Why You Need A Health Coach Now More Than Ever

Recent statistics suggest1 that we’re facing a shortfall of more than 50,000 physicians by 2025. This is an alarming finding, given the skyrocketing rates of chronic disease. Even without this shortage, you may have noticed that doctors lack the time and training to help us make lasting changes in areas such as diet, physical activity, sleep, and stress management, which are crucial for addressing chronic disease.

Our current medical paradigm is failing in the treatment of chronic disease. Despite massive spending on screening, medical research, and pharmaceutical development, rates of chronic diseases have continued to climb. Six in ten Americans now has a chronic disease, and one in four has multiple chronic diseases. If you're one of these Americans struggling with a chronic illness, you may have noticed that the conventional way of treating these diseases is based on suppressing symptoms with drugs and managing the disease after it has already occurred rather than preventing and reversing disease by addressing its underlying causes. To use an analogy, imagine you get a rock stuck in your shoe, and it makes your foot hurt. If you look for help in the current medical system, you may get a description of foot pain along with directions to the nearest drugstore for some extra-strength ibuprofen. Sure, ibuprofen would help to reduce the pain. But wouldn’t it be better just to take off your shoe and dump out the rock?

A well-trained health coach acts as a guide and ally, helping you create new, healthy habits, let go of unhealthy behaviors, transform your health goals into realities, and ultimately become their own most powerful advocate. Health coaches also help you identify potential stumbling blocks and hold you accountable for your health behaviors so that you have the best chance of reaching your goals. By teaching you the skills you need to live a healthy life, health coaching can significantly lower3 long-term health care expenditures, making this a cost-effective approach for various socioeconomic backgrounds.

A collaborative approach that links doctors and other licensed clinicians with health coaches, nutritionists, and other allied providers can provide patients with a much higher level of care and support in the areas that will make the biggest difference when it comes to making successful diet, lifestyle, and behavioral changes.

The urgency of our health care situation means that healing needs to become a team effort, and I believe that the unique skills of health coaches are going to play a pivotal role in stopping the epidemic of chronic disease and empowering all of us to take responsibility for our own health.