Determinants of Health #11 Past medical history

This topic is pretty straightforward. What happens to us, in part, determines our current health status. This is why doctors inquire as to past surgery, hospitalization, major trauma, etc.

Have you experienced past illnesses, toxic exposures, major surgery? All of these things will play a role in your current health. This is not to say that these factors will determine your health but rather to say that they matter. One reason why naturopathic doctors typically conduct a longer intake visit is so that we can investigate and address all the factors that impact your health.

Naturopathic doctors take a comprehensive look at your health. We ask about the many factors that influence health, which we term “The determinants of health.” Taking a patient-centered approach lets us build a comprehensive plan to help patients achieve their health goals.

Are you looking for a new kind of partnership with your primary care provider? If you are ready to start or revitalize your health journey, you are in the right spot! Check out my bio to get in touch. I offer free 15-minute consultation calls to answer your initial questions. Convenient telehealth appointments are available from the comfort of your own home.

#naturalmedicine #naturopathicmedicine #healing #drjesskeating  #willowclinic #telehealth #holisticmedicine #healthjourney #foodismedicine #healthylife #health #pastmedicalhistory

Determinants of Health #10 Social factors

This is a very large topic and I will briefly touch on its various parts.

Social determinants include large elements like what type of government rules the land, the economic system and access to education and healthcare. It also includes your family structure, connections with the community around you, supportive relationships and the physical environment where you live.

Social determinants can be visualized as the connections you have with your local and larger communities – these can be cultural, family, religious, etc. Do you have parks in your neighborhood, is it safe or high-crime, do you have access to free and fair elections or are you denied political representation?

Social determinants are often much larger than one person can change – such as the structure of the government or healthcare system. However, there are many ways to impact these determinants – civic activism, exercising your rights, reaching out to strengthen community relationships, finding new cultural or religious communities to participate in, voting and petitioning are all ways to engage with the social determinants.

How do you connect with your immediate and larger community (town, state, country?) Are there creative ways you can make changes to optimize your social determinants?

Naturopathic doctors take a comprehensive look at your health. We ask about the many factors that influence health, which we term “The determinants of health.” Taking a patient-centered approach lets us build a comprehensive plan to help patients achieve their health goals.

Are you looking for a new kind of partnership with your primary care provider? If you are ready to start or revitalize your health journey, you are in the right spot! Check out my bio to get in touch. I offer free 15-minute consultation calls to answer your initial questions. Convenient telehealth appointments are available from the comfort of your own home.

#naturalmedicine #naturopathicmedicine #healing #drjesskeating#willowclinic #telehealth #holisticmedicine #healthjourney #foodismedicine #healthylife #health #socialdeterminants #civicengagement #healthcare #community

Determinants of Health #7 Meaningful occupation

You don’t have to be a doctor to have important work. It does not even have to be paid to be a meaningful occupation. Occupation literally means how we spend our time – how we occupy ourselves. As a social species, human beings naturally seek out ways to engage with the world and others.

How do you give your time to meaningful pursuits? Volunteer work, following a certain career path, parenting, church or school involvement, fostering children, adopting pets from animal shelters, giving blood, the possibilities are endless! 

When I ask my patients what they do for work, I follow it up with “Do you enjoy it?” But really the better question is – “Is it meaningful for you?” And it does not have to be your main gig. With the Internet as a powerful tool, many people will create a “side gig” that involves something they are passionate about, a creative pursuit or some form of giving back.

Challenge yourself to answer the question: “What excites me?” and see where that leads. Not everyone becomes a rich, famous or powerful person in their endeavors but we all have the ability to reach out and positively impact others.

Naturopathic doctors take a comprehensive look at your health. We ask about the many factors that influence health, which we term “The determinants of health.” Taking a patient-centered approach lets us build a comprehensive plan to help patients achieve their health goals.  

Are you looking for a new kind of partnership with your primary care provider? If you are ready to start or revitalize your health journey, you are in the right spot! Check out my bio to get in touch. I offer free 15-minute consultation calls to answer your initial questions. Convenient telehealth appointments are available from the comfort of your own home.

#naturalmedicine #naturopathicmedicine #healing #drjesskeating  #willowclinic #telehealth #holisticmedicine #healthjourney #foodismedicine #healthylife #health #workit #bestjob

Determinants of Health #5 Movement

This topic incorporates many aspects of physical well-being. We need both movement and rest, strength and flexibility, cardio and muscle work. Our posture and activities of daily living have a huge effect on our physical body as well.

Talking about our body includes our posture as we sit, stand and walk throughout the day. How much time are we active versus sitting? Many of us commute and work at sedentary jobs.

“Exercise” is a very broad term that encompasses many ways to be healthy. Lifting weights builds strength, which makes for stronger bones, better balance and faster metabolism. But strength needs to be balanced with flexibility by adding yoga or a stretching regimen.

Cardio workouts strengthen the heart and lungs and also burn calories.

All exercise can have a beneficial impact on sleep, mood and weight management.

Try to keep your body active all day. Look into a sit-stand desk for work, take frequent breaks to go get water or make tea, park farther away (even in the winter!)

If you struggle with consistency in physical activity, join a class or find an accountability buddy. Working with a fitness trainer or reputable teacher can also be very helpful in building a new habit.

Naturopathic doctors take a comprehensive look at your health. We ask about the many factors that influence health, which we term “The determinants of health.” Taking a patient-centered approach lets us build a comprehensive plan to help patients achieve their health goals.

Are you looking for a new kind of partnership with your primary care provider? If you are ready to start or revitalize your health journey, you are in the right spot! Check out my bio to get in touch. I offer free 15-minute consultation calls to answer your initial questions. Convenient telehealth appointments are available from the comfort of your own home.

 #naturalmedicine #naturopathicmedicine #healing #drjesskeating  #willowclinic #telehealth #holisticmedicine #healthjourney #foodismedicine #healthylife #health #fitness #feelbetter

Determinants of Health #4 Sleep

Oh sweet sleep! This is such an important part of our mental and physical well-being that it gets a whole day to itself. Sleep needs change as we age, ranging from 12-18 hours when we are very little to 7-9 hours in adulthood. Many of my patients are chronically sleep deprived and they quickly learn that getting consistent, deep, restorative sleep can be life-changing!

Chronic sleep deprivation builds up over time. Studies show that getting less than 7 hours of sleep for 2 weeks leaves people functioning at the same level as if they had not slept for two days straight! And since our focus and alertness decline slowly, we may not even be aware of how poorly we are functioning.

Sleep is where the body heals and repairs itself, it literally washes the waste product out of your brain and is crucial for every system in the body. Mental focus, mood and the immune system are particularly affected by poor sleep (quality or quantity).

Another modern invention that disturbs good sleep is shift work. The WHO (world health organization) recognizes shift work as a known human carcinogen. This means working nights and sleeping during the day increases your risk for cancer. Scientists think this is because daytime sleeping does not result in the same production of melatonin, which acts as a powerful antioxidant in the body. There’s no way around it: humans are meant to sleep when it is dark outside. Disrupting that disturbs our internal clock.

Naturopathic doctors take a comprehensive look at your health. We ask about the many factors that influence health, which we term “The determinants of health.” Taking a patient-centered approach lets us build a comprehensive plan to help patients achieve their health goals.

Are you looking for a new kind of partnership with your primary care provider? If you are ready to start or revitalize your health journey, you are in the right spot! Check out my bio to get in touch. I offer free 15-minute consultation calls to answer your initial questions. Convenient telehealth appointments are available from the comfort of your own home.

#naturalmedicine #naturopathicmedicine #healing #drjesskeating  #willowclinic #telehealth #holisticmedicine #healthjourney #foodismedicine #healthylife #health #sleep #feelbetter

Determinants of Health. #1 Breath

What is the thing that will kill you the fastest when deprived of it? While some of you may be tempted to say "love", physiologically it is air. When it comes to survival, there is a commonly accepted "rule of threes." You can survive for 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 hours without shelter (in harsh conditions), 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. The point of this (beyond the fact that I love survival facts) is to highlight the importance of breath.

Some of the ways that breath gets disrupted are respiratory disorders: Asthma, COPD, pneumonia, cystic fibrosis, collapsed lung, etc. But even without lung disease, this determinant is often less than optimal. As a society, we tend to consciously or unconsciously “suck in our gut.” This means disrupting the normal movement of the diaphragm – the large muscle that drops down to open up the lungs and allow them to fully inflate. It turns us into “chest breathers” where we raise our shoulders to take a deep breath and this gives the lungs much less room to move.

A great experiment is to get a pulse oximeter – a small device that clips onto a finger and shows pulse and oxygen saturation. Our blood should maintain a 98-100% saturation of oxygen but this dips if we are not breathing well or have a lung disorder. I often have patients watch as their oxygen saturation goes from 95% to 98% with a couple of deep belly breaths. I frequently train patients how to properly breathe again. Many patients are surprised that something so fundamental like breathing could be functioning sub-optimally.

Breath affects our mood and energy levels – without enough oxygen, you may feel fatigued or un-motivated. A lack of deep breathing can also cause or worsen feelings of anxiety.

Naturopathic doctors take a comprehensive look at your health. We ask about the many factors that influence health which we term “The determinants of health.” Taking a patient-centered approach lets us build a partnership together to help patients achieve their health goals.

 Are you looking for a new kind of partnership with your primary care provider? If you are ready to start or revitalize your health journey, you are in the right spot! Check out my bio to get in touch. I offer free 15-minute consultation calls to answer your initial questions. Convenient telehealth appointments are available from the comfort of your own home.

#naturalmedicine #naturopathicmedicine #healing #drjesskeating  #willowclinic #telehealth #holisticmedicine #healthjourney #foodismedicine #healthylife #health #breath