr Aseem included, are bravely admitting that they are part of a system in which patients are not getting better – that the meds are not working. But will the healthcare system stop prescribing and over-medicalising the population? Probably not. 

Instead, we need to focus on the results of centuries of trusted research from not-for-profit organisations and individuals, the finding that a happy mind equates to a happy body and that stress relief and slowing down is one thing our bodies all respond well to. The longevity so many of us crave isn’t to be found in a pill, but rather in feeding our bodies in the way they need to be fed, of moving them in the way they need to be moved, and in having respect for what they can and do achieve.