Support groups have been around for ages and meetings used to be only held in person (ie. Alcoholics Anonymous, Weight Watchers, etc). Support groups are one of the most powerful tools one can use to help with whatever they are trying to improve. Now with the internet, these meetings have gone online where people from all over the world can meet in one place. The future is now! (or some corny statement placed here)
Using this thought, last year I decided to create a small private online group for my patients trying to lose weight and use lifestyle as medicine. When comparing the results of the patients who joined this group versus the patients who didn’t, it was pretty astonishing. Those within the private support group lost at least an average of double the percentage of weight than those who didn’t join (granted this was not a randomized control trial). The weight loss / improved lifestyle is great, however the REALLY cool part is the bonding of internet folks who have never met in person and are now supporting each other like nothing I have ever seen.
This past year at Obesity Week, the biggest obesity research/doctor conference in the US (maybe the world?), a presenter by the name of Dr. Sherry Pagota discussed using social media groups to do exactly what I did above. She actually ran formal surveys and found that the support from random internet people was much greater than friends and even more so than family in terms of weight loss. I think it is interesting that someone out there that you don’t know yet is on the internet waiting to be more supportive of you than your mother. In fact I see this in my own private group. It is quite amazing.
The power is in the community. Get a bunch of good people together with one common goal and poof! Magic happens. I am also lucky enough to have met a guy (not in person by the way – online!) by the name of Steven Michael Ledbetter who is helping people like me create these communities. In his research he has found the community aspect online to be nothing short of amazing. Heck there are online support groups for people taking the same medicines to talk about side effects and others to talk about genetic diseases. Being part of a good community is also one of the tenets of the longest living pockets of people in the world – called the Blue Zones!
Anyway if you want to join my online healthy lifestyle community and learn and share ideas with other nice people with a common goal you’re very welcome. You want to live a healthier life, lose some weight, get off medicines, etc – join now via Facebook.
