Why Medications Alone Don’t Deliver Health

This week’s blog highlights a new chart from the American Heart Association that breaks down how well we are controlling the various risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The chart organizes risk factors into three categories: behavioral, environmental/occupational, and metabolic, and shows the staggering number of deaths attributable to each factor.

One glance at the numbers confirms what we already know: we’re not doing nearly enough to prevent heart disease at its roots. Risk factors that are linked to lifestyle - like dietary habits, smoking, and high blood pressure - are driving millions of cardiovascular deaths every year.  80% of which are avoidable!

Dietary Risks and Heart Disease

According to the chart, over 7.3 million deaths from all causes, and nearly 6 million cardiovascular-related deaths, are linked to poor dietary choices. Yet, we don’t typically consider what we’re eating as a complex mixture of bioactive substances that, depending upon composition, can either build health or build disease. We’re mostly judging the meal or snack based upon its ability to please us and satiate hunger. That attitude is made easier - perhaps even encouraged - by the widespread availability of drugs that cover up the measurable effects of our food choices. 

Why Medications Rule

Doctors, unfortunately, are usually not much help here.  We are trained to be experts at prescribing medications – but not at getting our patients to minimize their need for drugs by leveraging nutrition. That’s equivalent to doctors ignoring the fact that that their patients are avid smokers and simply handing out inhalers to manage the damage. Medications, while useful, can never cure a disease that is being constantly stoked. And when it comes to heart disease – and chronic disease in general - the biggest underlying culprit — food — remains largely unaddressed. 

Step One Foods: Your Nutrition Transformation Starts Here

This is where Step One comes in. We understand that “eating right” is hard, not to mention confusing.  Just look around a grocery store and see endless food products touting their health promoting properties. But this begs a basic question:  If everything is so good for us, why are we all so sick?   

Step One Foods was founded around a core guiding principle – integrity. Because your health is too important to leave to chance or shady claims. Your health truly is our mission and we’re here to guide you on a credible path towards a lower dependence on drugs, serving as both your starting point and your reliable resource.

I’ve often said that, as a cardiologist, my greatest professional accomplishment would be to put myself out of work. Step One Foods was also founded with that goal in mind.