Live Younger Longer

Change is hard
As discussed in previous chapters, small changes in everyday habits, such
as eating one less bite of red meat or taking the stairs whenever you can, are
important ways to help prevent these long-term chronic illnesses from
developing.

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These same healthy habits — as well as other habits such as washing hands
and wearing a mask in public — can help prevent communicable diseases
like COVID-19 by protecting our overall health and boosting our immune
systems. And if an infection does occur, it’s likely to be much less severe
than if we were already in poor health.
Still, even in the face of an acute pandemic such as COVID-19, people had
difficulty making changes, even when these changes were clearly and
immediately beneficial to their health. Another recent study looking at
prevention behaviors found that people with cardiometabolic diseases were
least likely to practice “COVID healthy behaviors” in eight of 10
categories. The categories were the ones we heard about every day, such as
wearing a mask, washing hands, social distancing, avoiding crowds and
staying home when sick. It really points out how hard it is for humans to
change habits, even when the consequences are two weeks away, not two
decades.
If the possibility of catching a potentially fatal viral infection doesn’t make
us want to be healthier, then what does motivate us? I think part of the
answer is that change is difficult when the desire for it doesn’t come from
within. As a doctor, I can advise my patients and you, my readers, about the
risks and benefits of our lifestyles, but I cannot make you change your
habits. Only you can do that. Only you can determine your own “why,”
your individual reason for striving for better health.

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