Health. How do you define it? In the 1980’s WHO noted down the definition of health as "your ability to withstand challenges to your health.” So how does this definition of health tie in with the healthcare system we have today? In short, the modern healthcare system is much more about trying to treat illness than it is about optimizing health.

There have certainly been huge advances from treating infectious diseases, making childbirth safer (decreasing infant mortality), hygiene in medical practice/surgery, and trauma emergency medicine -- and big extensions of average human lifespan as a result of these advances. However, modern medicine has made relatively little progress in terms of treating the massive epidemics of chronic diseases in the Western world (obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, autoimmune diseases, etc.)

If you start investigating, you will quickly find that our healthcare system, despite great advances in technology, is still falling behind as it can't keep up with treating the ever-growing epidemics of chronic diseases that result from the mismatch of the way our biology is designed and the modern world in which we live.

At the same time, all these advances in technology (smartphones, health tracking apps, etc.) are here to stay, but they will never be able to advance (fast) enough to save our lives from chronic diseases.

So how do we bridge the gap between the definition of health, technology, and the healthcare system?

If you want to know the answer to this question -- and if you care about your health, then you definitely DO need to know the answer to this question -- then you need to listen to this podcast.

In this podcast, I talk with researcher Dan Pardi, PhDc. Dan is the CEO of humanOS and the host of humanOS Radio. He's a researcher at Stanford University and his specialties include building systems for health, behavior optimization, and habit building. In this episode, Dan and I will discuss the true definition of health, some of the major problems of our current healthcare system, and how we can start using technology to our advantage.

In this podcast, we’ll cover:

• What is the true definition of health? (And why our modern healthcare system doesn't actually have much to do with the true definition of health)
• Dan’s take on what the optimal healthcare system SHOULD look like
• What space travel actually does to the human body (and why that's much more relevant than you think when it comes to your body in the modern world, on planet Earth)
• One of the major problems with our healthcare system
• How the constant technological developments affect our life
• Why is there so much chronic disease in the world today?
• How disrupted circadian rhythm habits affect cortisol
• How (and why) we should use modern technology to support our health
• Is the "you need 8 hours of sleep” advice really supporting your health? (Hint: It’s much more complicated than just "get 8 hours of sleep")
• The #1 reason why research on plants/phytochemicals that impact health isn't being done nearly enough
• Dan’s experiences with the fasting mimicking diet
• Why you can't rely on technology to be able to save you if you get sick
• Dan's top tips to stay healthy in a modern world that isn't very conducive to good health