Chronic Illness Q&A with Dr. B.

This question & answer column is for people living with chronic health challenges and their family caregivers, who want to learn to increase the odds of improving their health by learning to live with mastery & wellbeing.

I invite you to post your questions in the comments box below. When I get a certain number of related questions, I pick one that covers them all and I answer that one.

I post to this blog three times per week. Monday posts are relevant published articles. Wednesday posts are interviews—mostly video. Friday posts consist of questions about living better with chronic health challenges, and my answers to them.

Here is today’s question:

QUESTION:  People have asked me why I advocate doing a study with an n of one and going to the trouble of keeping track of what works and what doesn’t; they want to know why not just adopt behaviors or practices that improved the health of someone they know.

 ANSWER:   We live very complex lives, have unique genetics, and are exposed to different things in the environment. We eat different foods and digest and absorb those foods in unique ways depending on our individual physiological functioning. We have radically different behaviors such as the amount and type of our exercise, sleep habits, and stress management. We have different social habits, and we differ in countless other ways. The ways in which our thoughts affect our feelings and our feelings affect our physiology are unique to each of us. Also, we dedicate different amounts of time and energy to practicing what we believe is good for health, and we all have different degrees of willingness to make healthy major life changes. For all of these reasons, it is impossible to ever predict health outcomes for any one individual. However, we do know that we can exert enormous control over our quality of life and our health through our lifestyle habits. However, what works well for some people may not only not work, but even be harmful for someone else. Workability (efficacy) is what matters and we all need to find what works for ourselves. How do you feel after behavior A versus behavior B? This is the path to mastery. Efficacy is determined by you because only you own and live in your body. 

This website is offered as a free public service, supplying information that has been found helpful to certain people living with chronic health challenges. No treatment is offered on this website. The advice is general, and may or may not apply to your individual situation, and is not a substitute for psychotherapy or medical treatment.

What questions do you have about how to live better with chronic health challenges that are related to the relationship between states of mind and health? 

Just scroll down and type your question in the comment box. I will post a reply to your comment, but your question may not appear in this column.