by Mike Critelli, 

Over the past month, the MakeUsWell Network has welcomed Dr. Garry Welch and Colleen McGuire, a married couple who have formed a company called Silver Fern Healthcare. Silver Fern’s mission is to use the best available evidence to identify the psychological and sociological factors that prevent patients from effectively managing their chronic diseases.

They have particularly focused more recently in addressing the root cause of many chronic diseases, the obesity crisis. Obesity not only contributes to chronic diseases, but, as research has demonstrated, it made those with the SARS Cov-2 virus more likely to be hospitalized or die. The inflammation caused by obesity has also been linked to cancer by the CDC because of the faster cell growth required to compensate for insulin resistance.

Like other members of our MakeUsWell Network, Dr. Welch and Ms. McGuire understand that, while medications like Ozempic and other glucagon-like peptide drugs (GLP-1) are breakthroughs in driving weight loss, they will not be effective in the long run without an effective behavior change program. Weight loss through medication does not survive if patients do not engage in processes that make weight-reducing behavior change permanent.

They also understand that behavior change does not occur solely because patients are educated about the elements of nutrition, fitness, sleep and stress management necessary for weight loss. As we learned at Pitney Bowes through our onsite clinics and other health plan outreach programs, the behavior change required for individuals, families and communities depends on permanently modifying daily life routines.

While lower income individuals, families and communities often reside in “food deserts,” communities that have limited, costly, or inconvenient access to healthy foods and beverages, addressing these systemic issues is not enough. Behavior change counseling requires problem-solving to help individuals and families modify daily routines to reduce exposure and susceptibility to unhealthy behaviors and the social and environmental factors that trigger them.  

As someone who has battled weight problems my entire adult life, I am acutely aware of the many subtle factors that cause us to overeat or consume unhealthy beverages. To name a few of these factors:

• When we are in a hurry to get to work or some other time-sensitive appointment, eating a calorie-dense, sugary food or consuming a sugary beverage is often the lowest cost, most convenient option.

• The cafes, bakeries, and bagel shops that offer calorie-dense foods and beverages to us price them very low relative to the calories they deliver.

• We have been socialized from early in our lives to equate eating sugary foods with comfort and celebratory events. We are given large birthday cakes, sugary pies, and cookies as responses to stressful events or rewards for achievement.

• We associate the big bucket of buttered popcorn and the big cup of soda with the fun experience of watching the newest blockbuster film or the hot dog and the bucket of nachos we consume at a sporting event with a pleasurable experience.

• For stressed out parents, taking our children to the pizza parlor or the fast food restaurant is the easiest way to get some temporary relief.

• Anyone traveling in economy class seats on airplanes is being served sugary snacks, even on cross-country flights. The food available at the airports matches the unhealthy foods and beverages we get on the way to work.

• When we go to dinner or a bar on a weekend night with family and friends, our resistance to overeating is reduced by alcohol consumption.

Altering these deeply-rooted habits is monumentally challenging, but Dr. Welch and Ms. McGuire are also using evidence-based tools to identify motivations and tools to achieve the necessary behavior change.

The MakeUsWell Network has many other individuals tackling or interested in tackling the components of this complex public health problem. But we also are developing an AI platform that, initially, will complement human intelligence in helping guide healthcare professionals in affecting behavior change. Over time, AI will learn faster what works and present marketing strategies and messages from demonstrably trusted sources with the right kinds of financial incentives to accelerate behavior change.

But, at this stage, the work Dr. Welch and Colleen McGuire do every day is a vital addition to what we want to accomplish with the MakeUsWell Network.

by Mike Critelli, 

Recently, I was honored to meet an exceptionally inspirational person, Jennifer Dickenson. Jennifer is part of a very select group, individuals who have defied the odds and survived a stage 4 metastatic cancer. In 2011, she was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a brain cancer that few people survive for one year and almost none survive five years. She wrote a book that is both inspirational and broadly insightful about what she believes accounts for her success.

She refused to accept the medical consensus that she would die and should “put her affairs in order.” Her logic was simple: if even a few people survive a stage 4 cancer, she wanted to try as much as possible what might work to give her a chance to be an outlier as a long-term survivor. We invited her to join the MakeUsWell Network and give all of you the opportunity to get to know her better. You may be inspired to buy her book, "the Case For Hope," available on Amazon.com.

Her story is deeply relevant and well beyond the inspirational impact of someone who beat odds:

• For all of us, there are forces at work beyond the ability of medical science to understand and harness. Medical science is amazing, but it can only take us so far. Our will to succeed is foundational to everything we can accomplish with or without the engagement of even the top healthcare professionals. As Jennifer put it in her book, “I don’t believe there is a way to discover the path of healing without engaging your will to be well.”

• In "the Case For Hope," she describes a daily set of living habits that included a complete overhaul of her nutritional habits, virtually eliminating all sugar from her diet. She points out an obvious benefit that few of us understand as a cancer preventive practice: cancer cells thrive on glucose. She also focuses on two other changes that she would consider first among equals in the many changes she made in her life:

• Her daily practice of Qigong, a Chinese healing technique which combines body movement and deep breathing.

• Her adoption of a daily prayer routine, which had three simple steps: express gratitude, pray for others, and pray for yourself.

• She describes her adoption of stress reduction, sleep, meditation and a variety of other techniques linked to healing. Making others realize that what she did can be copied by anyone, even if not diagnosed with cancer.

In short, the message in her book that made us want her to be a member in the MakeUsWell Network is that how she changed her life to be healthier and be kinder to her body and mind, should be adopted by everyone who wants to live a longer, healthier, more enriched life.  

We invite all of you to buy her book, review it, get to know her better, and learn from her.

by Mike Critelli

MakeUsWell Network’s founders feared that the single-minded focus on virus containment would cause all other necessary health improvement initiatives to be delayed or abandoned.

Americans have more healthcare, wellness programs, and medications available than ever, and a reasonably good health improvement blueprint on how to improve health. For many life-threatening conditions like cancer, we have the world’s best care. 

But our results are terrible. Our life expectancy has dropped back to 1996 levels. Why?

Americans always underutilize preventive care, fail to manage chronic diseases, and delay treatment for more acute conditions. The pandemic made overall health worse.

Self-insured employers spend significant money for healthcare and wellness programs, but do not realize their intended benefits. Timely usage of available programs is disappointing. 

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by Mike Critelli

We created the MakeUsWell Network three years ago because we are deeply committed to critical thinking. We want to follow the facts wherever they may lead us.

One tragic consequence of the pandemic has been the abandonment of scientific principles by authority figures. We cannot let inconvenient or negative consequences from following scientific research divert us from getting the facts.

Three years ago, when President Trump called Covid-19 the "China virus," he was widely criticized for the xenophobic implications of the label. His careless and inflammatory language was especially concerning coming from the President of the United States.

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by Mike Critelli

The changes in daily work routines that Covid directives abruptly introduced into employer-employee relationships were not planned in advance and were not done with consideration of whether they would contribute to emotional, career, social, or spiritual well-being. They were done for the sole purpose of virus containment.

Others can debate their effectiveness, but we are indisputably dealing with the wreckage they created in so many employment environments. 

The pandemic moreover uncovered and amplified structural and emerging workplace issues, giving employers and employees the opportunity now to reflect on what needs to change.

Reflections and recommendations, offered here, are informed by our own software-driven augmented analytics. 

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