Social health solutions

Riffing in part off of Atul Gawande’s recent piece in the New Yorker about controlling healthcare costs, Jay Parkinson argues that most health solutions aren’t medical, they’re social.

In the past 4 months, I’ve changed my life for the better in three significant ways.

Why?

My relationships changed, and thus my everyday changed. I began eating with someone who ate differently than me. I adopted her eating habits, which spurred me to change how I ate. I also spent more time with Grant, who introduced me to the world of urban cycling. I adopted his lifestyle and his interests. And then I changed myself and started pushing my heart in the gym.

I’m playing Health Month this month, mostly just for the hell of it. The game is built to be social…there are teams, players offer each other support, etc. Just two days in, I can see why this might work for me: it turns private goals into public rules.

• Atul Gawande
• games
• healthcare
• Health Month
• Jay Parkinson