The 4 Pillars of Wellness

I recently had the amazing opportunity to attend an incredibly insightful discussion with Jonny Wilkinson, Jamie Clements and Rose Ferguson during a panel discussion at clinic, presented by Healf and UNTIL. This intimate panel discussion gave the speakers the opportunity to talk openly about their own experiences in health and elite performance along with the challenges each faced on their journey towards health and wellness.

“Breathing properly is one of the quickest ways to calm our overstimulated nervous systems down”

This discussion did get me thinking on a broader topic around human behaviour and health.

What is it in human nature that means we often wait until we’re on the breaking point or our bodies break down to recognise the value in looking after ourselves?

Human behaviours towards health often follows a pattern where preventative measures are overlooked until a crisis occurs.  Usually because of immediate gratification, perception of invincibility, lack of awareness and cultural norms.

Why is it that when dealing with pain some choose to wait until they can’t put their shoes and socks on to seek help?

Pain tolerance and management are subjective experiences and are influenced by Stoicism and pride, fear of diagnosis and often, lack of access to healthcare services.

When it comes to performance why do some athletes not recognise the importance of managing training load or fuelling training session but instead end up running themselves into the ground, quite literally in scenarios like RED – S (Relative energy deficiency in sport), for example. https://bjgp.org/content/72/719/295

Athletes, particularly those driven by high performance, often push their bodies to extremes and are competitive in nature.  Sometimes, lack of education and the pressure to perform can create a need to overtrain leading to ignoring signs of overuse and under recovery.

How quickly can we as a society and the new government, along with the NHS help us shift the dial away from ‘sickcare’ to ‘healthcare’?

This requires a shift from reactive to proactive healthcare as a system and needs to lean heavily on policy changes, public awareness campaigns and of course, investment in healthcare infrastructure.

Will our health system end up on life support if we don’t make the shift rapidly?

There are consequences for delay, leading to an increased burden on services and higher costs for everyone involved. See my follow up article for more information on these topics.

What role will technology have in democratising healthcare for all walks of life. How quickly AND safely can we adopt and deploy this?

Telemedicine, wearable devices and AI and Machine learning can improve diagnostic accuracy, provide real-time data and expand access to personalised plans.  The management of these technologies requires training and stringent standards for them to perform effectively – easier said than done.

The healthy choices we make may ultimately lead us towards wellness but each of us need to pro - actively make these decisions on a daily basis.

Passively waiting for sickness and ill heath to force us into action is a recipe for disaster but has unfortunately become the norm in modern society.

The speakers at the event I attended, covered the importance of what may be considered the 4 pillars of health across ‘Eat, Move, Mind and Sleep’ along with the role of breath-work in managing stress with some key points to take away:

1. Don’t confuse ‘fitness’ with ‘wellness’, they are not synonymous with each other. This includes both mentally AND physically.

2. Constantly chasing towards the next big thing can also be a sign of running away from something you may be avoiding. This is NOT healthy.

3. When it comes to nutrition, garbage in = garbage out. However, a Dorito every once in a while probably won’t kill you.

4. Breathing properly is one of the quickest ways to calm our overstimulated nervous systems down. Most of us have no idea how to use this effectively.

5. Take time to enjoy the little things in life. None of us get out alive anyway!

There is some growing momentum in the discussion between sick - care vs healthcare but this discussion needs to be supercharged into action.

Technology gives us the opportunity to empower individuals to take control of their health in numerous ways (I will cover this in a later blog) but starting with the 4 pillars of health is a nice foundation.