437 Ways to Think About Health
And the one that matters most.
Have you ever tried to think clearly about your health and ended up in a mental traffic jam somewhere between your grandma’s bone broth recipe and a TikTok video claiming that your blood type should dictate your entire diet?
Welcome to the modern health maze. We’re all in it. And we’re all a little lost.
Happy Tuesday, health heroes! If you’re new here, hello and welcome. You may have noticed I skipped last week’s Thursday newsletter (I publish every Tuesday and Thursday), but it was for a good reason — I was speaking on the topic of health misinformation at the awesome ASHP conference in Arizona. If you’re a wellness professional, I highly recommend it. Anyway, I’ve returned — let’s get to it!
Health, it turns out, is a bit like a disco ball—turn it just slightly, and it reflects something totally different.
You can look at it by body part: your knees crackling like popcorn, your eyes need a flashlight to read a menu, and your heart occasionally skips like its own DJ. You dive into the body part information to find out more. Or maybe you’re on the disease track—trying to “manage” diabetes, arthritis, or fibromyalgia with Dr. Google while secretly wondering if your body is trying to throw a very dramatic rebellion.
You might look at health through symptoms: dizziness, nausea, pain… and that mysterious “I just don’t feel like myself” vibe that Google can’t quite diagnose.
You might become an amateur detective, observing the ridges on your fingernails, scouring your iris or your skin, your tongue, your gait—treating your body like a crime scene that needs solving.
Then there’s the approach angle—are you Team Holistic? Team Western Medicine? Eastern? Integrative? DIY wellness warrior with a side of Reiki and a salt lamp?
And let’s not forget the lifestyle lens: the Mediterranean dieters vs. the clean keto crew vs. the vegetarians. The yoga people, the CrossFit disciples, the barefoot sprinters in minimalist shoes who will tell you about their arches without asking.
Health also, of course, has a statistical side. The numbers never lie, right? (I’ll be writing about that soon.) Eat more fiber and lower your risk of colon cancer by 17%. Sleep 7.4 hours, reduce your risk of death by 12%. Cuddle a puppy to lower systolic blood pressure by 10 points. But even those stats become a choose-your-own-adventure depending on who funds the study and what day of the week it is.
Most of us tap out somewhere between our second contradictory podcast episode and the moment our deodorant is accused of being toxic to our armpits and reducing our lifespans. We’re overwhelmed—not because we don’t care about our health, but because we care deeply, and we’re swimming in a whirlpool of perspectives, each promising to be the truth.
So what do we do? We ping-pong between approaches, diets, and opinions. We react. We buy supplements we can’t pronounce. We swear off gluten at 9 am and eat sourdough at noon. We make health decisions with the same logic we use when choosing a show on Netflix—click, regret, repeat.
Why? Because we haven’t defined our health philosophy. We don’t know what lens we want to look through, so we borrow everyone else’s. That works… until it doesn’t.
We’re also stuck in the Wild West of health information - it’s every man for himself. I wrote an article about that: Your health is for sale, it’s time to take it off the market. I also spoke about it in my presentation Addressing Health Misinformation as Part of a Health Literacy Strategy in Corporate Wellness Programs just last week at the Art and Science of Health Promotion Conference in Scottsdale, AZ. (Some of you are new subscribers from that conference — hello, and welcome!)
Here’s where a true health shift is needed. And yes, it is also the name of my upcoming book, Health Shift: Your Personalized Guide to Making Strategic Health Decisions.
It’s not just a clever name (though I do enjoy a little wordplay). It’s a genuine shift in how we think about health. Instead of viewing health as a checklist of things to avoid, achieve, or fix, it’s time to see it as a personal strategy, a thoughtful approach, and a philosophy we choose based on our values, tolerances, beliefs, and goals.
Imagine this: instead of asking, “What supplement should I take for energy?” you ask, “Why do I feel less energetic? What is my body telling me? How long have I been feeling this way? How have I been taking care of my health lately regarding the Core 4: exercise, nutrition, hydration, and sleep? Have I been stressed lately? What is the best approach in light of that to regain my energy?”
Instead of agreeing to try the latest fad diet, you consider what nutritionally could be done to lose some weight. (By the way, I cover nutrition in this article if that’s you. Stay tuned for an article next about the different types of diets and how to navigate them using the Health Shift approach.)
See the difference?
The Health Shift approach helps you take all those swirling perspectives—from genetics and doshas to disease stats and yoga retreats—and filters them through a personalized, logical framework. It helps you stop reacting to the noise and start navigating with intention.
It’s the difference between being a health consumer and a health strategist.
And that’s the quiet revolution I’m here for. It's not another protocol. Not another product to try. It's just a way to help you think about your health differently—so your decisions finally align with what matters most to you. That’s when health gets easier. That’s when it starts to stick. That’s when you go from health whiplash to health ownership.
So next time someone tells you to eat for your blood type, detox with cabbage soup, or the phthalates in your make-up are single-handedly going to give you cancer, take a breath. Smile. And remember: you get to decide how you see your health. You get to choose your lens.
Just make sure it’s one you can actually see clearly through.
Welcome to the Health Shift.
A little more about Dr. Alice Burron and Strategic Action Health:
Dr. Burron is a co-founder of Strategic Action Health, dedicated to helping organizations help their employees make better health decisions. Come check us out here!
Catch us on Instagram: @the.health.navigator and @dr_burron
You can also connect on LinkedIn, if you want to be professional about it. 👓
And if you’re not subscribed to Health Shift here on Substack — it’s time! This free newsletter is packed with valuable information and approaches to help you on your journey to better, faster healing.
Health Shift: Your Strategic Guide to Making Strategic Health Decisions book will officially launch on May 17, 2025! Mark your calendars! And if you’re in Cheyenne, join us for our party at Blacktooth Brewery. Have a beer on us! More information is coming soon.