The Healthcare Crisis: Root Causes and Lifestyle Solutions

The healthcare system is cracking under pressure, and it's not just about staffing shortages or budget cuts. Drawing from 19 years of medical practice, I peel back the layers of our current healthcare crisis to reveal what's really breaking the system: an epidemic of preventable lifestyle diseases.

Remember when eating an apple instead of a processed granola bar wasn't considered "going on a diet"? Our modern world has engineered unhealthy choices to be the easiest ones, creating a perfect storm that's overwhelming medical resources. The pandemic didn't create this problem—it merely accelerated a breakdown that was already underway, pushing healthcare workers to early retirement and stretching remaining resources beyond their limits.

Most patients I see daily suffer from conditions directly linked to lifestyle factors: heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and more. These chronic diseases consume the majority of healthcare spending, yet we continue treating symptoms while ignoring root causes. It's not about blaming patients—we've all been nudged toward processed foods, sedentary behaviors, increased screen time, and diminished face-to-face social connections.

The solution isn't simply hiring more doctors or building more hospitals. It's about reimagining prevention through lifestyle medicine: focusing on nutrition, movement, sleep, stress management, and meaningful connections. Every time you choose whole foods over processed ones, take a walk instead of scrolling social media, or prioritize genuine human interaction, you're not just improving your personal health—you're helping preserve our healthcare system for those who truly need it.

Ready to make a difference? Start with one small change today. Your health and our healthcare system both depend on it. Visit plantbaseddrjules.com for free resources to support your journey toward better health and a more sustainable healthcare future.

Go check out my website for tons of free resources on how to transition towards a healthier diet and lifestyle.

You can download my free plant-based recipes eBook and a ton of other free resources by visiting the Digital Downloads tab of my website at https://www.plantbaseddrjules.com/shop

Don't forget to check out my blog at https://www.plantbaseddrjules.com/blog

You can also watch my educational videos on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMpkQRXb7G-StAotV0dmahQ

Check out my upcoming live events and free eCourse, where you'll learn more about how to create delicious plant-based recipes: https://www.plantbaseddrjules.com/

Go follow me on social media by visiting my Facebook page and Instagram accounts
https://www.facebook.com/plantbaseddrjules
https://www.instagram.com/plantbased_dr_jules/

Last but not least, the best way to show your support and to help me spread my message is to subscribe to my podcast and to leave a 5 star review on Apple and Spotify!
Thanks so much!

Peace, love, plants!
Dr. Jules

Chapters

• 0:00 Section A

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hey everyone, welcome to Season 2 of the Dr Jules Plant-Based Podcast, where we discuss everything from plant-based nutrition to the main pillars of lifestyle medicine. Yo, plant-based buddies, welcome back to another episode. Today we're going to be talking about a very sensitive subject our healthcare system and why it's struggling. Now it's not just about doctors and above dollars, headlines are talking about it, politicians are arguing about it. Even the general population will end up seeing it firsthand. Our healthcare system is struggling. Wait times are long, resources are scarce and my colleagues are burning out. But here's the part that you do not hear enough about. The solution isn't just about hiring more doctors, more nurses or throwing more money at the problem. If we don't start addressing the root cause of why so many people are getting sick in the first place, we're going to be stuck in the same cycle for decades Now.

Speaker 1: 1:22

I remember at the beginning of my practice I practiced in New Brunswick, canada, in a town called Dieppe 20 years ago. We were talking about the eventual mismatch of resources and of demand. Unfortunately, the pandemic accelerated that process quite a bit, where we had a mass exodus of people going into retirement, because at the beginning of the pandemic, I remember people felt like they were in danger. We did not know how the virus was getting transmitted. People were running out of PPE, of protection and masks and gloves and gowns. People were scared right, and people who were already at the end of their careers were like, yeah, I don't need this dress, I'm just going to retire now. And all of a sudden there was a mass exit of a lot of healthcare workers. And that's when the cracks in our healthcare system began widening. Wait times went up, resources were stretched thin and healthcare workers were exhausted in leaving the profession earlier than anticipated. And as our population ages, we're basically staring down a second wave of retirements from the very providers that we rely on to keep the system running. And the pandemic it didn't just stress the system, it just accelerated the breakdown.

Speaker 1: 2:59

But what we don't talk about is that most of the illnesses that we see in clinic every day are somehow directly or indirectly related to lifestyle. Most of the medical patients I see come in complaining of a condition that is directly related to the choices they make every day and the way they live their life. Now, now, chronic diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension and even some cancers. They eat up the majority of our healthcare spending, and I'm not talking about rare cases, I'm talking about the vast majority of patients that are walking through the door. Now, before you roll your eyes and you think I'm saying it's the patient's fault, it's not.

Speaker 1: 3:52

We live in a world that nudges us towards unhealthy choices from the moment we wake up, and over the last few generations, we've seen less movement, less sleep, more screens, more stress, more scrolling and fewer than ever face-to-face human connections. Just the other day, I had a patient who said hey, I'm trying to clean up my health. I really would like to have healthy snack ideas. I have no clue what's considered healthy anymore, so I recommended that, instead of her ultra-processed granola bar that she maybe consider eating an apple or a banana, I suggested peppers with hummus and a handful of nuts. She looked at me like I was from another planet.

Speaker 1: 4:43

Now that's where we are now as a population. Eating real food is considered going on a diet. The everyday norm has become something in a package, something engineered to last months on a shelf, or something that's been formulated and processed until it barely resembles what came out of the ground. It's not just our food, it's not just what we put on our plates. Our environments are engineered for convenience, not for health. Now we drive instead of walking. We spend our downtime in front of a screen instead of moving our bodies, we send a text instead of socializing in person. Now I'm embarrassed to say this, but I've even decided to not watch a television show because I couldn't find the remote. Now our social lives are filtered, they're fed to us on algorithms, and that constant scrolling is not just a harmless distraction. All of these things are shaping our mental health, our attention spans and even the quality of our sleep. And all of those things, they ripple right back into physical health.

Speaker 1: 6:08

So who's to blame? Who is to blame for the healthcare crisis? Is it the government for failing to invest in prevention, or for not legislating changes that could possibly make our lives healthier? Or for not legislating changes that could possibly make our lives healthier? Is it the individual's fault for falling into the trap of modern habits? Or is it something bigger? Is it a societal shift that needs all of us to look in the mirror and admit that we've designed a world that makes us unhealthy and makes the easy choice, the one that we make Now? There's a cost of not doing anything. If we don't change course, we're pretty much headed for a healthcare system that can't keep up, no matter how many doctors we train or how much money we pour into it.

Speaker 1: 6:59

Now, I've been a doctor for about 19 years. I have close to a thousand patients. I work anywhere from 50 to 60 hours per day. I chart on the weekends and during nights when my kids are sleeping. I fill out forms on Sundays. Look, I'm going to be honest. If I were to win the lottery tomorrow and I've had 20 good years of practicing medicine, I may disappear on a beach island. Look, I really love my job. It's just working in this healthcare system. It's hard, it's hard, it's hard, it's hard. We keep spending billions on medications, on surgeries, on hospitalizations for disease that that could have been prevented or at least delayed with healthier living environments, better food access and education that actually sticks.

Speaker 1: 7:58

A prevention isn't a mystery. It's encouraging people to cook at home more often. It's making sure that healthy food is accessible and affordable. It's designing communities where walking and biking are safe and it's easy, communities that have trails and parks and where people can come together and socialize. Prevention is about teaching kids and sometimes even adults, that eating a healthy and balanced diet can be simple and fun Just eat mostly plants that come in a status close to the way mother nature created them, and by plants I mean fruits and veggies and legumes like chickpeas, beans, lentils and soy products, and nuts and seeds, herbs and spices, whole grains Basically, foods that grow from the ground, from a tree or from a plant.

Speaker 1: 8:54

We need to make sleep and movement and stress management as much a priority in our healthcare system as we do with medication and imaging. It's about lifestyle medicine, using nutrition, movement, sleep, stress reduction, avoiding risky substances and building social connections as the foundation of health. My goal is not just to have that taught in medical school, but in high school, in middle school and even in preschool. This is why I show up every single day. This is why I spend much of my time talking about food, movement and habits, even when it feels like I'm repeating myself, because if we don't address the root causes, then the only thing we're doing is putting band-aids on a broken system. I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I know that prevention matters, education matters and building healthier habits is worth every ounce of energy that we put into it.

Speaker 1: 10:06

If you're listening to this right now, think about one small thing that you could change today. Maybe swap a packaged snack for something fresh. Eating a banana or an apple, or peppers with hummus, or a handful of nuts and seeds instead of an ultra-processed granola bar could be your first step. Consider going for a walk, calling a friend, instead of scrolling for 30 minutes, because if enough of us make these small shifts, we don't just change our own health, we change the pressure on the whole system. It's not the patient's fault, and it's not the government's fault, and it's not the doctor's fault.

Speaker 1: 10:53

We all play a role in how much we tax our healthcare system, and if we burn out the very people that are trying to take care of us, where does that lead us? Lead us? Well, unfortunately, there's already a mismatch in the amount of people providing care and the amount of people needing it. That has accelerated immensely over the last few years and it's just predicted to get worse. A hospital is the last place that you would want to be right now, unless you have an emergency. Now, doctors aren't going to make you healthier. They might patch up a few of the medical conditions that you have to reduce the rates of complication, and that's great, but you absolutely have a personal responsibility and role in helping yourself get healthier, and that starts with the way you eat, the way you sleep, the way you manage stress, the way you move, the things you put in your body, the people you connect with, and whether or not you live a life of purpose and passion that's aligned with your values.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Look, when I think about the future of healthcare, I know this. It's not just about doctors or about hospital or about budgets. It's about us. It's about the choices we make every single day in a world that often makes the unhealthy choice the easy one. It's about remembering that prevention isn't boring, it's powerful and it changes lives.

Speaker 1: 12:41

If we want to ease the pressure on our healthcare system, we have to start with root causes. We need to move more, eat better food, connect with each other, sleep well and care for our mental health as much as we care for our physical health, because every single time that you make a small shift, we're not just helping ourselves, we're helping the whole system. And change doesn't start in a boardroom or in a government office. It starts in our kitchens, in our neighborhoods. Boardroom or in a government office, it starts in our kitchens, in our neighborhoods, our daily routines, and if we choose better. Together we can write a different story for our own health, but also for the future of our healthcare system. We need to protect it so that we can use it efficiently later on when we get sick.

Speaker 1: 13:34

Look, I've had to navigate the healthcare system for myself, for members of my family, for my kids, and it wasn't a pleasant experience, even considering that I have some type of VIP pass. Even considering that I have some type of VIP pass, I can call up a colleague or call up a favor, but still navigating the healthcare system is difficult. So I can't even imagine what it would be like with a single mom with three kids, like the one who raised me, having to bring one of us for an ear infection in the middle of the night and waiting eight hours where she needs to work the next day to put food on the table. Two decades of practicing medicine is that people take their health for granted and everyone who gets sick wasn't planning on getting sick that day. I've been in those shoes, I've been in that seat and I've been on both sides of that desk, as a patient and as a doctor.

Speaker 1: 14:48

The best way to help our healthcare system is to live a life where you don't need it. Cool Right on. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you're a frequent user of the healthcare system, it's not your fault. Everything is engineered to have the unhealthy choice be the easy one, but that's something that we can change and hopefully my content helps nudge you, or nudge your environment, in the right direction. Cool, we'll see you at the next episode. Stay healthy, peace. Hey, everyone, go check out my website, plantbaseddrjulescom to find free downloadable resources and remember that you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Dr Jules Cormier, and on YouTube at Plant Based Dr Jules.