Welcome to PriusHealth!
At the universities of Gothenburg and Lund we have developed a web-based Health and Lifestyle tool that takes a completely new approach to improve people’s health. The research has been financed by the Wallenberg and Söderberg foundations.
I have worked with diabetes research since 20 years, and my research group has mapped genetic variants and disease mechanisms for type 2 diabetes. In a landmark paper in Science in 2010 we identified how stress and lifestyle diseases are linked, down at the molecular level. The identification of the tight connection between stress and life balance and the risk for lifestyle diseases spurred us to ask how we could better prevent and treat lifestyle diseases by acknowledging that a healthy is more than just food, exercise and medications, that it also involves self-knowledge, stress management, time prioritization, a good working environment, and improved awareness of how small steps in our daily lives affect health.
Thus, the idea to this tool was born. The tool has been developed in a research project since 2013 and is now actively used within a large research study. This is what some of our participants say:
“Despite big pressure on the personal level, with chaos in my surroundings, I look forward to the reflections in front of the computer. Despite all that is happening around me I wouldn’t have been able to handle it as well without these small meditations.”
“I think it’s a fantastic tool that reminds and helps me to keep my thoughts alive all the time. Fantastic images that are a retreat in itself. Thanks again that I was allowed to take part.”
What, then, is the tool?
The tool puts your lifestyle habits into a larger perspective and helps you see how your attitude to food and exercise, stress and life balance, existential questions and relationships all hang together and influence your health. The tool is based on the latest research but uses open questions to inspire you to apply the knowledge in a personal manner in your daily life.
Reactions from patients
Many users talk enthusiastically how the tool has changed how they look at themselves and their health, which affects not only their lifestyle habits but also their basic attitude to life and work.
In today’s media many people claim to have the “final truth” about what is the best lifestyle. We want however to avoid falling into the trap of providing exact lifestyle protocols. That approach has been tested in previous studies but rarely gives long-term effects, simply because there is no final solution to how you in particular should live. Instead, the tool helps you to adapt the advice to your own situation.
I am often struck by the paradox that well-informed physician and research colleagues can listen to a conference talk about type 2 diabetes and heart disease, just to walk out in the break and eat a high-caloric cake with exactly those ingredients that the talk warned against.
That shows that the main problem is rarely lack of information. It is known since centuries that we should eat less and move more. We don’t need a new tool to tell that. The problem it is so difficult to apply this information in daily life. That is why the tool is needed.
A new way to health
Our time is in many aspects dominated by simplistic and rapid answers, and the space for reflection appears to be constantly decreasing. The tool is therefore pointing forward to a new approach to health. The open thoughtful questions that it inspires are needed for us to take a step back and see what gives health in a larger perspective and help us reach a sustainable lifestyle.
We hope that you will feel most welcome and will enjoy the tool!
Anders Rosengren
Leg. läkare, Docent, Göteborgs universitet / Lunds Universitet/ Region Skåne