Good morning, folks! Wash your water bottles. We both know it’s been too long. 🧼 

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🚰 Stop mopping & turn off the faucet

This week’s edition isn’t quite as actionable on an individual level, but more so a think-piece about our health systems in the US. Do with it what you will, and if you’re a government official, that better be a lot :) 

“In America, we mop up the floor when the sink overflows. How do we turn off the faucet?”

This was a quote by Dr. Mark Hyman at the *takes deep breath* House Ways and Means Committee Health Subcommittee hearing on chronic disease in America that I attended in DC last week. And it says a lot about how we address not just healthcare in America, but many other aspects of our society as well. 

At Move to Improve, we certainly believe in the power of change at the individual level. At the end of the day, we’re ultimately responsible for our own actions (or inactions). We may live in different settings and have different things available to us, but we still have autonomy over many aspects of our lives.

However, the environment and society we live in largely shape many of the subconscious and beneath-the-surface aspects of our daily life. We may be individual fish in the sea, but our nation is the particular ocean in which we swim. And its currents and reefs and climates will impact our health in ways beyond what we can individually control. By determining public perceptions and what’s available to us, our societies heavily influence our health outcomes.

In the US, only about 3% of healthcare spending goes toward prevention and preventative care. If an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure, I think we’re leaving several metric crap-tons on the table. 

The oceans we swim in

If you’ve read Dr. Peter Attia’s book, Outlive, you know about the concept of medicine 3.0. In short, he argues that we’ve been stuck in medicine 2.0 for a long time now, focused on simply identifying and treating diseases—keeping people alive, sick or not. He posits that it’s time for our systems to shift to medicine 3.0, with a focus not just on providing treatment and abating symptoms once sick, but taking actions far before disease ever strikes by optimizing health and preventing the decades-long cascade of many chronic diseases in the first place. We now have the technologies, intelligence, and resources to make this shift, but turning the barge of the American (and worldwide) healthcare systems will be no menial task.

Many preventative behaviors and actions we can take on an individual basis. However, some of this has to be baked into our systems, including:

• The way doctors are compensated (like for preventing heart attacks, not just caring for someone after they had one)

• The way insurance and billing are set up

• The way we test and screen for diseases (aiming for optimal, not just non-disease state)

• How certain foods are subsidized, available, SNAP-eligible, etc.

If we always wait until someone is sick to intervene, we’ll never reach optimal health as a society. 

Our food systems come into play here too. Most people consume over half of their calories from ultraprocessed foods, which are chemically engineered to taste and feel just right so we get addicted and overconsume. Cheap, nutrient-sparse, calorie-dense food crops are subsidized while the more nutritious stuff gets the shaft. Food—real food—is literally what sustains and nourishes us. But the rapid evolution of technology and large-scale agriculture has led it to also be one of the biggest things that kills us—or at least makes us much sicker on the way to death. That’s not to be morbid, but it’s to illustrate that our diets have incredible transformative power, both for better and for worse. 

How do we move an entire nation?

So back to the quote at the top. Our sink is overflowing. Most Americans don’t reach the minimum weekly exercise guidelines. Over 93% of us are metabolically unhealthy by at least one criterion. But we keep waiting until people are sick, hurting, or on the steep decline before even addressing the problem. 

Let’s start looking upstream. Where is the water flowing from? That’s not to say that the end stage care isn’t important. It’s vital and has done a lot for people, especially around alleviating suffering. But we can do better. We have the capabilities to go upstream and get at the roots of the major chronic diseases that ail our nation—both at the individual and societal level. Systems change when communities demand it. Communities demand it when individuals speak up and take action. 

The Move to Improve philosophy is built upon the idea that movement will heal us, that we should never stop moving. So, start a movement in your community. Let your voice be heard. Demand better of our governments and systems. Vote for politicians who will address root causes and invest in the “prevention” side of things, even when it isn’t quick or sexy or flashy or wins them the next election cycle. And contact your politicians who are in office—both local and national—voicing your concerns and asking for better. Let’s make some moves.

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Make sure you’re registered to vote! And if not, do so ASAP so you can make your voice heard both locally and nationally this election season.

Level 2: Contact your representatives and let them know that systemic change to improve the health of our nation and reduce chronic disease is important to you. I bet you can find an email address in 30 seconds or less.

Level 3: Ignite change in your community. That could look a million different ways, but take action to get involved in changing the laws, regulations, environment, and attitudes toward health right where you live!

This newsletter is brought to you by… me!

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✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Chill: Honestly, I’ve got nothing new for ya right now. Get outside and enjoy early fall. 🍁 

• Return the favor?: Let me know if YOU have any recs for ME! Reply to this email.

• Okay one more thing: Tune in to the VP debate next Tues, Oct 1, on CBS!

Catch you next week! Somehow it’ll be October 😭👻 🎃 

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).