Meet Dr. Hugh House
With twenty years of experience as an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine physician, I’m on a mission to help people with chronic pain heal through diet and lifestyle changes.
I'm also a passionate athlete and outdoorsman, and when I’m not seeing patients you can find me hiking, paddle boarding, skiing, playing sports, and spending time with friends and family along the Severn River in Annapolis, Maryland where I grew up.
The Goals of The Real House MD
Goal #1: “ Knowledge is Power” - School House Rock
The vast majority of orthopedic ailments are related to chronic inflammation. By decreasing your body's chronic inflammation you can either avoid many musculoskeletal problems or help your body recover successfully from unavoidable musculoskeletal issues. My goal is to bring awareness to my patients of the link between lifestyle and chronic inflammation. For the last 10 years studying how nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress reduction, and alternative medicine affects chronic inflammation and health overall has been my hobby. RealHouseMD gives me the chance to pass on what I have learned or what I have found to be worth exploring to my patients.
Goal #2: “ If you hear hoofbeats on Green Street, do not look up and expect to see zebras” - Ted Woodward M.D.
Over 90% of my patients have common problems. That means that after 20 years in practice I have likely given the explanation of your illness to hundreds of patients. Unfortunately, studies show that patients only retain a fraction of the information their physician gives them. RealHouseMD gives patients the option to review the information we discussed during their office visit for most of the common orthopedic problems.
Goal #3: “ Nothing taught by force stays in the soul” - Plato
Decreasing chronic inflammation will take some effort and will require some willpower. Many patients have no desire to make lifestyle changes or are not at a point in their life to make those changes and that is perfectly okay. I trained to be an orthopedic surgeon for 10 years and have been practicing for 20 years, and I will treat you no matter what state of health you are in. However, RealHouseMD is my side project and I do hope to motivate a few patients to make changes that will ultimately improve their overall health but at no point do I want to bully a patient who is injured or ailing.
My Take on Health
I have been practicing orthopedics and sports medicine for 20 years. During those years, I have observed that human health falls on a bell curve. To the left are the truly unfortunate. These are the sick or disabled due to injury, genetics, infection, etc. and for them even heroic efforts to improve their health will fail. Think of Stephen Hawking who suffered from ALS. To the far right of the curve are the lucky. Think of the guy who eats like crap, never exercises and has six pack abs, or the woman who has never broken a sweat but still has a figure envied by many. The rest of us are somewhere in the middle of the curve. As we age we will drift towards the left; some of us slowly and others more rapidly.
Where we fall on the curve is not fair, but nothing in life is fair. We all have different genes and some of us are forced to swim in the shallow end of the gene pool. Some of us will have a good metabolism and some of us will not. Some of us will grow up in a culture that promotes a healthy diet and some of us will find ourselves in a situation where a Bic Mac and fries is the most nutritious meal of the week. Some of us will have access to trails, gyms, safe neighborhoods, and money for equipment, trainers, and healthy foods, but others will not. Despite these various circumstances, everyone can do their own best to get on the right side of the curve. The human body can be the machine that carries us on life’s great adventures or the cage that prevents us from going on them. Good health can give us confidence, energy, and time. Maybe a longer life, or just a better short one.
I believe people fall into three categories regarding personal health:
In the first group, and what I consider the majority, understand health, exercise, and nutrition and are living our own version of health. Another group understands health, exercise and nutrition, but are not interested in applying this understanding to their lives. They are willing to roll the dice even though the dice are loaded. They are content with their choice and they will use medicines and surgeries to keep their machine puttering along until it gives out. My main concern is the third group. This group consists of the ones who are doing the best they can but too often they have been misguided, ill informed, and even lied to. They have never been given the correct information or they have been confused by so much bullshit that it is amazing they have not given up. Some believe that health is pure luck based on your genetics or your fortune. They may say that their whole family is big boned or say things like “I would look like that if I had a personal chef,” “I would go to the gym if I did not have to work so much.” Genetics may be preordained and out of our control, but that is not necessarily true of health overall as it can almost always be improved.
Health for Greatness
One of my favorite commercials is the Nike commercial with the obese kid running down the country road. It says “Greatness is just something we made up. Somehow we have come to believe that greatness is for a chosen few, for prodigies, for superstars, and the rest of us can only stand by watching, you can forget that. Greatness is not some rare DNA strand. It is not some precious thing, greatness is no more unique to us than breathing, we are all capable of it. All of us.”
Now insert health for greatness . It is not some rare DNA strand. It is not for a chosen few. It is for all of us. I am not saying that if you eat right and exercise you can be Lamar Jackson or live to 100, but you can be better. It is up to you.
My favorite fictional character is Rocky. This is the classic rags to riches story. In the beginning of the story he is a bum, a two bit loan shark who fights on the weekends for pocket change. He is in the cage. He is lonely, depressed, and inactive. He smokes, drinks, eats like crap, and doesn’t take care of his body. The low point is when the aging gym owner Mickey kicks him out of the gym for wasting his life. Then, by dumb luck, he gets the opportunity of a lifetime to fight the champion Apollo Creed. He does not seem too excited at first but he decides to try. First he improves his diet. He chugs raw eggs but let's assume he starts eating veggies, fruits and lean meats as well. Then he begins to work out and he turns his body into the machine it was meant to be. Not all of us are professional fighters, but we can take the same steps as we prepare for our life. What happens to Rocky next? He gains confidence. He finds Adrianne, the girl of his dreams, he becomes a better friend to Paulie, he finds a father figure in Mickey, he turns his body into the machine it was meant to be and he loses. WTF! You see it is not going to be a perfect ending. You are going to die. You may get sick and injured. You may need doctors, medicine and maybe even surgery. You can get better though, move to the right of the curve step by step. It’s up to you. Start. Discover the roadblocks, fall down and get up, but keep moving forward. Break out of the cage and jump into the machine.