Why Should Health and Wellbeing Matter to Doctors?

Abstract

Health and wellbeing as central to medical practice. In 2015/2016, author was president of the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the revamp of the RACP’s annual Congress, featuring Sir Harry Burns, who gave the closing plenary address, exploring the social determinants of health. The role of chronic stress in disease (from Aaron Antonovsky’s 1979 book, Health, Stress, and Coping). The role of adverse childhood experiences and their effect on the amygdala. The hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis and the hormonal cascade. The brain’s response to stress: allostasis. The concept of allostatic load and its role in chronic inflammation, from the work of Professor Sheldon Cohen and others. The role of inflammation in type 2 diabetes. Sir Harry Burns’ concept of locus of control, and the impact of adverse childhood events on glucocorticosteroid receptors. Sir Michael Marmot and the Whitehall I and II studies. Anaesthetist Robin Youngson and compassion in palliative care. Professor Martin Seligman’s concept of learned optimism. Implications for the future of general practice. The importance of spiritual health to indigenous peoples. Māori model of health (te whare tapa whā) developed by Professor Sir Mason Durie, which incorporates spiritual health. ‘Our patients deserve to be treated as people, but doctors are people too.’