Food, Stress, and Symptoms: It’s Not Always What You Eat

Ajoke Bamisile — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 20:46:57 +0000

The Unseen Ingredients in Our Health

Racism is more than just hateful words or acts — it’s a system. A system that, as PubMed put it in a 2015 article, creates avoidable and unfair inequalities in power, resources, capacities, and opportunities across racial or ethnic groups (PubMed, 2015). It manifests not only in how people are treated in hospitals or clinics, but in whether they even have access to clean water, safe neighborhoods, or decent food.

As a physician, I see this every day — how racism and poverty intersect to shape a patient’s health. Chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, and depression aren’t just about genetics. They’re often about geography. About stress. About survival.

Cheap to Eat Poorly, Expensive to Eat Well

I remember telling my sisters once: It’s so cheap to eat unhealthy in America. And it’s true. You can feed a family at a fast food chain for less than the cost of one organic salad. But when patients live in areas where healthy grocery stores are miles away, and fast food is on every corner, they’re not “choosing” poorly — they’re surviving the only way they can afford.

Sadly, in this system, it feels like sickness is profitable. It’s hard to shake the feeling that insurance companies and pharmaceutical giants benefit more when people are sick. When you’re well, they don’t profit. But when you’re not — business booms.

Look at your own insurance plan sometime. Really study it. Who does it truly serve? Is it designed to support your well-being… or their bottom line?

The Denial of Dignity Through Policy

We see breast cancer patients denied life-saving chemotherapy. Diabetics cut off from their insulin. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived the frustration of fighting insurance companies just to get patients what they need.

And the worst part? The communities affected the most are often those already marginalized. Systemic racism has forced many into under-resourced neighborhoods where even access to fresh food becomes a luxury. When you add that to generational stress, environmental toxins, and unsafe housing — how can we be surprised by the health disparities?

This Isn’t Just Nutrition — It’s Injustice

People aren’t just “making bad choices.” They are trapped in systems that were never built for their health, dignity, or success. It breaks my heart because I know — if many of these patients had better means, more access, more opportunity — they wouldn’t be stuck in these cycles.

It’s not always what we eat. It’s what eats away at us — the stress, the injustice, the hunger not just for food, but for fairness.

Sources:

PubMed. (2015). Racism as a Determinant of Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4580597/.

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Why Medicine Needs to Start with the Whole Person

Ajoke Bamisile — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 06:08:17 +0000

More Than a Symptom

Remember in a previous post when I shared how I was once written up for spending too much time with my patients?

As I type this, I’m still shaking my head.

What my former employers failed to value was my style of medicine — one rooted in listening, understanding, and treating the whole person. To truly help someone heal, I have to understand why they’ve arrived at this moment in their life with the symptoms or conditions they’re facing. There’s always more behind the diagnosis than a lab result.

Patients need to be heard.
They need to be seen.

How I Practice

I’ve taken care of so many patients that I sometimes underestimate just how impactful my approach really is. It’s not just what I prescribe — it’s the care and time I give to help them feel human again.

I often tell patients:
“I’m your encyclopedia and your Doctor Google — only better.”
You tell me your story, your symptoms, and I start to dig. I listen, I observe, I probe with questions until I begin forming possibilities — not just diagnoses, but understanding.

From there, we go through the process together: physical exam, studies, and a shared discussion about what treatment options might work best — for them. I don’t impose decisions. I collaborate with them, because medicine should never strip a person of their autonomy. It should empower them.

After all, they’ve lived in their body far longer than I’ve known them. My job isn’t to dictate what’s best — it’s to help them understand what their body is telling them, and support them in making it whole.

Listening Heals More Than Pills

It’s frustrating to admit this, but in many healthcare settings, patients are reduced to a number or a billing code. That’s not how I practice.

I know my patients. I learn about their lives — their families, careers, stressors, and the things that bring them joy. Sometimes, an elevated blood pressure isn’t just about salt or weight. It’s about a demanding boss, an aging parent, or a child who won’t give them peace. There are layers to every condition.

We cannot treat those layers with a one-size-fits-all approach — and we definitely can’t medicate every wound.

The Evidence for Whole-Person Care

Research backs what many of us in holistic medicine have always known: emotional, mental, and social health directly affect physical health.

According to the CDC, social determinants of health — including stress, environment, and relationships — account for 80–90% of health outcomes (CDC, 2024).
A study in the Annals of Family Medicine found that patients who felt listened to and involved in decisions reported better health outcomes and higher satisfaction (Annals of Family Medicine, 2005).
Mind-body practices like mindfulness, therapy, and supportive relationships have been shown to reduce inflammation and improve chronic disease management (Harvard Health, 2025).

In other words, healing doesn’t start with a pill.
It starts with presence. With connection. With wholeness.

Thank You

Thank you for taking the time to hear my heart on this. I believe the future of medicine isn’t in more tests or faster visits — it’s in bringing humanity back into the room. And that begins with treating the whole person, not just the condition.

Sources

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2024). “Social Determinants of Health.” https://www.cdc.gov/about/priorities/why-is-addressing-sdoh-important.html
Annals of Family Medicine. (2005). “Patient-Centered Communication & Diagnostic Testing.” https://www.annfammed.org/content/3/5/415

3. Harvard Health. (2025). “How emotions show up in your body (Mind‑body connection).” https://www.health.harvard.edu/mindscape/for-young-people/brain-body-connection