Find Your Passion to Boost Your Health: Are you the Bird or the Squirrel?

Secret to More Energy

So it seems to me that everyone is always looking for that secret to more energy. Are you one of those that keep looking for a newly discovered supplement that will make you stronger, quicker, smarter, or delay aging? How sad is it that our sports heroes seem to be always on the front page not for their athletic prowess, but for being busted for blood doping, steroid use or some other illegal substance they were trying to cheat the competition with.

However, if we really want to find the answer to this almighty secret, we need to look no further than nature itself.  One pleasant morning I was sharing some green tea with my wife outside on our patio when we heard a clicking, chirping, and general commotion above us by a down spout from our gutter. We had noticed previously that a very small bird had made a nest and laid some eggs and had been dutifully sitting on them throughout the days.

However, this morning she became very bothered by a pesky squirrel trying to get to her nest. Now this squirrel was 5-10 times the size of this bird and obviously much stronger, but you would not know it by what transpired. This little tweetie bird became a ninja warrior and quickly and sharply attacked the squirrel relentlessly without fear or reservation. Truly a David and Goliath moment, but within 30 seconds the squirrel decided to give up and ran away.

Now maybe the bird was just super strong because she had been eating our quinoa and kale from our plates after dinner or maybe the real secret here was her passion for protecting her young. Nothing, including her own survival, mattered more to her and I would be willing to bet no other thoughts were going through her head other than defend the nest. As a culture we are often drawn to stories of passionate underdogs overcoming the odds to achieve something that should be impossible for them. Just think of some of our favorite movies, Rocky, Karate kid, and even Star Wars to name a few.  Yet how often do we allow ourselves to tap into that passion in our own lives?

Finding My Passion Saved My Heart

My favorite question to start a patient encounter with is "What is your passion in life?" Over the years I have had many reactions to that question from tears to laughter, but mainly a lot of blank stares. I ask it because if we are going to summon up the courage and strength to make difficult lifestyle changes we first need to find and embrace our passion. Outside of my family and professional pursuits, my passion is competitive swimming. I have swum on a team since I was 5 and continue to swim with United States Masters today. About 6 years ago, I discovered that I had high cholesterol and went on medicine to "get my numbers down." However the side effects of the medicines kept me from swimming at the level I wanted to, so I suddenly became motivated to find a cure that was not in the form of a pill. Because I had no other cardiac risk factors and was otherwise in good health, it was safe for me to try aggressive diet changes off medicine for a period of time. I was already exercising a lot with swimming, so I focused on diet, even though I thought I ate pretty well with a few fruits and vegetables each every day. I started studying a lot about nutrition and purchased lectures from nutrition conferences so I could be the most up to date on understanding how food affects the body. Honestly I could not believe all the information I learned that was never covered in medical school or residency. After just a few months of changing how I ate to the Mediterranean/Anti-inflammatory diet the health results were amazing. See the improvement in my cholesterol numbers off of my medicines:

	Previous diet	Mediterranean diet
Cholesterol	225	170
Triglycerides	209	125
LDL (bad chol)	148	93
HDL (good chol)	44	52
Blood sugar	107	89

The best part was I also had more energy and swam better. I was able to get off of my asthma medicine, allergy medicine and heartburn medicine as well. Went I went to a Master’s National swim meet a year later I swam the 200 yard backstroke and equaled my best time from high school/college some 2 decades later! Now my results may not be typical (and certainly even with a great diet and exercise) there are times medicines are very much needed, but for me the main point was that my passion for competitive swimming lead me to explore improving my health in a way I was not otherwise prepared to do. Tapping into one’s passion in life can be the key to changing the direction of one’s health and thus life. My personal experience with enjoying how nutrition changed my health led me to further study integrative medicine and become passionate about helping others maximizing their own healing potential through holistic, natural approaches.

So as you ponder your various health goals, first ask yourself, "what do I love to do?" How do I want to age? What will give me the most joy in life and how will my health in its current state support that vision or hinder it? If you determine a change is in order then embrace your passion, think about it, visualize it and approach life with the same passion and determination as the little bird guarding her nest.

Be well,
Dr. Lane M.D.