Modern Diseases are Lifestyle Diseases

Comfortable (but harmful) habits are stealing our quality of life.

Canada, a globally recognized advanced country often ranked among the top five most livable countries (2nd in 2024), offers a nature-friendly, low-pollution environment with a relaxed pace of life. Yet, I’ve encountered many patients with inexplicable health issues despite these ideal conditions over nearly 20 years that I have lived in Canada. 

What’s the root cause? Based on two decades of clinical experience in Canada, I attribute it to:

• Prioritization and decision-making of an individual 

• Education and awareness of an individual

• The limitations of conventional preventive medicine

While Western conventional medicine has strength for conditions and injuries that require immediate surgery, it has weaknesses and limitations as a preventive medicine and for chronic illnesses. Unfortunately, there is disregard for Alternative medicine in Canada -especially holistic medicine such as Oriental medicine, which makes the most use of the infinite healing potential of nature and the human body. Instead, Western medicine dominates the healthcare market, closely tied to large pharmaceutical companies. It emphasizes mechanical diagnostics, surgery, drugs, and vaccines. The universal healthcare that is available in Canada takes care of many chronic condition patients through polypharmacy (a handful of pills that are used to deal with all of those conditions, as well as side effects that come from taking these medications). However, this method of treatment does not help in strengthening these patients’ natural healing abilities (in fact, it weakens them). This is because these medications do not resolve the root cause of the symptoms that the patients are experiencing, which is related to systemic fatigue of the organs and excessive accumulation of pathogenic byproducts that come from them. Instead of stimulating organs to function properly and make the whole body self-sustainable again, medications eventually suppress them even further (because they substitute the body’s function), leading to dependency and reduced self-healing capacity. Preventive medicine is more than just vaccination, though. It should also include preventing organ failure and incidences of additional symptoms (like those brought on as side effects of pharmaceuticals). 

Secondly, the daily meals that patients consume to satisfy their appetite or for mere survival can be nourishing or toxic, depending on their composition. Therefore, education and awareness on appropriate dietary habits are important. There are sayings such as “Disease enters through the mouth” and “Food is better than medicine” in Korea and China for such reasons. In most parts of Canada, we see a diet mainly consisting of processed foods with additives as opposed to fresh seasonal vegetables harvested from fields. Even in Eastern Canada near the Atlantic coast, it’s hard to find a variety of fresh seaweed and fish. Instead, meats and processed meats are more abundant and cheaper. Even local dishes like PEI mussels and lobsters are typically boiled (losing nutrients in the broth), and the nutritious broth is discarded afterwards. The flesh of these seafoods is also traditionally dipped in butter.

Typical eating habits in Canada also include:

• Cold smoothies / bacon / fried eggs / buttered toast / cereal with cold milk for breakfast

• Skipping breakfast and then grabbing something light for lunch, such as a sandwich or a burger 

• Heavy meat-based dinners with sugary or high-calorie desserts like cake or ice cream to compensate for their malnutrition throughout the day

• No post-meal exercise after dinner, lounging on the sofa with chips and soda (because they feel like all that food they ate for dinner gets digested when they burp with the help of carbonated drinks), watching TV (or dozing off) in dim lighting

Even what Canadians think of as a healthy diet, which includes salads and fruits, is also not recommended for patients dealing with chronic diarrhea or abdominal pain that gets better with the application of warmth, because too many raw vegetables and fruits can worsen them. 

All this leads to:

• Poor digestion and restless sleep due to the need for continuous work of the digestive organs 

• Further sleep interruption due to thirst, then drinking water, and urination accordingly  

• Waking up feeling tired, accompanied by puffiness/swelling, burping with the smell of undigested food or having acid reflux 

• Ultimately, chronic conditions like insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome, high cholesterol, hypertension, high blood sugar, and obesity

In line with diet, we cannot forget exercise for a healthy lifestyle. There is a saying in Chinese medicine which says “medicine is good, but regular exercise is better (약보불여운보)”. Even in Canada’s rich natural environment—with vibrant ecosystems, hiking trails, parks, and grassy fields—people often neglect physical activity. Even on weekends, it’s rare to see people walking briskly in these places, perhaps due to low population density. Instead, most are leisurely strolling, riding bicycles, or using electric scooters. Parks and school fields often remain untouched, serving more as protected green spaces. On the other hand, local fitness centers, sports clubs, and gym parking lots are always crowded with cars. While that’s certainly better than doing nothing, it raises the question: Is it due to a lack of personal will to exercise regularly and independently that people forego exercising in fresh air without spending money? Or is it simply due to my ignorance or lack of understanding of Canadian culture? Perhaps they have their refined cultural preferences—but in my 20 years living here, it’s rare to see people fully utilizing the excellent natural environment for community-based physical activity (outside of immigrant communities, at least). You often see extra-curricular sports activities for teenagers, but when you look at the parents who come along, it’s rare to find any walking or jogging around the track while they wait for two or three hours. Most are visibly overweight, bundled up in thick clothes or blankets, sipping on something as they sit. Do they think obesity — which could be called the root of all disease — can simply be solved with insurance‑covered medication or surgery?

I also sometimes see and get questions from people interested in exotic exercises like Indian yoga or Chinese qigong, which are generally still and possible to do indoors (at least on the surface, that is). I always give the same reply: “These are certainly good exercises, but without needing to learn complicated moves or use any equipment, the best exercise I can recommend to virtually all patients — anyone, regardless of age or gender, except those unable to walk — is to stretch and loosen all the joints of the body as a warm‑up, then brisk-walking (pace of 5–6 km/h) for over an hour while swinging arms back and forth.” Trying to correct and treat obesity that comes from moving less and eating more with low-calorie-burning activities like qigong, deep breathing, or yoga is not so easy. 

In summary, most modern diseases stem from poor lifestyle habits. Yet many patients lack the willpower to change their lifestyle, making recovery difficult. This willpower can also be said to be prioritization and decision-making of the individual. The phrases I often repeat to patients are “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” “Nothing is achieved without effort and sincerity,” and “No pain, no gain.” If the patient prioritizes their health, they can naturally adopt good lifestyle habits.