Does taking medication discourage healthy lifestyle habits?

Does taking medication discourage healthy lifestyle habits?

Here’s the scenario: You are diagnosed with a chronic health condition by your doctor.  Let’s say it’s high blood pressure or perhaps type 2 diabetes. Because you were diagnosed at an early stage of the disease, initially you are recommended to practice healthy lifestyle habits like increasing exercise, making better food choices, and losing some weight. You begin following your doctor’s advice implementing these changes.  

But then, after a period of time, your chronic condition begins to advance and now your doctor has started you on a prescription medication for better control of your health situation. Does that mean you can forego practicing the healthy lifestyle habits?

Once medication is prescribed, this is what may to healthy lifestyle habits

It is not unusual for patients to scale down healthy lifestyle efforts once placed on a prescription medication for a chronic health condition. Especially so, once the medication is performing well getting your condition under better control.  If that happens, some individuals may believe all they need to do is take their drugs and forego good health habits. They may return to old unhealthy habits that likely played a role in the development of their chronic disease to begin with.

A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that this way of thinking is a common belief held by many people. Once prescription medication is begun, healthy habits can take a downward trend.

Researchers with the study collected data on weight, smoking, physically activity, and alcohol use among more than 40,000 adults with no history of cardiovascular disease. Those individuals, who had not been prescribed medications for high cholesterol or high blood pressure, were more likely to begin or continue following healthy lifestyle habits. However, individuals who were prescribed medication for the heart disease were more likely to:

·      Gain more weight – up to 82% were more likely to become obese

·      Exercised less – they were 8% more likely to be physically inactive

This is not the time to slack off on lifestyle changes if taking a prescription medication

The takeaway from this study supports the idea that some people who are prescribed medications view it as an alternative to making or continuing with positive lifestyle choices. It’s possible some people assume they no longer need to keep up exercising or eating a healthy diet since they have been prescribed a medication.  Or maybe the reason why they needed to be placed on prescription medication to begin with was they were not following healthy lifestyle habits as instructed. And a third possibility is that some may have already been destined to eventually go on medication therapy due to a higher genetic risk of their disease.

What research has shown is that even people who are on multiple medications should still follow healthy lifestyle habits. A good reason to do so is if they were unhealthy enough to need a prescription, they likely are at a higher risk for complications from their disease.

The goal for anyone taking a prescription medication for a chronic condition is to use the mediation in addition to practicing lifestyle changes and not instead of them. Besides, by incorporating healthy lifestyle habits each day into their lives, many medications tend to work better because of those changes. Exercise helps improve mood and memory, healthy eating supplies important nutrients supporting immune functioning, and losing weight helps lowers blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides levels, and improves better blood glucose control.

So, keep taking any prescription medications as ordered by your doctor and also keep practicing good healthy lifestyle habits at the same time too. 

David B. Samadi, MD, Urologic Oncology Expert and Robotic Surgeon located at 485 Madison Avenue on the 21st floor, New York, NY – 212-365-5000.  Follow Dr. Samadi at www.samadimd.com,  www.prostatecancer911.com, and www.roboticoncology.com.