Your prognosis for the future: Will “lifestyle therapies” play a greater role in the future, in addition to conventional therapy? Are studies pointing in the right direction?
DR. MED. RAINER MATEJKA:
A few years ago, the WHO already propagated lifestyle factors that are important for the prevention and causal treatment of typical lifestyle diseases: no smoking, maintaining a normal body weight, regular exercise, no constant consumption of red meat - although this very specific recommendation is somewhat surprising compared to the other three more general ones. There is no doubt that healthcare systems will only be able to be financed in the future if more active prevention and causal concepts are introduced. Another increase in statutory health insurance contributions is currently on the cards for 2024. The Minister of Health says that he will not cut benefits. But he should say something: The future of the healthcare system can only be secured if patients actively participate by changing their lifestyle.
PROF. DR. ANDREAS MICHALSEN:
I am firmly convinced that the medicine of the future will to a large extent be optimized lifestyle medicine and naturopathy. The incidence of chronic, lifestyle-related diseases is increasing worldwide. These include not only high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity and lipometabolic disorders, but also cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory diseases to a certain extent, arthrosis and depression. Numerous forms of cancer are at least to a relevant extent lifestyle-related. Sensible causal prevention and therapy can best - and most effectively - be achieved with lifestyle medicine and naturopathy.
Dear Prof. Michalsen, one final question: In your new book, you ask how we can manage to remain mobile and fit into old age despite increasing life expectancy. What is your answer?
PROF. DR. ANDREAS MICHALSEN:
The topic of longevity, healthy ageing, is fascinating from a medical and molecular biological perspective. It is becoming increasingly clear that there is no pre-set limit to the achievable age. But of course we only want to grow older if we spend these years in good health or at least predominantly in good health. In recent years, more and more research has shown that we can indeed influence the biological clock, the cellular and molecular age, and thus delay the onset of age-related diseases.
According to current knowledge, the best methods for this appear to be fasting and caloric restriction, i.e. fasting regularly and reducing calorie intake slightly through intermittent fasting, for example. Add to this regular exercise, meditation or yoga, healthy sleep and warmth stimuli (sauna, Kneipp watering), and you give your body a good basis for reaching old age in good health.
DR. MED. RAINER MATEJKA
Fasting doctor, specialist in general medicine, naturopathy and biological medicine. From 2016 to 2024, he was head physician at the Malteser Klinik von Weckbecker in Bad Brückenau.
He gained his medical experience over many years through his medical work in acute medicine, holistic rehabilitation clinics and his own day clinic in Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe. Matejka is honorary president of the German Naturopathic Association (DNB), chairman of the Medical Association for Fasting and Nutrition (ÄGHE) and editor-in-chief of the magazine “Naturarzt”. He has written several medical textbooks, including one on so-called detoxification therapies, and is known for his wide-ranging lecturing activities at home and abroad.
PROF. DR. ANDREAS MICHALSEN
Professor of Clinical Naturopathy at Charité Berlin and Head of the Department of Internal Medicine and Naturopathy at Immanuel Hospital Berlin-Wannsee.
Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Michalsen, born in Bad Waldsee in 1961 as the son of a Kneipp doctor, is an internist. Nutritional physician and fasting doctor. As Professor of Clinical Naturopathy at Charité Berlin and Chief Physician of the Department of Internal Medicine and Naturopathy at Immanuel Hospital Berlin, he researches, teaches and treats with a focus on nutritional medicine, therapeutic fasting, intermittend fasting and mind-body medicine. Michalsen publishes and lectures internationally in the field of naturopathy and complementary medicine.
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