Encore: Why Our Current Healthcare System Keeps Us Sick And How To Fix It

Mark Hyman

Jan 20, 2025

Episode description

Heart disease, cancer, and stroke are the leading causes of death—and premature death at that—in the US. These diseases all have several risk factors in common, like smoking, physical inactivity, and poor diet, which policy often views simply as personal choices. We need to begin looking at disease prevention beyond individual decision-making.

In this podcast, I talk with Dr. Anand Parekh, Senator Bill Frist, and Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian on the need for government policymakers to address disease prevention.

Dr. Anand Parekh is the Bipartisan Policy Center’s chief medical advisor, providing clinical and public health expertise across the organization, particularly in the areas of aging, prevention, and global health. As a US Department of Health and Human Services deputy assistant secretary for health from 2008 to 2015, he developed and implemented national initiatives focused on prevention, wellness, and care management. He is the author of Prevention First: Policymaking for a Healthier America.

Senator Bill Frist is a heart and lung transplant surgeon and former US Senate majority leader. He led passage of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act and the historic PEPFAR HIV/AIDS legislation that has saved millions of lives worldwide. As the founder and director of the Vanderbilt Multi-Organ Transplant Center, he has performed over 150 heart and lung transplants, authored over 100 peer-reviewed medical articles, and published seven books.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian is a cardiologist, Dean and Jean Mayer Professor at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and professor of medicine at Tufts Medical School. He has authored more than 400 scientific publications on dietary priorities for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases and on evidence-based policy approaches to reduce these burdens in the US and globally. He has served in numerous advisory roles, including for the US and Canadian governments.⁣⁣ ⁣

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Mindsip insights from this episode:

Establish National Institute of Nutrition to prioritize food health research

There is a proposal to create a new National Institute of Nutrition at the NIH to properly fund and prioritize research on food's central role in health.

#nutrition

#research

Utilize Sleep Breakthrough for comprehensive sleep support

The supplement Sleep Breakthrough combines magnesium, B6, zinc, glycine, taurine, L-theanine, and magnolia extract to support all stages of the sleep cycle.

#sleep

#supplement

Reassess prevention policies to highlight long-term benefits

The Congressional Budget Office's 10-year scoring window makes prevention policies seem like a cost center because their benefits often take longer to materialize.

#cost

Prioritize neighborhood quality over genetics for better health outcomes

Your zip code is a better determinant of your health than your genetic code, as shown by studies where moving to a better neighborhood improved health outcomes without other interventions.

#environment

#health

Leverage digital health to reverse type 2 diabetes

Digital health platforms like Virta Health are achieving up to 60% reversal of type 2 diabetes using ketogenic interventions, yet this treatment is not widely reimbursed.

#diabetes

Reframe family planning to build bipartisan health policy consensus

Reframing controversial issues, such as calling family planning 'healthy timing and spacing of babies,' can be a powerful political tool to build bipartisan consensus for health policies.

#family

Take responsibility for your food safety

Unlike cars or toys, food is the only major consumer product where safety is left up to the individual, without mandated minimum standards for health.

#food

#safety

Debunk the myth: subsidies do not make junk food cheap

The idea that government subsidies make junk food cheap is a myth; in reality, US policies like tariffs on foreign sugar keep domestic options like high-fructose corn syrup artificially competitive.