28/10/2024
These stats aren’t surprising, are they?
Why are most doctors—the people dedicated to healing others—finding themselves on the receiving end of lifestyle diseases?
Imagine the irony.
We’re the experts on health, the very people families trust to pull them through life’s worst health crises.
And yet, many doctors are quietly suffering, sidelining their own well-being while they fix others.
After all, doctors are human, and they face the same risks as as everyone else.
But what few realize is that their work environment stacks the odds even more against them.
Think of a high-stakes day in their shoes:
Everyday they walk into situations like emergencies, patients in pain, complications, even life-or-death situations.
It's constant, relentless.
And that’s just in one day.
Now, imagine doing that for hours on end, week after week.
It’s not like the stress ends when they clock out.
It isn’t a “today-only” pressure.
It’s a constant thing through their lives.
Chronic stress becomes the backdrop, lurking and building as they dive from one patient to the next.
So when time is tight, health shortcuts become the default.
A quick coffee instead of breakfast, a grab-and-go meal that’s anything but balanced, or that chocolate bar in the break room because it’s “better than nothing.”
Over time, these quick fixes become the norm.
It’s not just once in a while.
It’s daily, weekly, year after year.
Without realizing it, many doctors become workaholics, running on caffeine and stress-driven snacking.
The basics—exercise, regular meals, even proper sleep—become luxuries.
Imagine what that does to someone’s body and mind.
Fast forward a few years, and that pattern leads to obesity, high blood pressure, and anxiety, all quietly adding up.
It's high time......
no matter what…
Doctors have to tighten their own belts before we save others.
We have to accept that we cannot change our environment…
We can’t wait for the “right time” or the “perfect schedule.”
It won’t happen.
We have to commit to our self-care...
I understand it's not easy to hit the gym every day... But we can atleast 80%of the time.
And if we miss multiple 10-minute walks between shifts or appointments, taking stairs insted of lift is possible.
A few minutes of deep breathing exercises or meditation in the morning is possible.
A little more of nuts, yogurt, or buttermilk instead of snacking is possible.
There is compounding impact of these small, steady changes.
I’d love to see a world where doctors don’t just treat patients with care but turn that care inward, so that we become healthy role models for our society. What say?
