I have a friend that is very interested in the future of a science called "nanotechnology" which involves development of devices that are smaller than microscopic.  These devices have a variety of uses and are reported to be possible solutions for a wide variety of humanity's problems.  So in essence, this field is a "science of small things."

I think it may surprise him that him and I are in very similar fields of study.  My passion for chronic disease prevention and treatment has led me down a similar road, understanding the small things.

The problem of Chronic Disease in the United States cannot be overstated.  Heart Disease, Cancer, Stroke, Diabetes, Obesity, and Hypertension are all chronic diseases that are major sources of human suffering, death, and healthcare dollars spent.  They are what cause us to suffer and die prematurely.

Did you know that researchers now believe in the next 50 years the life-expectancy in the US will drop by 2-5 years due to obesity and other chronic -factors!  Children are now getting chronic diseases that only adults used to get.  This should be frightening to us all.  Children are like the canaries in the mineshaft for us.  If their health suffers noticeably we know there is a definite need for change in our culture in regards to health.  So what's to blame for these negative trends in human health?  Small things.

Part of the reason that we never make a dent in these problems is that most people don't understand how they come to pass.  This is due to the "ER Myth."  The ER Myth is the inaccuracy shown in medical dramas that "Real" Healthcare is a noisy room with alot of frantic doctors running around yelling out names medications and shock-paddling patients.  That may be Emergency Medicine, but most of healthcare isn't this.  Emergency Medicine is what you do when all other forms of Self-care Prevention and Healthcare have FAILED!  How busy Emergency Rooms are is a measurement of how we, as a culture are failing.

Healthcare really begins with the small choices that you make everyday.  Every decision has weight, especially if reproduced over and over.  Whether you realize it or not you are probably a creature of habit.  Many of your days probably look like each other.  You eat the same things, get the same amount of physical activity, sleep, water, and so on.  So when you make a bad choice it multiplied by the number of times you do that behavior each day, year, decade, or over your lifetime.  Your decisions become behaviors, behaviors become habits, and your habits over time have a net positive or negative effect on your health.

Poor food choices and quality, stress, negativity, dehydration, toxicity  poor sleep, lack of physical activity, lack of real prevention knowledge, lack of resources, laziness and procrastination all have an additive effect because of our habitual nature.  Small things add up to be BIG ILLNESSES!

To better understand this problem here is a quote from Malcolm Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point:"

"We are as humans heavily socialized to make a rough approximation between cause and effect...

Consider for example the following puzzle.  I give you a large piece of paper, and ask you to fold it over once, and then take that folded paper and fold it over again, and then again, and again until you have refolded the original paper 50 times.  How tall do you think the final stack is going to be?  In answer to that question most people will fold the sheet of paper in their mind's eye and guess that the pile would be as thick as a phonebook or, if they're really courageous they'll say that it would be as tall as a refrigerator.  But the real answer is that the height of the stack would be approximate the distance to the sun.  And if you folded it one more time the stack would be as high as the distance to the sun and back.  This is an example of what in mathematics is called a geometric progression...

As human beings we have a hard time with this kind of progression because the end result -- the effect -- seems far out of proportion to the cause.  We need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that sometimes big changes follow from small events, and that sometimes these changes can happen very quickly."

In our health this concept is very much true. 

The chain-of-events that leads to a heart attack or cancer is so small and imperceptible that it may seem like nothing is happening and then BAM! you've got a serious medical condition.  Did the condition just show up or was it always there, gradually, getting worse with each passing day?  Did your choices feed this condition or deny if from becoming a reality.  Not a pleasant thought, that each day you may gradually be developing cancer or heart disease.  But think positive, each day you can be doing your best to fight these things also! 

Fight Heart Disease, Cancer, Hypertension, Diabetes and Stroke a little each day by the choices you make!  The little things that you do each day make a difference. 

Denial is often the best weapon a person has to avoid taking responsibility for their own health.  Often they'll reference someone they heard of that jogged often and still suffered a heart attack or someone that smoked everyday from age 16 and lived to be 80.  I wouldn't bet the farm that statistically those people are in the norm.  Call your local insurance agent and see if smoking has no effect on your longevity, or being an alcoholic, or being overweight.  Those actuarial tables tell the truth, negative health behaviors over time lead to sickness and premature death. 

The additive effect of time on human health is quite astounding.  If you make the right choices your body ages less each day than someone that doesn't.  The net effect of all our good decisions is health, both mentally and physically!

A few days ago I treated a patient that I consider one of my most unhealthy patients.  This woman's food is heavily processed and nutrient deficient, she is a constant source of negativity, she's always stressed about this or that, she's about 40lbs. overweight, she hasn't worked-out in decades, she likely has an addiction to prescription pain meds, alcohol, and illegal drugs and she resists any advice that she should change her ways for the better.

To me she represents a case study on "what-not-to-do" and part of me marvels at how she's still alive.  The last time she was in, I was curious about her age is.  When she told me I nearly fell over, because she looked 20 years older that that!  A long period of self-neglect definitely takes its toll.  All those bad health decisions she has made, over and over and over, have had a drastic effect on her health and well-being.

Later that same day I treated one of my favorite patients an 82-year-old senior that I regard as one of my healthiest patients.  She looks 60!  She he's happy, full of energy, sharp as a tack, and maybe has more lean muscle mass than I do!  Now there is someone that has made the right choices!  She's happy, social, physically-active, eats well, generally takes care of herself, and it shows!

So, I think you're starting to get the point.  The little things that we do each day add up.  Almost inperceptibly they build up to become become either a Chronic Disease or a like my 81-year-old friend, Chronically Wellness.  Time is a multiplier.  Bad choices over time are multiplied into a scary, nasty conditions that may take your life prematurely.  Bad decisions may cause you to live your remaining years in a nursing home instead of peacefully dying in your bed at a ripe old age.  Not pleasant thoughts, but you need to know this.

Now is the time to start doing something to protect your future and your family's future.  You may not value your health now, but someday you may be forced to value it and by then it will probably be too late.  Do something small today improve your health and do it everyday from here on.  The little things we're supposed to do each day to stay healthy do add up.  You get to choose what they add up to.