About the author
Richard Ruhling, MD, MPH
Retired physician, former faculty at Loma Linda University’s School of Health Science, and author of “Health, Happiness & Destiny.”
Richard Ruhling, MD, MPH
Retired physician · former faculty, Health Science, Loma Linda University
Why this book
“Medical care is not healthcare.”
Medical care is the diagnosis and treatment of disease with drugs — and Adverse Drug Reactions have become a leading cause of illness, disability, and death. Healthcare is something else: it’s a by-product of daily habits.
After 9/11, when Congress grounded every flight, Dr. Ruhling carried medical journals into US Senate offices to show that Adverse Drug Reactions kill nearly three times as many Americans every year as the attacks of that day. Millions of people take on that risk managing blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar — even though the medical literature shows 85% of people can control all three without drugs.
“Follow the money.”
It’s the same finding Nathan Pritikin published in the 1970s in Live Longer Now, and that cardiologist Dean Ornish later confirmed on a national stage. Dr. Lester Breslow’s study at UCLA found the same thing from a different angle: seven simple habits are worth a 30-plus year advantage in life expectancy for the people who keep all of them, compared with those who break every rule. Smoking, drinking, and obesity are the big three.
The NEW START habits
Dr. Ruhling’s framework for the seven habits behind healthcare that doesn’t come from a prescription pad.
S
Sunlight
T
Temperance
A
Air
R
Rest
N
Nutrition
E
Exercise
w
water
Richard Ruhling, MD, MPH
Physical health, happy relationships, spiritual destiny — total health depends on wise choices. This site is for informational purposes and does not replace advice from your own physician.