[AMBULANCE SIREN WAILING]
SARAY STANCIC: A code blue is a medical emergency.
It's used in hospitals and institutions
to alert when a patient is in cardiopulmonary arrest.
A team of healthcare professionals
rushes to the patient's location
to administer resuscitative efforts
to revive them.
Today in many ways, it's our society and healthcare industries
that need to be brought back to life.
They need to be ushered into a new era of awareness,
one that prioritizes prevention and healthcare
over sick care.
Until then we're living a societal code blue epidemic.
Health care costs in this country $2.9 trillion per year,
and here's the scariest thing,
chronic illness accounts for 86 percent of that money.
Fifty percent of Americans live with at least one chronic disease.
Fifty percent.
Two thirds of Americans are obese or overweight.
Obesity is fueling chronic illness.
I'm talking about diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, heart attacks,
stroke, Alzheimer's disease.
We're really facing an epidemic,
really a crisis when it comes to a chronic disease.
Thirty percent of American adults
have either type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes.
Autoimmune disease rates are skyrocketing.
Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death.
What we're doing now
is largely treating symptoms of this epidemic.
Rarely are we getting to the root cause of illness.
STEVEN ADELMAN: I think the big problem in health care,
we don't think about behavior change at the right time.
We think about it when it's too late.
What if we spent as much time and energy
thinking about what makes people healthy
as we do thinking about illness?
We are struggling as a field.
We all drank medical Kool-Aid.
Consumers have, doctors have.
You have a symptom, you take a drug.
MICHELLE MCMACKEN: What I really think we need
is a complete paradigm shift.
Well, lifestyle medicine is, I think,
the most exciting trend in medicine today.
ANA NEGRON: Seventy to eighty percent of our chronic illnesses
really can be arrested and reversed.
Change our diets, change our approach, start exercising.
Every student that comes across lifestyle medicine,
they get so motivated. They're like, "This is what I want to do."
MAN 2: These simple changes can make such a powerful difference.
NEAL BARNARD: I'm hearing from a lot more medical students who say,
"We want to learn about this."
CALDWELL ESSELSTYN: Medicine is at the cusp
of what is truly a seismic revolution in health.
Imagine if the news were to break tomorrow.
There's a new drug available, just approved by the FDA.
It's available in bountiful supply.
It is shockingly inexpensive,
stunningly free of side effects,
safe enough for children and octogenarians alike.
And taken once daily for the rest of your life
will reduce your risk of ever getting
any major chronic disease by 80 percent.
Who would not want a prescription for this drug?
Lifestyle is exactly that medicine
and all too few are taking it.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
[HEART RATE MONITOR FLATLINING]
[HEART RATE MONITOR BEEPING]
PILOT: [OVER PA SYSTEM] Make sure prior weather shift distance is appreciated.
Flight attendants at this time, prepare the cabin for landing.
-[PA SYSTEM BEEPS] -Now is a good time
to power down your larger electronic devices.
We will ask you to put away your devices in a few moments.
Small, handheld electronic devices may be used in airplane mode.
[SERENE MUSIC PLAYING]
STANCIC: I'm sort of at this stage in my life
that I don't feel like I have to prove anything
to myself or to anyone else.
I just do this because I love it,
and I think it's amazing that I can do it.
And the fact that I can climb
and make my way over these big boulders