The Comfort Crisis in the Doctor's Office

3 ways to change the conversation with your doctor for better results.

I’m a big fan of Dr. Lucy McBride. She’s got all the credentials: Went to Harvard Medical School, did her residency at Johns Hopkins, and has been a primary care physician for 25 years. She sees patients from all walks of life, every day—which allows her to pair scientific knowledge with on-the-ground reality in a way most doctors writing about health don’t.

Her Substack Newsletter, Are You Okay?, covers medicine the way I try to cover health and mindset: accurate, yet completely actionable—giving out information that works for real (busy) people in the real world.

So I was thrilled to hear that she’s distilling all of her wisdom into a new book, Beyond the Prescription: A Doctor’s Guide to Taking Charge of Your Health. It comes out August 11 from Simon & Schuster. (Pre-order it here).

We’ve been having conversations in the run-up to the book, and she mentioned something fascinating: she sees the same themes play out in her exam rooms that we write about here—avoiding discomfort is easier in the short term, but it hurts us in the long run.

What she said was an “aha” moment for me. I thought it would be for you too.

I asked her if she’d want to write about it for Two Percent. She said yes, and now here we are. Today, Lucy is taking over.

From here you’ll learn:

• Why people who are doing everything right—diet, exercise, etc—often come to Lucy with scary lab results.

• The underlying problem driving poor lab work in people who live a healthy lifestyle (this is important for all of you—and me).

• Three techniques you must use next time you see your doctor if you want to have great long-term health.

Quick housekeeping

• In case you missed it:

  • On Wednesday, we ran the ultimate exercise for fixing and improving back pain. The research found it came out on top.

  • Friday’s Burn the Ships is filled with my favorite exercises of all time.

  • From the podcast: Tuesday we covered how to find joy in any job and overhaul your finances. Thursday I spoke to Sam Quinones about one of the keys to making hard work pay off, plus his experiences reporting on the drug trade. Watch it here. Listen here.

• Check out the best damn exercise apparel brand in the world: Janji.

  • Janji makes gear built for ultra-distance pursuits. They’re the only company making apparel specifically for the hardest workouts and adventures—my favorite kind. The 7” Multi Short 2-in-1 is my go-to. Find Janji at Janji.com and at REI stores nationwide.