Author's note: This column is intended for educational purposes only. It aims to highlight gaps in health knowledge, provide support and empower organizations to guide their members in creating effective health and wellness programs.

If medical care is more advanced than ever, why are so many people sick with chronic diseases?

The answer is that health is influenced by far more than medical care. The mantra of getting enough sleep, eating right and exercising is not enough. We live in a culture that excels at managing symptoms of disease while ignoring the conditions that produce them. Some of these conditions lie in our culture, medical system, lifestyle and community. Let’s look at some of these conditions:

CULTURE AND LIFESTYLE

The normalization of unhealthy living has become a way of life. Previous generations met basic health care needs safely at home. Families now use the local emergency room as their health care provider. This removes the knowledge of and responsibility for one’s own health. Without adequate health insurance, some do not seek care until symptoms worsen to a point where they need treatment. Both scenarios result in a once healthy body developing multiple chronic illnesses needing lifelong medical care. This is not “health care,” this is “sick care.”

Convenience is quietly destroying health through food delivery, “super-sizing” fast food items, highly processed prepared meals, sedentary jobs and reduced physical activity due to increased involvement in social media and digital entertainment sites.

MEDICAL SYSTEM

As recounted in previous op-eds, the medical system has evolved to prioritize sick care over salugenesis. Creating health (salugenesis) shifts the focus from merely managing disease to actively generating and facilitating conditions that support holistic well-being. The primary difference between the two is that sick care responds to illness by treating symptoms and mitigating damage, whereas salutogenesis proactively builds long-term vitality, optimizing physical, mental and social well-being with the aim of preventing disease before it can occur. Our health goal should be to extend a disease-free life span, promote longevity and maximize quality of life.

A robust “sick care system” is designed for trauma care, emergency medicine, surgery, infectious disease treatment and advanced diagnostics. Relying on it exclusively fails to address preventable conditions that progress to chronic disease and ultimately lead to acute conditions. The medical system was built to diagnose and treat disease after it appears rather than addressing the root cause. Unfortunately, this results not only in lifetime medical care but also in comorbidities that reduce quality of life.

COMMUNITY

While health is an individual responsibility, research shows that community influences longevity, mental health, recovery from illness, stress levels and overall well-being. Loneliness is a great public health concern that is not adequately addressed. Isolation affects inflammation, depression, heart disease and addiction. A decline in religious, civic or community involvement along with reduced family support increases loneliness and isolation. Humans struggle with stress, grief, aging and identity disconnection due to changing stages of life, affecting physical, emotional and spiritual health. Churches, neighborhoods and community organizations once played an integral role in community wellness and support. Unfortunately, this support has diminished in today’s culture of incivility and politics. Paying lip service to those in need will never address the hurt and pain people experience.

ECONOMIC INCENTIVES

We must ask important why questions:

• Why is more money available for treating disease than preventing it?
• Why do insurance plans readily cover medications but offer limited support for lifestyle interventions?

• Why are healthy foods more expensive to purchase than highly processed alternatives? And why are healthy foods not readily available to everyone? We should not have any food deserts.
• Why are alternative health care interventions not routinely covered by insurance but must be paid out-of-pocket?

We do not have a health care crisis because medicine has failed. We have a health care crisis because medicine and insurance companies cannot solve problems that originate in culture, lifestyle, community and daily living. Financial incentives should work for us, not against us.

If we genuinely want better health for ourselves and our families, we must expand our focus beyond hospitals and prescriptions. Real health is built around the dinner table, walking trails, faith community, civic organizations, schools, neighborhoods and family settings.

Dr. Cheryl Christy is a Baldwin County resident and registered nurse with nearly 30 years of experience. She holds master's degrees in nursing education and nursing practice and a doctorate in nursing practice. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, Phi Pi Chapter, a certified lay counselor and the author of "Voices for Healthcare," a health care blog.

Read her previous column titled "Cholesterol and health — The rest of the story" on www.GulfCoastMedia.com. Her blog can be found at https://substack.com/@dnprn.