Should You Take Drugs?
Health, Wellness and Looking Good Naked I Commandment One I commandment1.com
There’s a prayer used in the Alcoholics Anonymous program called the Serenity Prayer.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
It’s a beautiful prayer.
Lately, I’ve been using it with my patients but changing it up a bit. It goes something like this:
God, grant me the courage to change the things I can and medicate/biohack the things I cannot.
Let me explain.
We live in a time of unprecedented medical advances. At our fingertips we have the wonders of science available to us to heal various diseases and science backed information on the things we can do to optimize our health, improve our longevity and increase our vitality.
When I started my integrative medicine practice over 10 years ago, after a career in emergency medicine, I was pretty turned off by western medicine. While I knew that it was critical for emergencies or advanced disease, my goal was to get my patients on as few medications as possible and away from doctors. I was heavily focused on using lifestyle for health optimization and supplements over drugs as often as possible. If you were excessively fatigued, I told you to get more sleep and take magnesium and melatonin. If you were overweight - it was all about your diet and level of exercise. If you had widespread inflammation - I prescribed turmeric and omega 3s and told you to eat an anti-inflammatory diet.
Needless to say, a couple of years into my new career, I had patients who had a perfect diet, exercised regularly, got enough sleep… yet still felt fat, fatigued and definitely not optimized. I had to take a hard look at my doctoring style and pivot. I enrolled in functional medicine courses, attended continuing education conferences and did a deep dive into the world of biohacking and health optimization.
Today, my patient appointments look much different than they did 10 years ago.
So do my patients.
They are healthier, they weigh less, they have more energy, and it probably doesn’t need to be stated, they are much happier. I’ve adopted a new way of doctoring that mirrors my take on the Serenity Prayer.
God, grant me the courage to change the things I can and medicate/biohack the things I cannot.
And it brings us to the title of this newsletter - “Should I take Drugs?”
As
would say: “it depends.”I still believe lifestyle is key and supplements should be a part of everyone’s regimen. But with the reality of busy American lives, our toxic food system and environment and our sedentary lifestyles - unless you have unlimited resources (time and money) to spend your days perfecting your lifestyle (sourcing clean food, preparing it, exercising in a balanced way and spending time in meditation/prayer), you will likely have some areas of your health that suffer from our American lifestyle.
Modern medicine, the fields of biohacking,* anti-aging and regenerative medicine are our antidote to the reality of modern life.
In other words - do as much as you can through a healthy lifestyle, and incorporate reasonable biohacks into your daily practice.
Medicate the rest.
I’ll use me as an example. I’m a physician in Green Bay, Wisconsin. While I’d love to be living in the south of Portugal, catching sweet waves on my surfboard and enjoying fresh food, open air and little to no stress, I spend my weekdays sitting (taking care of patients, dealing with the workings of a business and reading and writing). I don’t always have access to the best food and am exposed to a fair amount of stress. I love what I do but it definitely doesn’t support optimum physical health.
Yes, I do a lot with my lifestyle. I eat fairly healthy, exercise daily and focus on sleep. But it’s not enough to counteract the realities of my professional life.
So I make up for what’s lacking with biohacking practices (breathwork, meditation and cold plunging), supplements and yes, a few drugs including hormone replacement therapy and peptides.
I change the things I can with lifestyle and for what I can’t change - I use biohacking and medication. It’s the best of both worlds.
If you are trying to optimize your health, you probably already know that our healthcare system won’t be able to guide you. You also probably know that optimization is hard to achieve through lifestyle alone. Work with a physician who understands how to work the system - which drugs or peptides can help you lose weight, which hormones can offset your imbalances and which supplements are legit and deserve a place in your daily pill box.
Optimize your lifestyle first then use biohacking and modern medicine to make up for the rest.
Onward
Dr. Lynn K Wagner (Dr. Wags)
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The content in my newsletters is for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or health concerns.
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