Still Confused About Your Health? THIS Is Why Nothing’s Working | Dr. William Li

1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

   I wanna talk about this era of information overload because I think people can consume all kinds of information now. They can read books, they can watch your YouTube channel or my YouTube channel, and they can get all this information. Yet, I still think with all this information, so many people are confused and they go, "Well, yeah, Dr. Li, you're saying this. Someone else is saying this. Someone else I, I followed online is saying this." And my feeling, and I'd love to know your perspective on this, is that, yes, we wanna listen to experts. We wanna get their advice and hear about the science and the research, but then we also have to then go inwards and go, "Okay, which bit of this advice works for us? I heard Dr. Li say this. I heard Dr. Chatterjee say this. I heard Dr. whoever else say this." But actually, you know what? When I eat like that, that's when I feel good, and I feel we're missing that these days. We- we've outsourced our inner expertise about our own bodies far too much to external experts, and I think that is a massive problem these days that we're not talking about enough.

2. WLDr. William Li1:09

   Yeah, no. Uh, our own health is incredibly personal. What makes me feel good when I make a food decision, or I sit down to make a meal or, or even how I prepare a meal, for example, or if I sit at a restaurant, uh, wh- where I naturally kind of gravitate in terms of ordering food, that's very personal to me. And how I feel about, uh, uh, how I eat and how much I eat and when I eat, these are all, uh, very important factors for health. But, uh, uh, but how it works for me is gonna be different than how it works for you-

3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:42

   Mm-hmm

4. WLDr. William Li1:42

   ... for example, or, or anybody who's listening. So knowing thyself, like self-knowledge, is true knowledge. Every individual needs to reckon and recognize their own self-knowledge, as well of, of self-knowledge, self-limitation, uh, in order to be able to actually advance. And, and you're right. We spend so much time externally consuming information and not enough time, uh, contemplating how we-- what makes us tick, how are we actually doing it. You know, there are, uh... Taking a walk is a solo a- can be a solo activity that allows you to exercise and be in motion. But if you do it by yourself, I mean, some people like to walk with others-

5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:28

   Mm

6. WLDr. William Li2:28

   ... but if you do it by yourself, it's an opportunity to actually calm your mind from other people and think about yourself.

7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:35

   Yeah.

8. WLDr. William Li2:36

   If you meditate, it's another way to actually, um, and, and practice breathing exercise. It's another way to actually center yourself. And I think that, you know, one of the things, even though we talk about healthy foods and we talk about exercise, all these-- we give a lot of recommendations, right? And, and I wanna talk about the information overload sources in, in just one second. But, you know, we give a lot of advice, recommendations because part of our mission, your mission and mine, is to get useful information out to people. But, you know, that's still an external thing-

9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:07

   Yeah

10. WLDr. William Li3:08

    ... to somebody listening to us. What's really important, e- equally important, is that, uh, anybody who wants to pursue better health, take the time to really get to know, uh, uh, how they feel, uh, when they're healthy and how they feel when they're not feeling so healthy, and how individual moves make them feel-

11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:32

    Mm

12. WLDr. William Li3:32

    ... to, to find out what their own path is. Everyone's got their own path. And, and, by the way, uh, I, I would say this again, I mentioned it briefly, personalized medicine is where all medicine is going.

13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:43

    Yeah.

14. WLDr. William Li3:43

    So I don't care if you're in oncology and cancer-- treating cancer, cardiology, treating, you know, blockages of your blood vessels in your heart. The bottom line is that we're all realizing one size doesn't fit all.

15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:53

    Yeah.

16. WLDr. William Li3:54

    All right? And every individual's going to be different and respond differently to the same treatment that we might... Listen, medicine, when, when you were training and I was training, I'm, I'm sure we had some very, very common patterns and themes. One of the themes is that you take an antibiotic, you say-- get right the same dose, and you treat for the same number of days, and you're done. It's like a cookbook that's just supposed to work the same way for everyone, and it's just not so. It's not true in medicine, it's not true in nutrition, and it's not true in exercise either.

17. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee4:23

    Yeah.

18. WLDr. William Li4:23

    And so I think that this whole idea of personalization, uh, having, uh, individuals know themselves is absolutely vital.

19. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee4:32

    Yeah.

20. WLDr. William Li4:32

    Vital to-- as, as a, as a start. And then I wanna say just one more thing about this whole information overload. You know, this is true for children, uh, who are consuming, uh, uh, information, uh, uh, in a very particular way, right? So typical kid in high school is, or junior high school, or maybe even younger, is on their phone scrolling all day long. They're watching TikTok, they're watching-- looking at various things, they're communicating when-- in-- with Snapchat and quick, you know, communication.

21. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee5:03

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22. WLDr. William Li6:00

    It's, it's very externally focused, and it's consumptive. There's an algorithm that, that feeds you more of what you seem to be enjoying seeing or looking at longer.

23. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:10

    Mm-hmm.

24. WLDr. William Li6:11

    But that doesn't actually help you get to know yourself.

25. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:13

    Yeah.

26. WLDr. William Li6:14

    And, uh, and it, it also, uh, doesn't force you to consider the source of your i- information. I think another really, uh, important thing for anybody who is interested in health information from experts is first, try not to listen to everybody and everything. You know, try to pick a few people who, um, are trusted voices. It's up to you to decide how you connect to them. One of the big challenges I think of the online community, whether it's YouTube or, uh, Instagram or these other media platforms, is that anybody can actually deliver information. And any-- And, and, and I think that one of the things that I believe is that people who are trained in health and who do research and who are very careful in their communication and how-- what they're actually projecting, um, uh, uh, because words matter-

27. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:16

    Yeah

28. WLDr. William Li7:16

    ... I think that that's really important, uh, from a, from a source perspective, so you can actually narrow yourself down. Um, you know, pick two or three people that you feel you resonate with, you like their voice, but, but do check into their backgrounds to see if you think that that person should be a trusted resource-

29. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:35

    Yeah

30. WLDr. William Li7:35

    ... um, so you're not getting, uh, wild ideas that may not actually be correct.

Episode duration: 22:15