Original subtitles

[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