Of course, not everyone is certain that baby steps can walk you all
the way to good health. Marc Siegel, MD, a clinical associate professor
at the NYU School of Medicine, says that while doing something is
certainly better than doing nothing, making such small changes is like
using a Band-aid to stop a hemorrhage.
"It's a small, gimmicky idea to target people with very unhealthy
lifestyles, and for some it may be useful," says Siegel, author of False Alarm: the Truth about the Epidemic of Fear. But he fears that for most people, it's sending the wrong message.
"In some ways it's a resignation, an admission that things can't
be changed -- and that's certainly not the long-term answer," Siegel
tells WebMD.
Katz concedes that the Stealth Health approach may not be right for everybody.
"There is a trade-off because if you try to make the pursuit of
health easier for people, you run the risk of leading them to believe
they don't need to do very much -- and that would be the wrong message,"
he says.
At the same time, Katz believes that for those who find making
health changes a daunting task, Stealth Health techniques can make a
difference.
"If you want the really big gains, there has to be some pain,"
says Katz. "But there is a lot to be said for the idea that you can make
some gains with little or no pain, and that's infinitely better than no
gains."
No comments:
Post a Comment