How to Invest in Your Health in the New Year and Beyond
As the year unfolds, practice members at Caplan Health Institute often ask me for health tips for the new year. The best health investments don’t have to be overwhelming, especially for autoimmune patients who are suffering from fatigue.
The best ways to stay healthy are often simple to implement and yet pay off large dividends for your health. Here are the five best health investments that will make a significant difference in your physical and mental well-being this year.
Health Investment #1: Quality Food
If you’re wondering is organic food better for you, the answer is yes. Conventionally grown crops are often less nutrient dense due to poor soil health and farming methods. Several studies have found organic foods contain higher levels of antioxidants and nutrients like iron, vitamin C, and zinc. One study found that berries and corn grown organically had antioxidant levels that were 58% higher and vitamin C levels 52% higher.
Studies also have linked eating an organic diet to reduced incidence of infertility, birth defects, allergies, middle ear infection, pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure in pregnancy), metabolic syndrome (unhealthy metabolic changes that increase risk for heart disease and diabetes), high body mass index (BMI), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
We also recommend eating quality meats. Conventional meats typically lack the same levels of omega-3s and nutrients that grass-fed or pasture-raised meats have.
For these reasons, the number one thing that my own family invests in is good quality food. There’s a lot of merit in that old cliché, “you are what you eat.” The food we choose to eat literally turns into us. If we’re choosing to buy just conventional food, we’re not getting the actual nutrients that our body needs to be able to function to the best of its ability.
I get a lot of practice members asking “Is organic food worth it?” Based on what I’ve seen in clinical practice and the available research my answer to that question is a resounding “Yes!” We choose to buy organic when it’s available, as well as grass-fed and pasture-raised products. And we put in the time and effort to home cook meals most of the time. It takes a little bit more effort. It takes preparation. But our bodies and our minds are healthier because of it.
Here is a common scenario I see with our practice members: When they go from eating the standard American diet and they start exploring buying better quality products, they feel the difference. I notice the same thing with myself. If I go out to eat, I know it’s not all organic and super clean and that they’re not using the best oils. I feel a difference. I can definitely tell when I’m not eating as clean. My body is sending the message that it’s not getting what it wants.
When we eat ultra-processed packaged foods, we’re getting a lot of the calories without the nutrition. Sadly, ultra-processed foods account for about 73% of available food products in the U.S. and make up 60% of the caloric intake for adults and an even higher percentages for kids.
Today, we’re seeing nutrient deficiencies in overweight and obese populations. Generally, in the U.S., nearly one-third (31%) of the population is at risk for at least one vitamin deficiency or anemia.
Best Places for Quality Meat
There are two places where I recommend buying your animal protein. My family buys food from each of these outlets:
• Seatopia – A cleaner seafood that doesn’t contain microplastics, mercury, and toxins. It’s sustainable, farmed-raised, and fed microalgae instead of the corn and soy that other farm-raised seafood is fed.
• Wild Pastures – This company provides grass-finished, pasture-raised beef, chicken, and pork delivered to your home.
Health Investment #2: The Best Supplements
The quality of any supplements that we take is just as important as the quality of nutrition from our food. Our family is picky regarding the supplements we add to our regimens.
We want to make sure that what we’re putting into our body is actually going to give us the support that we’re needing. Otherwise, it is just another burden on the body. We want the supplement to be clean and bioavailable and we want to trust what we’re taking. You might be wondering: “How do I know if my supplements are good quality?” One of the best ways to get high-quality supplements is by buying them on Fullscript.
Fullscript is where we recommend all our practice members get their supplements because you’re going to get trusted, healthcare-provider brands. We personally make supplement recommendations for all our practice members, and they can order them directly on the Fullscript site.
We recommend avoiding supplements from big warehouse stores and online shops because you can’t be sure you’re getting it directly from the company that manufactured it and you’re not sure about the quality. Maybe it has been sitting on the shelf for six months and has gone rancid.
You can actually sometimes save money by avoiding the big warehouse stores and getting the supplement direct from the company that manufactures it or through a healthcare provider. For example, a lot of times people will try to resell supplements on Amazon. When that happens it can be double the price.
Health Investment #3: Self-Care
You can’t beat the cost of self-care as a health investment. It’s often—but not always—free. It just involves setting aside some time for yourself to do anything from exercise to hobbies. Self-care can mean activities like:
• Breath work
• Dancing
• Exercise
• Getting a massage
• Going to the gym
• Meditation
• Spending time in nature
• Taking up a creative hobby
Set aside some time every day for your self-care routine. To make sure it happens every day, I recommend setting a small goal that you know is obtainable. That way, no matter how busy your day, you can accomplish your self-care goal.
One thing that people benefit from is setting a specific time they’re going to do self-care. For example, do your self-care first thing when you get up in the morning or right before you go to bed. Other people might find it more attainable if they set their self-care time in the middle of the day. The important thing is to choose a time that works best for you so that you know you’re going to be consistent with fitting in that self-care. Otherwise, the day goes by and it just doesn’t happen.
Health Investment #4: Accountability
Accountability is when you have a friend, family member, loved one, health coach, nutritionist, or even a functional medicine provider who can motivate you to accomplish your health goals. An example of this is going to the gym or out to exercise with a friend or family member.
Accountability is really helpful because there’s somebody that is going to check in on you and make sure that you are heading in the right direction.
Accountability can also mean working with professional guidance, for example, working with a practitioner who’s going to help you figure out what you should be focusing on. And this is where you can get more specific or personalized guidance on what food to eat, what exercises to do, what routines to incorporate, what kind of self-care that you should be trying to focus on.
How Health Coaches Help You Stay on Track
At the Caplan Health Institute, we put together very personalized individual care plans for people to follow. These personalized plans include all the recommendations for nutrition, lifestyle, and supplements. Then we have coaches that help people implement the care plan. Combining the professional oversight and the accountability ensures that the effort that you’re putting in to your health is getting you the outcomes that you want.
Accountability makes a huge difference, because people who decide to implement the plan on their own often have a follow up in six months where they tell us they didn’t even start on the plan and they need to get back on track. Whereas the patients who work with our coaches to implement the plan, in six months they are completely reversing their autoimmune disease.
The accountability not only helps somebody stay on track, but it also helps to make sure that they’re always on the right track. That’s where health coaching comes in because it’s an outside perspective to make sure you’re heading in the right direction. That’s a big part of our practice.
Health Investment #5: Lab Work
Lab work can guide functional medicine providers in personalizing your treatment plan. Lab results provide the data to help pinpoint what each particular person actually needs and can benefit from.
It’s also good to repeat labs every once in a while. For myself, I do all of my labs at least once a year: blood, stool, saliva. I do a whole host of different testing because I just want to track things over time. I want to see what’s changed. I want to be able to fine-tune my treatments based on what my body needs in real time. Labs are a really good investment for people to get more information about their health and make sure that they’re heading in the right direction with what they’re doing.
This is why you’ll want to find a functional medicine provider that can order and interpret functional lab tests. Using those tests, the provider can put together a very personalized set of recommendations for you. These personalized recommendations make lab tests one of the best investments for health because it helps where you need it most, and cuts down on supplements you don’t need.
It’s Not as Expensive as You Think
Many people are worried that these health investments are too expensive because they’re not covered by insurance. Insurance doesn’t pay for high-quality food, gym memberships, dietary supplements, or coaching. These are all approaches that can actually save you money in health care costs over time. That’s because you’ll be healthier and not as likely to end up in the hospital or at the doctor’s office.
Insurance only generally approves the bare minimum of tests, and you don’t get detailed or personalized insight and care when you go through insurance. Conventional medicine is very cookie cutter. When you’re diagnosed, you get a label for a disease and you’re treated like that label. You’re treated like a number. You’re not considered an individual at all.
Surprisingly, sometimes lab tests are more affordable if you don’t go through insurance. We had one practice member who wanted to go through their insurance company to get their vitamin D levels tested. Normally, this is a marker that costs about $15 to test. However, the person’s insurance company refused to pay for it and the practice member was sent a $400 bill.
Another example is a comprehensive blood test we order that has 27 different markers on it. Going through insurance, it can be around $2,500 worth of blood testing. If you don’t go through insurance, it’s only $180.
We Can Be Your Accountability Partners
At Caplan Health Institute, we can develop a personalized plan so you’ll know exactly how to invest in your health. The first step is to schedule a free discovery consultation, by phone or video. At that point, if you come on board as a practice member, I’ll order the right lab tests and dig deep into the root causes of your autoimmune disease.
Your personalized plan will include the best dietary choices, supplements, and other lifestyle approaches to health. Our health coaches will also help you stay on track at every step in your journey. We’ll make sure your health investments will really pay off. You’ll be feeling better than ever so you can embrace all of the blessings of the new year.
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