Mary O'Connor, MD, on Reigniting Your Commitment to Better Health

Mary O'Connor, MD, is an orthopedic surgeon and the chief medical officer for Vori Health. 

TRANSCRIPT:

Dr. Mary O'Connor:  Hi, my name is Dr. Mary O'Connor, and I'm the Chief Medical Officer at Vori Health. I'm also an orthopedic surgeon, and I know how important it is for people to stay active, physically active. You know, I love a quote from Gandhi, "It is health that is the real wealth, not pieces of gold or silver."

Of course, we all know that, but we don't always embrace behaviors that support our health. We start off great, and then the big fade comes. We don't keep it up. We go back to our old unhealthy habits of being less active, so how can we get back on track? I want to offer some suggestions and tips that I have found helpful, and hopefully you will too.

Let's first start with a refresher on what determines our health. You may be surprised, even as a medical professional, to know that medical care, meaning you seeing your doctor, contributes a relatively small percentage to our overall health, only 11%. Now, that is a very important 11% if you have an acute need, like chest pain, or a fractured femur.

Our environment and social situation actually contribute more, about 31%, to our overall health and well-being. That's easy to understand, if someone lives in an area where the air is bad, it's far more likely that they're going to suffer from asthma or some other type of lung disease. Genetics contributes about 22% to our overall health and well-being.

We know family history is important because our genetic makeup will result in us being more or less susceptible to certain conditions, but the largest contributor to our health and well-being is our individual behavior. That is a real opportunity, and our gift to ourselves and our loved ones.

Probably everyone listening to this podcast recognizes that the primary threat to the health of our nation, COVID aside at the moment, are the epidemics of obesity and inactivity. I'd like to connect these to another extremely common clinical condition, joint pain, and what I call the vicious cycle. This vicious cycle can start anywhere, but we're going to start with joint pain.

If you're a rheumatologist, you see patients with joint pain every day, and that joint pain leads to decreased physical activity, why, because the joint hurts, which then promotes weight gain and obesity. We know that those extra pounds put more pressure on the joint. Every 10 extra pounds of weight is another to 30 to 60 additional pounds of pressure on the knee joint.

This patient then has, or individual has, more pain in their joint. They become more limited in their physical activity and gain more weight, so we can see this vicious cycle of joint pain, limited mobility, obesity, more joint pain, ending in severe joint disease, obesity and immobility, but that's not the only thing that happens.

Because with obesity and immobility also come the development of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and depression. We see rising rates of these conditions in our country, especially in women and individuals of color.

That's related to the social determinants of health, that 31% of environmental and social conditions that contribute to our health and well-being, and we know those social determinants of health are less favorable for women and individuals of color. I mean, women still earn less money than men, even today, for the same work.

People of color are far more likely to live in food deserts and unsafe neighborhoods, making healthy eating and outdoor physical activity more challenging, if not impossible. We have, as you know, a public health crisis, and if we were a healthier nation, we would not have lost so many precious lives to COVID-19. Recognizing the importance of movement to our health, that's critical.

All right, here are my top five tips. Number one, find a friend. Partner up with someone you know, and ideally, you care about, and commit to each other to achieve your goals. My daughter, my oldest daughter and I did this in the beginning of the pandemic. I was very motivated to do my part, because I knew it would help her do her part.

We would check in with each other nearly every day, simply a text or a Snapchat, saying that, "I did my time on the elliptical, or went for a walk. I committed to my 30 minutes of physical activity as a minimum." This, of course, helped with the isolation which we're still experiencing in this horrible pandemic.

My second tip, be like an orthopedic surgeon in setting your goals. Totally concrete, absolute, no grey zone, no differential diagnosis dilemma. Only one absolute defined goal. My daughter would push back on me when I would say we had to be very specific in what we were holding each other accountable to, that we would have no ambiguity. We were very granular. We were going to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks, and do at least 30 minutes of exercise, 5 days a week, and a bonus for a sixth day. Again, be very, very specific.

My third helpful hint, set goals you can achieve. We set a goal of 10 pounds in 10 weeks, and we knew we could do it. It was achievable without starving ourselves or eliminating all, as my mother would say, the sin food. I could still have a glass of wine on Friday night, my daughter could still have her chips and cheese that she likes to eat. We decided we would weigh ourselves once a week at the same time on Sunday, and it was another kind of fun bonding activity for us.

Number 4, know your why. Why is it that you want to be healthier? My why was that I wanted to support my daughter, and I knew I wanted to be healthier too, but my real why was I wanted her to be healthier. Whenever I thought I was too tired or I didn't really want to do my 30 minutes, I just thought that if I want her to do her 30 minutes, I need to do mine, and it's only 30 minutes. I mean, anybody can do 30 minutes.

If you can't start with 30 minutes then start with whatever you can do, but set a realistic goal, because the key here is to develop it as a habit and make it part of your normal routine.

Number 5, and my final tip, value yourself. As physicians, it's so very easy for us to not take care of ourselves. You know, we give so much to our patients in our profession.

There's always something more to do at the end of the day, some other quality improvement project to work on, another new or exciting publication that you know you really should read now. I will now risk making a sexist statement, although this is clearly supported by the evidence, that valuing yourself and making time to care of yourself is harder for women.

So, for all the women listening, and all the men who have women that matter to them, it's important that women specifically value themselves and recognize how important it is for them to carve out time for themselves.

Women still carry more burden in terms of the family, than typically our husbands or male partners do. I propose that the first and most important step is to tell the whole world that you matter, and you need time for you. Time to keep you healthy. Those are my five tips for reigniting your resolution to better health.

You are special and unique, to your family, our medical profession, and the world needs you. Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful and healthy day. Thank you.