A Health Coach Explains Chronic Disease Prevention [VIDEO]

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Diet, lifestyle, and preventing chronic disease

As rates of obesity continue to increase, so does the prevalence of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. In the United States alone, six out of every 10 adults have a chronic disease, and upward of 75% of healthcare spending is spent on managing chronic disease.

With these staggering statistics, it’s easy to understand why some people think their fate is sealed – that it’s inevitable they’ll develop a chronic disease, especially if it “runs in the family.” The good news is that many of these chronic diseases are completely preventable, and even reversible if caught early enough, through shifts in diet and lifestyle.

Type 2 diabetes doesn’t happen overnight nor does heart disease. There are clear indicators of each that will worsen over time if not addressed, such as rising blood sugar levels (or hemoglobin A1C) in pre-diabetes and rising total cholesterol and blood pressure as precursors for heart disease. Understanding your genetic predisposition to certain diseases is definitely important, but with a focus on a diet rich in nutritional value and a lifestyle rich in activity and personal fulfillment, your risk for chronic disease can be dramatically reduced.

Watch A Health Coach Explains: Chronic Disease Prevention

At the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, we address this global health crisis head on by teaching people how to become Health Coaches, supportive mentors who coach their clients to great health. This coaching does not include telling a client exactly what to do because everyone’s body, nutritional needs, and lifestyle circumstances are different – what we call bio-individuality.

What coaching does include is creating a safe space for clients to explore their health concerns and encouraging them to get to the root of those concerns through exploration of primary food, another uniquely IIN concept that refers to all the things that nourish us off the plate. These include our relationships, spiritual practices, environment, career, and much more.

What does this have to do with disease prevention? That’s what we’ll cover in our latest episode: A Health Coach Explains: Disease Prevention.

In this video, you’ll learn:

What epigenetics is and how it explains whether you’ll go on to develop chronic disease
The lifestyle behaviors and triggers that have the greatest impact on your health
The self-care practices that have the greatest impact on your health
Five things you can do right now to live a preventive lifestyle