Lifestyle Diseases Must Be Fought with Lifestyle as Medicine. Cannot Solely Or Overly Depend on Pills

Let's call him David.

David is on medication for diabetes. He is also on medication for high blood pressure, and medication for high cholesterol. Three conditions. Three prescriptions. Every morning, he lines up his pills and takes them faithfully. He has not missed a dose in years.

And yet, at his last few reviews, his numbers have not improved. If anything, some of them are creeping up. His doctor has started talking about adding a fourth medication.

David is not a real patient. I created him as a composite. But his story is completely typical of what I see and hear from my patients.

What should David do, he wonders to himself. Should he ask for a stronger dose? A newer drug? A better combination? Is there some pill out there he has not tried yet that will finally bring his numbers down?

Can I encourage you to consider a different question first.

The Fire That Keeps Coming Back

Imagine one of the rooms in your house keeps catching fire. Not because of bad luck. Because you keep storing a lot of flammable material in that room, and you keep lighting candles in there too. So naturally, the room keeps catching fire.

Do you think you can solve this problem by buying the most advanced fire extinguisher? Or installing the most high-tech sprinkler system money can buy?

Of course not. Those tools might put out the fire once it starts. They do not stop the room from catching fire again next week, and the week after that.

The real solution is to clear out the flammable material. Stop lighting the candles. Deal with the room itself, not just the fire.

Your Body Is the Room

The Three Highs, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other lifestyle-related chronic diseases work the same way.

Medication, whether it is a pharmaceutical drug or a supplement, is the fire extinguisher. It manages the fire once it has started. It brings the numbers down, or keeps them from climbing further. That is genuinely useful, and I am not against medication. I prescribe it myself.

But medication does not clear out the flammable material. It does not stop the candles from being lit. That part is your lifestyle and eating habits, the food on your plate, how much you move, how you sleep, how you handle stress.

If those stay unchanged, the underlying problem stays exactly where it was. You can keep adding fire extinguishers. The room will keep catching fire.

Why This Matters More Than It Sounds

I often see patients who, like David, believe that as long as the medication is doing its job, the rest does not matter as much. The habits stay the same. The plate stays the same. The evenings on the couch stay the same.

And for a while, the numbers may look fine on paper. But the room is still full of flammable material. Sooner or later, either the dose goes up, another medication gets added, or a complication shows up that no pill was protecting against in the first place.

You cannot only, or overly, depend on pills, regardless of whether the pills contain pharmaceutical drugs or supplements, to fully solve a problem that lifestyle and eating habits created and continue to feed.

Lifestyle Diseases Must Be Fought With Lifestyle as Medicine

That is the bottom line. There is no running away from it.

If David wants a genuinely different outcome, not just a different number on a lab report, but fewer medications, slower progression of the disease, a lower risk of complications down the road, the room itself has to change. The flammable material has to go. The candles have to stop.

Every person with diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol is different, and every room looks a little different too. But the principle holds for all of them. Pills manage the fire. Lifestyle and eating habits decide whether the fire keeps coming back.

Where Do You Start

If you have been told you have the Three Highs, or you are already on medication and wondering why the numbers are not moving the way you hoped, this is where I would encourage you to start looking. Not at a stronger pill. At the room.

If you have Type 2 diabetes and are not yet equipped with the essential foundational knowledge of how lifestyle and eating habits actually reverse the condition, and reduce your dependence on medication over time, I built a structured online learning programme for exactly this. You can find out more through the link below.

Find out more about the Reversing Type 2 Diabetes: Essential Basics - Structured Online Learning Programme Here

You may also want to read: Can Type 2 Diabetes Be Reversed? Dr Chan answers.

Let's encourage and support one another to unlock the tremendous power of lifestyle and eating habits as medicine, so that the room stops catching fire in the first place. Let Habits Be Thy Medicine.

About This Video

In this short video, I explain why medication alone, whether pharmaceutical drugs or supplements, cannot fully solve the Three Highs: high blood sugar, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Using the analogy of a room that keeps catching fire, I walk through why lifestyle and eating habits are the part of the equation that pills were never designed to fix, and why lifestyle diseases must ultimately be fought with lifestyle as medicine.

Full Transcript

The following is the full transcript of the video above.

Hi, I'm Dr Chan. I want to highlight something very important to people with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, or any other lifestyle-related chronic diseases, and that is changing and improving your lifestyle and eating habits is a must-do. It is not optional. If you want to get the best long-term outcome in managing such lifestyle-related conditions, you cannot solely or overly depend on pills. Regardless of whether the pills contain pharmaceutical drugs or supplements.

For example, if one of the rooms in your house is constantly catching fire because you are always putting lots of very flammable stuff in that room, and also frequently lighting up candles in the room, and as a result, often accidentally setting fire to that room, do you think you can truly solve this problem simply by buying the most advanced fire extinguishers or installing the most high-tech sprinkler system in that room?

Or would you tackle the problem at its root cause by clearing out the flammable stuff stored and learn to avoid lighting up candles there? Of course, it is clearly the latter.

Likewise, when tackling the problem of the 'Three Highs': high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and other lifestyle-related chronic diseases, you must tackle them at their root causes, one of which are the unhealthy lifestyle and eating habits. There's no running away.

Bottom line is this, lifestyle diseases must be fought with lifestyle as medicine. You cannot only or overly depend on pills, regardless of whether the pills contain pharmaceutical drugs or supplements.

Let Your Habits Be Your Medicine. I'm Dr Chan. Live Well, Eat Well, and Be Well.

---------- End of video transcript ----------

Related Posts

• Can Type 2 Diabetes Be Reversed? Dr Chan answers.
• Case Studies: Diabetes Reversal and Remission Through Lifestyle
• What Is Prediabetes? A Call to Action
• Stress, Sleep and Strength: What Diabetes Habits Miss Beyond Diet
• Reversing Type 2 Diabetes: Essential Basics Online Programme

About Dr Chan Tat Hon

Dr Chan graduated from the National University of Singapore medical school in 1992. For the last ten years, his work has focused on lifestyle medicine. He works with healthcare and corporate organisations to design and deliver lifestyle behaviour change programmes, train health coaches and build communities engaged in cultivating healthy behaviours to combat diseases.

He also provides training and coaching to individuals with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, cardiovascular diseases and other lifestyle-related chronic diseases through 1-1 personalised coaching, live webinars, and online courses.

• 1-1 Personalised Coaching with Dr Chan
• Online Courses and Programmes by Dr Chan
• Reversing Type 2 Diabetes: Essential Basics Online Programme