How to Get Results that Last
Secrets from my practice
Why do so many health improvements disappear over time?
Most people spend their life limping from health crisis to health crisis. Even if they recover from an illness, they rarely achieve an exceptional state of good health.
The key to getting great results that last is to keep doing the work every day. Daily habits that helped you get healthy must remain daily habits to keep you healthy. Bad choices that made you sick must remain choices you either abstain from or indulge in only occasionally.
The Cycle of Recovery and Relapse
People miss this in their quest for wellness. I have lost track of the number of patients who made a full recovery and then returned to see me months or years later saying, "I am sick again." My first order of business in such cases is to take a full history again.
Invariably we find that things we had told them to stop doing had crept back into their life. Things we had told them to do had fallen by the wayside.
Why Patients Backslide
Beyond the simple daily habits of wellness, people tended to abandon the specific therapeutic practices that helped them achieve good health:
They stopped using light therapy
They stopped using the sauna
They quit taking supplements, or started taking the wrong ones
They reverted to old sleeping patterns
They abandoned stress management practices
Patients sometimes get frustrated that they can't go back to living the way they used to live. Often, this is just part of aging.
You cannot get away with the same things at 60 that you did at 30.
Ask any 60-year-old if you doubt this.
In rare cases, people actually get healthier as they get older. For example, when I was in college and medical school, I could hardly tolerate a single alcoholic beverage without feeling overwhelming nausea. By the age of 35, I could drink two or three drinks without any nausea at all, thanks to all the work I did to detoxify and nourish my body.
How do we maintain the gains we make with integrative medicine?
Keep doing what made you well in the first place
Do not slack off
Do not go back to your old way of living
Continue to test periodically
Personalize your supplementation protocols to your unique needs
Today's Health Challenges
People often say things to me like, "my grandfather didn't do any of that and he lived until 96." You don't live in the same world as he did. Someone born in 1900 had a vanishingly small chance of dying of cancer. Today, Americans have a 50% chance of having cancer at some point in their life.
Grandpa and grandma's genetics are not going to save you. To survive and thrive in 2025, you need to put forth a certain amount of effort and spend a certain amount of money to become and to remain healthy.
I like to say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you don't take care of yourself, be prepared to spend sixteen times as much time, money, and effort to recover from what befalls you.
The 20-Minute Rule
For many people, recovering from cancer, heart disease, stroke, autoimmunity, or severe allergies can turn into a full-time job. If a full-time job is 40 hours per week, then you should plan on investing one sixteenth of that into maintaining your wellness every day (that is, if an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure). That's just 20 minutes per day (2.5 hours per week). This is a sustainable plan for wellness.
What does 20 minutes of daily wellness look like?
A few ten minute walk
A few moments taking supplements
A few extra moments preparing healthy food
Meal preparation on the weekend or a few times per week
We like to say, "if you don't make time for your wellness on your terms, you will be forced to make time for your illness on its terms."
If you don't want to wind up a slave to disease, then do the daily work of being well.
This is the secret to great results that last. It is news that many people don't want to hear. They want to be able to return to what made them sick. Be forewarned that this is not an option.
Which daily wellness practice have you let slip in the past month? Is it time to recommit? Be honest with yourself.
Stay on track. An ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure.
How we help patients with autoimmunity get results that last
We started an Autoimmunity Recovery Program at my practice recently, with the goal of helping patients with autoimmune conditions not just get better, but stay that way. So many patients came to me over the years with autoimmune problems, having been to many doctors and tried many protocols. We have a strong track record of helping them finally get relief, not just for months, but for years.
Learn more about how we help people with autoimmunity in my Autoimmunity Recovery Framework:
Until next time, be well,
Dr. Stillman