I just saw a patient who had elevated blood pressure. He had a history of this and took appropriate medication. He had no symptoms or complaints, except that the number was up more than normal. His wife informed me, with a smile and a shake of her head, that he checked his blood pressure all day, often with three different machines at a time.
I tried to discourage this, as it just made him more anxious. But it made me think of all the ways we ignore other aspects of our health that we could be checking throughout the day with very positive benefits.
Instead of asking at the end of the day, “What was my heart rate?” we could ask, “Did I get up and walk and exercise enough?” It has been said that it matters less what sort of exercise we engage in and more that we simply don’t sit down all day. I believe that with all of my doctor heart. Another good question might be, “Did I drink plenty of water?” Or, “Did I avoid high calorie, empty snacks like chips and sweets?”
Equally important, we might ask, “Did I reach out to friends and family?” There is a clear connection between human interaction and our mental and physical health. Young or old, our churches in particular have opportunities for fellowship and service. If I’ve seen anything demonstrated over the years, it’s that without purpose, humans become less healthy.
We believers in the God who made our bodies can take this a bit further. We can ask, “Did I spend time in prayer today? Did I spend time in Scripture? Did I examine my life and look for besetting sins, like anger, greed or lust, that are unhealthy for my soul and also my body? Did I let go of grudges and forgive? Did I follow the biblical wisdom to ‘not let not the sun go down upon your wrath’? Did I take opportunities to love someone who came across my path, even if it seemed to be in a small way?”
We “medicalize” all of our lives and assume that a surgery or prescription will solve all of our woes — physical, emotional, and maybe even spiritual. We try to track our health or success with devices, drug levels and their numbers and associated charts.
But humans have been around much longer than pharmaceutical companies or the modern idea of “physician” as we know it. And having watched the sick and injured for more than 30 years now, I am fully convinced that much of what we suffer physically comes from unhappiness and inactivity. As a Christian physician, I’m sure that no small number of our illnesses emerge from the sin that we allow to grow inside us, thus refusing the love and expertise of the Great Physician.
It’s important to check blood pressure and pulse, to have labs and X-rays, to talk to your physician. However, every day we can check other indices of our health that are equally important. And they don’t even require a machine.