It is possible to create an epidemic of health which is self-organizing and self-propelling.
For years, many public health campaigns that aimed at changing habits have been failures.
I drink a lot of juice.
I don't smoke and I don't want to smoke. I am not a fan of gratuitous smoking in films.
About half of all people don't take medications like they're supposed to.
Your social networks may matter more than your genetic networks. But if your friends have healthy habits you are more likely to as well. So get healthy friends.
I think AIDS can be won. I think we can win this fight. It is winnable. But it means behavior change.
Young women who live in areas with high maternal mortality change their behavior less in response to HIV than young women who live in areas with low maternal mortality.
I'm not sure the least educated members of the population are missing out on the advances in medical technology as much as they are adopting harmful behavioral habits that shorten their life.
The next major advance in the health of the American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself.
Concepts such as 'risk factor modification' and 'prevention' are often considered boring and they may not initiate or sustain the levels of motivation needed to make and maintain comprehensive lifestyle changes.
I'm not planning on being a health role model.
You can't educate people that are not healthy. But you certainly can't keep them healthy if they're not educated.
I begin with the premise that behavior is an incredibly important element in medicine. People's habits, their willingness to quit smoking, their willingness to take steps to avoid transmission of HIV, are all behavioral questions.
Most disease is lifestyle related and preventable
As a clinician, I would never want to be coercive in relation to a patient, nor do I harbor the illusion that as a physician I am capable of forcing someone to change their behavior, no matter how detrimental to their health.
Sometimes I think it's a lack of knowing the areas. Obviously, everybody knows that health is important so that's - but why was I not doing the right thing? Because I was deceived.
You are more likely to be overweight if your friend's, friend's friend is overweight than if your parents are overweight.
The mind and body are not separate units, but one integrated system. How we act and what we think, eat, and feel are all related to our health. Physicians should be capable of teaching this behavior to patients.
When it comes to our health, there are essentially four things under our control: the decision not to smoke, a commitment to exercise, the quality of our diet, and our level of optimism. And optimism is at least as beneficial as the others.
We Americans are a funny people. We say that our favorite outdoor recreation is 'walking for pleasure' (or so it is reported in Outdoor Recreation Trends). Yet the average housewife will jump into the family car-or one of them-to go around the corner for a bottle of aspirin and a television guide. The businessman who walks four blocks to an appointment is the exception rather than the rule.
My colleagues from the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education are working on participatory public health initiatives in Michigan, and there is much that we can learn from each other. In fact it is essential that we strengthen efforts to learn from each other, and stop considering public health in the third world and in the U.S. as separate intellectual and practical endeavors.
