The Original Health Coaching Program
Learn more about IIN’s rigorous curriculum that integrates 90+ of the world’s leading experts in health and wellness, blending the scientific and the spiritual to create an immersive, holistic health education.
Heart disease is responsible for approximately 30% of deaths worldwide, and in the United States alone, one in four deaths can be attributed to heart disease. Most of these deaths can be prevented through lifestyle interventions, especially when heart disease evolves from existing risk factors, such as high blood pressure, physical inactivity, obesity, diabetes, or excessive alcohol use.
Addressing the risk factors that can lead to heart disease, while seemingly simple, is a complex and intricate task that our healthcare system continues to struggle with. A doctor can make diet and lifestyle recommendations for better health and well-being, but social and economic factors can contribute to someone not being able to implement those changes, such as:
Research is finally catching up to what the Institute for Integrative Nutrition has been teaching for nearly 30 years: Social support and relationships, an important area of our unique concept of primary food, dramatically impacts our mental and emotional health as well as our overall health and well-being.
Over 300 million people worldwide live with depression, and one in three people around the globe suffers from anxiety. The physiological effects of anxiety can increase one’s risk of heart disease due in part to a change in the body’s stress and hormone responses; however, it’s more likely that the less-healthful choices one may make due to feelings of anxiety or depression contribute more to the disease risk.
Those who experience feelings of anxiety and depression may be prone to avoiding social situations in order to control or manage these emotions, even virtual social situations. Social isolation was on the rise even before social distancing, yet the growth of our online social network may have grown. As we try to build a social following and spend our days glued to our phones and devices, we’re interacting with people less meaningfully and our bodies are experiencing the consequences. The irony is that not only has the rise of social media contributed to these statistics, but our reliance on social media has not wavered despite knowing how isolated we have become.
It turns out that you can be doing all the things right to reduce your risk of heart disease – eating well, not smoking, exercising regularly – but if you feel a sense of social isolation or lack of social support, or you experience feelings of consistent loneliness, your heart health is at risk. As we navigate this ongoing pandemic, experiencing pockets of time in which you feel lonely is completely normal, but making sure you have a support system to reach out to and confide in is incredibly important.
Research has shown various health outcomes of social isolation and loneliness on cardiovascular and heart health, but many echo the same themes:
We know this isn’t the happiest of topics to write or read about, but we’re especially passionate about it because we here at IIN love talking about primary food! Nourishing your relationships so that you feel fulfilled and supported is an important aspect of your whole-body health.
The role of an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach is to provide a safe space for clients to explore their health concerns and help them discover their bio-individual path to optimal health and well-being.
When it comes to preventing heart disease, Health Coaches are in a unique position as they have a thorough understanding of not only nutritional aspects for prevention but also the mental and emotional components of reducing disease risk. The prevention of heart disease and other cardiovascular problems requires a holistic approach, considering the food on the client’s plate as well as the health of their primary food, such as relationships, environment, and physical activity.
If a client has a list of diet and lifestyle recommendations from their healthcare practitioner, their Health Coach will be able to break down each recommendation with actionable steps to create sustainable behavior change.
Whether it’s heart disease prevention, or another chronic lifestyle disease, Health Coaches are poised to contribute to reversing the global healthcare crisis we’re experiencing, and Integrative Nutrition Health Coaches receive the best health coaching education to make the world a healthier, happier place.
We’ve created the Self-Love Guide to give you tools to improve your relationship with yourself so you in turn can be a better friend, partner, and loved one and improve your health and the health of those around you. Get this free guide now!
Learn more about IIN’s rigorous curriculum that integrates 90+ of the world’s leading experts in health and wellness, blending the scientific and the spiritual to create an immersive, holistic health education.