Do We Really Need to Go High Tech For Our Health?
Getting healthy is easy — one just needs to reduce bad habits and do all those things we’ve known we should do since we were kids and our Moms taught us what to eat, when to sleep, how to make friends, and that we should get out of the house to play. The problem is being motivated to actually make those healthy changes. Which, of course, is where Fido can help!
This week, I read an article about using technology to help monitor your healthy habits. Here’s a quote from the article: “The experimental devices are designed to keep track of how many minutes they work out, how much food they consume and even whether they are at a fast-food joint when they should be in the park. The goal is to cut down on self-reported answers that often cover up what’s really happening.” And a researcher at my University of Pittsburgh designed a camera you wear in a necklace that monitors where you go to eat and everything you put in your mouth. One device recognizes when you’re not active and sends you a message to get moving again.
I wonder if this technology will really be helpful. I think we all know that people often don’t accurately admit when they’re not being as healthy as they should. I’ve had patients record dietary intake for years and am quite familiar with under-reporting of what’s eaten. But when the patient shows me the diary showing nothing but half a piece of toast for breakfast, an apple for lunch, and a salad with no dressing for dinner with no in between snacks every day for 2 weeks, I think both the patient and I are aware that there is probably a lot of food that was eaten (the “that doesn’t count” food because eating it was “unusual,” it was someone’s birthday, etc.) and not recorded. Do I really want to then say, “I hear what you’re telling me, but let’s look at the video recording to see what REALLY happened. Wow — you ate three Big Macs that meal?! And look at you chowing down on that brownie!” Oh yeah — that’s likely to improve the doctor-patient relationship! I don’t know about you, but if my doctor has records of everything I was doing and I knew I’d had a bad week, I’d probably think of an excuse to miss an appointment rather than going in to get help to get back on track.
Yes — I know, research is a great thing. Heck, I DO research. But research will lead to readily available devices to be sold in every Walmart and before you know it, you’ll have closets of more dusty techno gear and be no healthier in the bargain.
While high tech is probably inevitable, here’s my advice. Don’t spend lots of money on high tech gadgets to clutter your basement. Find simple strategies that you can easily fit into your lifestyle every day — make healthy habits a regular routine or you won’t do them consistently. Having diaries can be very helpful. They can be great motivational tools to keep you on track and you can use them to talk to your doctor about problems you’re running into. Click here for a free walking diary you can download. You don’t need bells and whistles to get healthy — just the motivation to change bad habits you probably are already well aware that you have.
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