SELF-C ARE AND INTERACTIVE IT
Self-care and the need for interactive ICT Tuvi Orbach CEO, Health-Smart
Jane Vazquez Health Education ‘Physiologist’, Health-Smart
I am an entrepreneur who focuses on harnessing advanced science and technology to enhance life. I have set up several companies with this aim in mind. My ultimate aim is to provide solutions which can empower people to improve all aspects of their life and overall wellbeing; from their physiology, emotions, and cognitive state, to their social and spiritual lifestyle, in order to enjoy longer, healthier, happier, enhanced, fulfilled lives. I believe that it is important to enhance current mainstream science and medicine to encompass consciousness, awareness and a holistic approach. Tuvi Orbach As a result of a childhood where encyclopaedias and alternative healthcare books were my bedtime reading, I decided to study physiology at university. My studies fuelled my amazement at the human body and I became a great believer in a holistic approach to health which I enthusiastically conveyed to all I met through the years. At Health-Smart I have been able to convert my own knowledge and that of other experts to help write and develop a programme aimed at empowering people to take care of themselves and lead happier, healthier lives.
Summary Long-term conditions
Jane Vazquez
threaten to bankrupt the NHS, as lifelong drug packages allow us to live longer but less healthy lives. If our overfed, stressed, under-exercised lifestyle is at the root of the problem, then millions of us will need help to make big changes. The health trainer role is full of potential, but they and people with or at risk of LTCs also need expert knowledge and support. Fortunately, advances in interactive ICT can now put a health coach in every pocket and every home.
© Journal of holistic healthcare
●
Volume 6 Issue 2 Aug 2009
Introduction – why is self-care essential? The purpose of healthcare should be to enhance an individual’s total wellbeing (physical, emotional, social and spiritual), to prevent and reduce disease, and to enable and empower individuals to live longer, healthier and happier lives. Modern medicine has achieved a huge improvement in acute care and dramatically reduced infant mortality rates. But more than 75% of the healthcare costs in the UK, Europe and America are related to long-term or chronic conditions (LTC). This high prevalence is partly due to our longer lifespan, but arguably it has a great deal to do with the 21st century way of life. Our body (and mind) is a wonderful holistic system: intelligent, interconnected, self-regulating and self improving. The human organism evolved for, and is still best adapted to, what is commonly termed the huntergatherer way of life. But our modern lifestyle bears little relation to that of
our neolithic ancestors, and is very different from the conditions and ways of life that our bodies have been finetuned for. For most of us, car, bus or sofabound, life involves minimal necessary physical activity. And there is an abundance of food, often intensively produced and processed, though too little of what we choose to eat is the sort of fresh fruit and vegetables that our metabolism is programmed for. Yet, sluggish though the modern lifestyle can be, our appetite for sugar, salt, meat, and alcohol is undiminished. Add to these factors the modern day curse of sustained psychological stress, and it seems unsurprising that so many metabolically overloaded, torpid 21st century bodies fail to cope with this long-term abuse; nor that they eventually break down, causing many people to develop chronic illnesses and LTCs. Obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardio-metabolic syndrome have become endemic problems that undermine the health and wellbeing of millions.
35
