Guaranteed Wins

This post is brought to you by the recent craze around red light therapy. Red light therapy has been used in the healthcare industry to successfully treat a number of ailments. Now it's being researched for use in treating various other ailments. Unfortunately, this has caused it to become the latest healthcare fad promising to cure everything from depression to low testosterone. The reason I say this is unfortunate is because, as with other previous "miracle cures," people are focusing on it instead of guaranteed wins.

Guaranteed wins is the name I give to all of the things we know provide significant health benefits. Strength training is an example of a guaranteed win. If you start strength training, you will have health benefits that range from improved mood to higher resistance to injury. Diet is another example. If you improve your diet, assuming you also control your calorie intake, you will lose weight, which comes with numerous health benefits. Getting enough sleep is also a guaranteed win. If you keep yourself up late at night doomscrolling, you likely suffer several unpleasant side effects such as difficulty concentrating and irritability. Putting down the phone and getting enough sleep will improve both of those plus grant you other aspects significant health improvements.

The especially observant amongst you likely noticed that my list of guaranteed wins is largely lifestyle changes. Therein lies the secret. We know for certain that being overweight and not getting enough sleep are detrimental to health. We know for certain that people start to lose muscle mass as they age. Almost everyone claims that they want to address those issues, but they don't want to change their unhealthy lifestyles. This is why "miracle cures" are so widely sought.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs are a recent example of this. GLP-1 drugs were originally used to treat people with diabetes. Then the pharmaceutical companies noticed that they also result in weight loss and started marketing them as a "miracle" weight loss drug. This was music to many overweight people's ears because GLP-1 drugs offered them a way to lose weight without lifestyle changes. Although that's not entirely accurate. From my understanding, GLP-1 drugs effectively force lifestyle changes by suppressing appetite. But having lifestyle changes forced on them with a drug is preferable to most people than instigating lifestyle changes through their own efforts.

With that said, there's now enough evidence that taking GLP-1 drugs does result in weight loss. This isn't the case with most "miracle cures." Most "miracle cures" develop from a kernel of truth extrapolated to absurdity. One example is eating an alkaline diet to will prevent or even treat cancer. Advocates of this belief claim that cancer thrives in an acidic environment and that eating an alkaline diet will result in your body becoming an alkaline environment. Fortunately, this is bullshit. I say fortunately because if eating alkaline foods did increase your body's pH level, you would die. It turns out our bodies can only survive in a very narrow pH range. Luckily for us, our bodies are good at regulating our pH level and we therefore won't kill ourselves by eating an alkaline died.

There are a number of guaranteed wins for preventing cancer. Don't smoke. Smoking unquestionably increases your risk of cancer. Be smart about your time in the sun. Too little sun isn't necessarily ideal, but too much sun can increase your risk of skin cancer. Test your home for radon and, if the radon levels are high, get a radon mitigation system installed. Inhaling high levels of radon will increase your risk of cancer. The first two are lifestyle related. None of the three are sexy or necessarily easy depending on your lifestyle and financial situation.

When people ask me about the latest health fad, I immediately ask if they've already went after the guaranteed wins. Red light therapy is another example. Do you know what is shown to decrease depression and increase testosterone levels? Regular exercise, a reasonable diet, and getting enough sleep. If you're asking whether or not red light therapy or any other health fad will improve your health, check to see if there are any guaranteed wins you haven't pursued first. If there are, take the time you were investing in researching the fad and instead put it into pursuing those guaranteed wins. Your time investment will give you guaranteed results instead of potential results. Guaranteed wins trump potential wins every day of the week.