A health care coach is a person with healthcare experience who can take a more detailed look at an individual’s health and help promote an overall healthier lifestyle. Healthcare professionals are often under time pressures. A doctor working in a busy clinic may have to treat many patients over the course of a day, and nurses are often racing around trying to care for many different patients. A dedicated health care coach can share much more of their time with the client and this gives them a much more detailed picture of their client’s lifestyle. It also gives them time to improve the health of people in ways that are not thought of as serious enough to require the a doctor’s attention, by improving their habits. They may even be able to find underlying problems caused by ailments which may go unnoticed by other health care professionals, due to the greater amount of time they work with a client, and the scrutiny they place that person’s overall health under.
Being a health care coach is predominately about helping people change and monitor their habits and life well, heading off potential problems before they even arise. It is our everyday lifestyles which often shape our health, whilst there are many ailments and diseases that cannot be prevented and are down to a genetic predisposition or just plain bad luck. Yet despite this there are many health problems which are entirely preventable by a change in lifestyle.
Being overweight is one of the major causes of preventable heart diseases, for example. It may be that you have tried to shed a few pounds in the past and have fallen foul of quick fix diets and exercise gimmicks. A health care coach could help guide you through this minefield and give impartial, experienced and independent advice on what works and what doesn’t. Many companies who offer these kind of products do not have the individual’s best interests at heart. They are primarily concerned with making money, which is understandable for a business, but to do this they often make farcical and unsubstantiated claims which can even damage people’s health. To navigate through the amount of scams and broken promises, it can often take an experienced professional who is totally independent. Real weight loss will take hard work, and an improvement in your lifestyle, it is up to a health care coach to sometimes tell people the difficult truth and help them through the process. It may be other lifestyle choices which are ruining people’s health.
Smoking is another a major cause of many preventable diseases. It may be that you have tried to quit in the past and have had no success. Having someone help you through this difficult time can help a great deal. As well as having someone who sympathizes and helps provide mental strength and well being, they may also be able to suggest treatments you may never have heard of and again provide impartial advice on which treatments work and which treatments don’t.
It may be a multitude of things as well besides weight loss and smoking. It may be that you have trouble sleeping or you have sleeping habits which are detrimental to your health. A coach will help you improve your sleeping habits so that you are getting the optimum amount of uninterrupted sleep, they may also help you find methods and treatments which will help you get there. They can also help with your diet. Much of the food we eat today, though approved for sale by the government, is extremely unhealthy in large amounts. There are many ingredients added to these food that have a serious adverse effect on our health. Being approved for consumption does not mean that they are healthy ingredients. A health care coach can help you plan your diet and your cooking habits to avoid as much of these unhealthy ingredients as possible. As well as plan your overall diet to make sure you get the optimum nutrition during your diet. This list is by no means exhaustive, and a coach can provide many more benefits besides the ones mentioned here.
If you wish to embark on a healthier lifestyle, and you want to make improvements which are sustainable for the rest of your life rather than quick fixes or fads, then having a coach is the best way to go about it. Your health effects everything you do, whether it’s your family life or your professional life, so contracting a health care coach could be the most important decision you ever make.
Superb post, really helpful, thanks for sharing!