Dr. Andrew Weil's Self Healing magazine reports: "When athletes want a
competitive edge, they hire a private coach to monitor their progress. When
it comes to your health, using this mindset could also be beneficial. Health
coaches are increasingly being hired by corporations to help employees stay
healthy and by individuals seeking to improve well-being. For some, these
coaches offer assistance in managing dietary constraints (due to conditions
such as celiac disease or diabetes), and for others, they might focus on
teaching stress-reduction methods. In some ways, the health coach picks up
where your physician left off, helping you implement wellness strategies
suggested after a check-up or diagnosis......
"Congress will miss the boat if it ends up perpetuating a system that reacts
to illness rather than preventing it. Chronic diseases such as obesity,
hypertension, and diabetes wreck our quality of life and cost a fortune. In
recent years, a new and intriguing concept has emerged in the prevention and
treatment of chronic illness: the health coach."
NY Times article on coaches.
