From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
We can take a hell of a lot more stress than we believe we can. We should learn how to fight not flight. And fight doesn't have to be a physical thing – it can be that you feel something's going to be uncomfortable 'okay well let's avoid it'. No, go through with it but go through with it in a progressive manner.
Philosophy is not an anaesthetic, like it's just going to make the pain go away. But there is great solace in really understanding why chronic pain is difficult. Understanding those things can be consoling in itself, in part because it overcomes the isolation of illness.
The essence of public health as a field of action is that it tries to stop problems from happening where possible, and prepares societies for problems that are unavoidable. That's why it requires us to understand the entire population.
There will be no cure for cancer until real doctors with real patients in real hospitals can attempt an innovation. The court is primarily interested in the effort made, in the attempt. That is what truly counts.
Though I'm not a politician or involved in politics, I found myself deeply entrenched in the political world because decisions about our bodies aren't made in clinics or doctor's offices. They're made in Westminster. When you step into those corridors of power, it's astonishing to witness the detachment many decision-makers have from real-life issues.
The physical and mental aspects of our lives are inseparable and taking care of the basic physical requirements is essential. Athletes and leaders rarely experience deep relaxation and this can become transformative in their lives.
The potential of wearable health monitoring is enormous, and under appreciated by a lot of society, because version-1 of wearables were – to put it politely – underwhelming. The health care industry spends a lot on curative costs… and if you shift the curative to the preventative, you can save a tonne of money and have better outcomes.
People have been told that asthma is an incurable condition, that they'll need to stay indoors and rely on a bronchodilator every few hours for life. But that's just not true. The way you breathe is deeply connected to asthma symptoms, a message that asthmatics rarely hear from anyone.
Ageing is malleable, we can control it. 20% of our health in old-age is due to genetic factors, and the rest is due to our lifestyle. We can measure this clock. It's literally measuring chemicals in our own DNA.
Most of the time, this isn't the case. Physiology is, in fact, largely malleable. While genetics indeed play a role in our overall health and capabilities, the impact of lifestyle factors and habits often outweighs genetic predispositions, primarily because we have control over these factors while we can't alter our genetics.
There is also a huge cultural misconception that heart disease is the patient's fault, they did something wrong to themselves. When we blame individuals and not the society that created those risk factors and behaviours, we don't react as forcefully as we could.
Whether it's doodling with a pencil, or painting, the practice of art – in any shape or form – is hugely liberating and gets us into the sense, and state, of flow. Art helps us navigate our place in the world, and offers us a place of stillness – much needed in today's digital world.