Spreading the Word About Health at Huffington Post

Just a quick update that I've begun posting now and again at the Huffington Post, for their living section. Some of the material will be familiar to readers of TheDecisionTree.com, where Brian & I wade deeper into the science of personalized medicine, but the more-populist forum of HuffPost is a good way to test the principles and larger messages that are sometimes taken for granted here. My first post a few weeks back, Welcome to the Era of Personalized Medicine, argued that the idea of tailoring healthcare to individuals has arrived - but that it may take some work on our part to take advantage of it. The basic premise is that personalized medicine is about data, more than drugs (specifically the notion of pharmacogenomics where drugs are matched to specific genetic traits).

My second post just went up today: in the tired & true format of service journalism it's a list: 3 Ways to Take Control of Your Health Today. In this one I confront the disconnect between the surfeit of health information and the failure most people make to actually turn that information into action (what Aristotle called akrasia). In an attempt to bridge disconnect, I propose that there are clear health benefits just by choosing to engage in our health - just by asserting control over our health. And that's where I offer three ways to get started: Choosing to Care about our health, Deciding What to Care About, and finally Knowing That There's No Such Thing As Perfection (either in our behavior or, ultimately, in our health).

Anyway, take a look. As always, feedback is welcome, here or there.