I’m going to take a holiday break from posting on this blog over the next few weeks. But before doing so, I’d like to share a few parting thoughts as we wrap up the year.
First off, I want to thank all of our patients for making 2025 a huge success here at Dr. Fischer, MD. The growth of the practice was enormous this year and now – less than two years after hanging my shingle – we are at the point where we are full. (I do place prospective new patients on a wait list so that, as people leave the practice, I can replace them with new patients. But we are not looking to grow the practice any bigger than it currently is).
A big thank you to all of our loyal patients and to the excellent word of mouth they provide that has let us grow to full capacity in far faster time than we predicted when we first opened our doors.
Secondly, I want to leave you with some parting words of health wisdom for the year.
One of my favorite aphorisms is “Don’t major in the minors.” In other words, in life you should focus on the biggest, highest yield stuff, rather than the small things that make only a minor difference. If you are learning French, you will get a lot more mileage out of getting really good at conjugating common verbs like “Etre” (to be”) or “Avoir” (“to have”) than by learning something like “Jeter” (“to throw”). If you want to become financially secure, there’s no point in learning the intricacies of the stock market until you’ve first got a basic understanding of your household budget and how to save a little more than you spend at each paycheck.
As it pertains to health, I see a lot of “majoring in the minors.” Patients ask all the time about things like supplements, cold plunges, vibration plates (an invention that is supposed to help improve bone mass) or some other new fad.
None of these are necessarily bad things, but if you’re focused on them while ignoring nutrition, exercise, good sleep, or the avoidance of overtly harmful habits such as smoking or excessive alcohol consumption, you are prioritizing the wrong things. First, get the major things optimized. Then if you feel there are still areas that are lacking with your health, it may be reasonable to begin incorporating some of the “minors” mentioned above.
Taking a vitamin or hooking up a gadget is easy (not cheap, but easy) which is why it’s so appealing. Setting aside 30 minutes per day to exercise, or to cook healthier food, or shutting off the TV at night and going to bed at a reasonable hour, requires more time and effort. But the payoff of these simple habits is likely to be exponentially greater than anything you will ever get from taking a supplement.
The most stunning example of “Majoring in the minors” that I ever encountered was back when I was a resident and admitted a man in his fifties to our cardiac care unit at Rhode Island Hospital with a heart attack. This patient boasted about the several hundred dollars in high-end supplements he took each month, but admitted to smoking a pack of cigarettes daily and eating lunch at KFC regularly. Maybe the vitamins he was taking were good for his health, but clearly – and not surprisingly – they were not enough to overcome his daily consumption of tobacco and fast food. Ergo, he came close to dying of a heart attack well before the age of 60.
When it comes to your health, “don’t major in the minors.” Focus first and foremost on good nutrition, regular exercise, being a non-smoker, and making enough time for adequate sleep.
Thoughts to ponder as we all contemplate our new year’s resolutions.
And with that, I will go offline until after the new year. Wishing you and yours a very happy holiday season, and a healthy 2026. I will be back in January.
