Physicians who practice healthy habits play a vital role in encouraging their patients. They encourage their patients to adopt healthy lifestyles for the primary prevention of diseases. The well-being of general practitioners (GPs) is important. It is because they serve as role models for health. They are more likely to warn their patients on health habits improvements if they practice healthier behaviors themselves. Many physicians report difficulties in providing advice to patients on habits that they do not practice.
Chronic diseases affect about 40% of Americans. Lifestyle changes can often have the same or greater effect than simply taking the drug.
That is why healthcare professionals have started to seek new ways of intervention. They are prescribing certain foods and behaviors.
We’ve written about how doctors in Flint, Michigan, are writing nutritious food recommendations to combat obesity and level the nutritional playing field for children living in food deserts. In California, doctors found that free healthy meals prescribed to seriously ill Medicaid patients prevent more expensive medications and treatments.
How Can Doctors Promote Healthy Lifestyle?
Health promotion counseling by providers is more successful. It is partly because patients consider GPs as the most trusted source of health knowledge. Physicians are key health role models who often visit patients at potentially impressive times. So, their health habits may affect their ability to engage patients in healthier behaviors. Most people turn to their physician as their primary source of information on healthy lifestyle choices. They are more likely to adopt healthy lifestyle choices from their physicians.
Doctors ensure that they:
- Identify ways to help disadvantaged people improve their health
- Take into account their social and physical environment
- Enable marginalized patients to access health information, screening, and health promotion programs
Common awareness dictates that you should follow good lifestyle practices. Promoting healthy food and reducing stress encourages:
- Weight loss
- Reduces weight gain
- Increases optimal well-being
There are several easy ways for Doctors to Promote a Healthy Lifestyle:
1. Try motivational interviewing
“This method helps doctors guide their patients in the behavioral change process,” said Dr. Eisenberg. The approach engages patients and generates their desires and goals. It encourages them to communicate more freely about their behavior. Eventually, it facilitates the process of personal behavioral change.
2. Learn about nutrition science —and how to distill it
Dr. Eisenberg advises reading the news and learning about diet. He also advises speaking about how science should be conveyed in a common language. So that the patients can understand and be able to use it.
3. Develop a good relationship with dietitians and refer patients to them for treatment
Have a member of your office team help your patients decide how insurance will potentially cover those visits.
4. Be a role model
Data suggests that people take advice from doctors who practice healthy behavior on their own. So, a doctor should reflect on their lifestyle behaviors. In conversations with your patients, take examples and advice from your own experience.
5. Advise them to follow an active and healthy every day lifestyle
Daily physical exercise is important to the healthy growth and well-being of children and young adults. People should get at least 60 minutes of physical exercise a day. These include intense workouts that make them ‘huff and puff.’ Involve activities to strengthen muscles and bones at least 3 days a week. Doctors should be good role models and have a positive attitude about being active.
Advise patients to perform healthy practices, such as walking, which benefit both the patient and the environment. Doctors may also encourage local authorities to have resources and green spaces.
6. Choose water for a drink
Water is the perfect way to quench your thirst. It does not come with the added sugar used in fruit juices, soft drinks, and other sweetened drinks.
Reduced sugar milk for children over two years of age is a nutritious drink and a good calcium source. Give kids entire fruit to eat, rather than giving fruit juices that contain a lot of sugar.
7. Enter a conversation in a non-judgmental manner.
“Physicians are rarely trained at this medical school, but it’s so crucial,” said Dr. Eisenberg. Saying something short and simple that conveys your concern about their health is the best way to deal with the subject. Be direct, but do not be judgmental. Be factual, but be compassionate.
8. Advise them to eat more fruits and vegetables
Eating fruit and vegetables every day helps children grow and develop. It also improves their vitality, and decreases the risk of many chronic diseases. Aim to eat two servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables daily. Have fresh fruit available as a quick snack, and try adding fruit and vegetables from each meal.
9. Switch off the screen and get active
Sedentary or ‘still’ time spent watching TV, browsing online, or playing video games is linked to children being overweight or obese. Children and young people should spend no more than two hours a day on “small screen” entertainment. Break up longer times of use as often as possible.
Schedule a range of active indoor and outdoor games or events for your children.
10. Tell them to eat fewer snacks and choose healthier alternatives
Nutritious snacks help children and young people to fulfill their everyday food requirements. Fruit and vegetable snacks, reduced-fat dairy products, and whole grains are the healthiest options.
Avoid foods rich in sugar or saturated fats – such as chips, cakes, and chocolate. These can cause children to be overweight.
11. If you don’t already, start cooking to maintain a healthy lifestyle by yourself too
If you don’t know how to do that, you should learn. “It’s a myth that healthy and delicious cannot coexist together,” said Dr. Eisenberg. “As doctors, we should show our patients how to make foods that are heart-healthy and taste incredible. If we can change people’s notions of how simple it is to cook, their health will change.”
Refer patients to dieticians
As a doctor, educate yourself about nutrition. Also, learn how to pass it in a manner that your patients can appreciate and apply. Build a relationship with other dietitians and refer the patients to them.
The Bottom Line
Physicians can greatly affect patients’ lifestyle patterns by providing advice on prevention and health-promoting behaviors. Physician counseling is closely linked to one’s own health practices. So, discussing one’s health behaviors is essential to increase health promotion counseling in general practice significantly. So, providers benefit from strategies that help them adopt healthy habits. It is beneficial both for them and their patients.
