we can burn brighter

happiness is like a train on a track/coming towards us/stuck still/no turning back

-Florence and the Machine

On a long run with a friend the other day, I was going through all the next big decisions I have to make, all the things I feel I need to figure out about my next steps and how many things I just don't know yet that I feel I should know or need to know soon -

and she just said, Erica.  Listen to yourself.  If this time last year someone had said to you, in one year you will have passed the boards, done well in third year clerkships, be very invested and so satisfied in your relationship with your partner, and be doing yoga and running more consistently than you have for a long time, 

you would say, WOW. I can't wait until December 2011!  

So what is this stress about?

I think sometimes I forget how to just sit with happiness.   I've become so used to having to think three steps ahead that it actually makes me nervous to think that I might just... be happy?

So I think of things that are still not going as well as I think they could, or things that I still don't know, or the next big obstacle or test I'll have to confront.

When really I should be just grateful.

So this holiday season and as I ring in the new year, instead of resolutions, I'm going to focus on being happy and grateful for everything I have experienced this year instead of worrying about the challenges that next year will bring.

To get you in the celebrating mood, check out my new favorite artist Janelle Monae in this video, for more of her check out TIGHTROPE for some MJ caliber dancing.  YESSSSSS.

what makes the biggest difference in your health?

After many months of treating really sick people and watching them take drugs with life altering side effects, undergo procedures with lost of risks, be connected to tubes and pumps and monitors to stay alive, and  return to the hospital still not feeling very good, I truly believe we have to focus more on preventing people from getting to the point where it's clear they forget what "healthy" feels like.  

We learn about all the amazing ways we can fix arteries that are clogged, lungs that aren't opening, knees that aren't able to hold body weight, hearts that are too big to pump well, livers that are too clogged with fat to detoxify our blood, blood pressure that is so high it is shearing off the insides of blood vessels, and kidneys that are too full of sugar to filter well,  and I think: 

and people wonder why our health are costs are skyrocketing?  Why you see a gazillion doctors when you're in the hospital?  Why our health system is going broke?

It's because we aren't protecting health enough.  Maybe it's because the consequences sometimes take years to show up, or maybe it's that our society doesn't promote healthy behavior nearly enough by what's cheap, what's available, how much time we have, but those all pale in comparison to what you do now determines whether or not you are ALIVE in twenty, thirty years, much less whether you are connected to a tube or can keep your leg, or need a kidney transplant.

Especially because so much could be prevented with just creating a slightly more health lifestyle!  

To add onto Michael Pollan's easy food rules - 

here are my 5 easy health rules 

(medical school really has just filled in the details)

1. don't smoke...anything...ever.

2. eat mostly greens and fiberous grains, avoid too much meat and processed food

3. walk (or just move!) as much as possible but at least 30 minutes every day

4. stay connected to a community - any community in any way.

5. get enough sleep (whatever amount like enough to you and is marginally feasible)


check out this awesome video a friend shared with me about the one thing that makes the biggest difference in your health:

in summary, the positive effects of this wonder medicine:

• Knee Arthritis: reduces rates of pain and disability by 47%
• Dementia and Alzheimers: reduces progression by 50%
• Diabetes: reduces progression by 58%
• Hip Fractures: reduces risk of fracture by 41% in postmenopausal women
• Anxiety: reduces by 48%
• Depression: 30% relieved with low dose, even up to 47% with higher dose

inspiration enough to get off your computer and go for a run, or even just go pace around the house as you talk on the phone to your sister for half an hour?  yeah, me too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"walking is man's best medicine"

-hippocrates

Easy as 123

By the Kaiser Family Foundation, finally an easier explanation of health care reform.  Except it still seems confusing.  Sigh - at least it's a start.  Though I don't know what this is about stopping the huge increase in medicaid/medicare funding to hospitals and doctors - maybe the total amount paid to doctors and hospitals from these programs has increased, but the reimbursement rate has significantly DECREASED per person, and every year congress stalls when trying to decide if they're even going to continue reimbursement.  What a crazy system I've gotten myself into.

http://healthreform.kff.org/the-animation.aspx
Health care reform explained in "Health Reform Hits Main Street."
Confused about how the new health care reform law really works? This short, animated movie -- featuring the "YouToons" -- explains the problems with the current health care system, the changes that are happening now, and the big changes coming in 2014. Written and produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Narrated by Cokie Roberts, a news commentator for ABC News and NPR and a member of Kaiser's Board of Trustees. Creative production and animation by Free Range Studios