Health Questions – what are your toughest questions?

Health is not the absence of disease but the end product of all your habits, physical, emotional and intellectual.  I am regularly asked by patients about what they can do to avoid acute problems in their health and improve some of their chronic problems. They want better health and almost always I recommend they begin to do something new. Usually, this is something simple and they always find something they can implement out of the suggestions I provide.

I would like to answer your toughest questions about health.  Please use the form at the end of the post to give me permission to email you with answers to questions and to submit your questions. Once you have submitted a question and verified that you do want an answer, you will only have to hit reply to emails you receive to ask future questions.

Here is an answer to I question I hear frequently this time of year.  The question is asked by people who come to see me in the Urgent Care Clinic of The NC Family Doctor where I am employed as a Physician Assistant. The question is: “How can I avoid getting sick like this?”  The patient usually has an infectious illness with various symptoms like fever, runny nose, yellow mucus, cough, body aches, fatigue, poor sleep, head ache, sore throat and ear discomfort.

My answer concerns their habits.  I always encourage smokers to consider quitting. Often they tell me they think they should but are not ready and I ask them to make a list of all the benefits of smoking and all the benefits of quitting.  I ask them to post their lists on their mirror and to carry one with them and add to it when ever a new thought occurs. When they get enough reasons to go through the pain of habit change, they will and they will control their oral habit and not gain weight.  I have a few suggestions to help them with this.

Then I ask about how much sleep they get, they need 8 hours of no light hitting their eyes. How often they sanitize or preferably wash their hands. How much non-carbonated, unsweetened, non-caffeinated fluid (water!) they drink – 2 quarts per day is needed when well, more when symptoms occur.  Do they take Vitamin D3 during the year when daylight is shortened?  About 1000 IU (international units) per day for adults over 20 and under 65 is recommended. Do they exercise when they are healthy?  Lifestyle or scheduled exercise with an adequate calorie intake is very important to maintaining the immune system.  Do they eat a diet that is balance in key nutrients.  If they are over weight the ratios of nutrients (fat, carbohydrate and protein) may need to change to induce weight loss.  They have to eat a number of calories adequate for their ideal weight and activity level.

Obviously, this is a grocery list or more like a grocery store inventory and I encourage them to implement as many as they need.  Drinking water, taking vitamins, getting more sleep are all much easier than exercise regularly etc…  I invite them to join my weekly calls and coaching programs so I can help them with questions and with motivation as well as implementation.

What are your questions?  Sign up and ask me anything about your health.

Good Health Habits Lead to Wellness

The New England Journal of Medicine recently featured an article about proposals to change the way medical services are paid for by insurance carriers.  The experiment in Massachusetts, insuring everyone and requiring everyone to be insured, is costing more than the state can or wants to afford. A PDF of the article from the New England Journal of Medicine is linked below.

There are proposals to pay for services in new ways.  I won’t bore you with details that have not been decided.  No where in the proposal is there a provision for holding anyone responsible for their behavior.  Politicians could not do that, they do not want to be held accountable themselves.  There is no funding for research to show what the best health practices are.  There is only fear that those with the least clout financially, will find themselves without access to the best care.

That is no different than it is now.  Care is rationed by cost. Those with money and good insurance get the best care.  If you have ever been in a hospital or large medical organization to receive that care, you know what socialized care is like. I have strong opinions on how this care is delivered but the main issue I want to discuss is how to really cut costs in health care. The answer is to keep people healthy.

How that is done has to do with the motivation of the person and with access to real facts.  Right now, you have to dig for  the truth and it is confused by organizations that evaluate information for “medical truth”.  The truth for Doctors treating illness is different from the truth you need in your home.  The doctor likely has an opinion but what it is based on is something hard for you to find out.  If you just depend on the science, you might die before the real truth is known. There are bits and pieces of evidence out there but it is difficult to piece them all together.

Health care is mostly free!  Health care happens when you brush and floss your teeth. It happens when you eat and drink things good for you and avoid things that are not. It happens when you work your muscles and heart in different ways from taking a walk to mowing the grass or raking the lawn.  It happens when you regularly get enough sleep and at age 50 you get a colonoscopy.  It happens when you take vitamin D3 daily during the winter, or year round if you don’t get enough sun.  Health Care is your personal health habits.

Sick Care is what medicine provides.  Most people come to my office because they need relief from symptoms or an injury. Another large segment of patients need maintenance care for problems that are stable when treated like high blood pressure, low thyroid function and chronic skin problems or headaches.  The rest come when they are afraid symptoms they have might signal a serious underlying problem. Stuff does happen and we can’t prevent all of it but we can prevent a lot and enhance the ability of our body to fight problems and heal much more effectively.

What do you do?  Read various sources. Like they do in certain contests, throw out the low and high scores.  By that I mean, avoid the extremes.  Lower your stress.  Health depends as much on attitude and the way genes are expressed as any genetic code you think you have inherited.  Your body was made to serve you, use it, hard, then rest it. Rest it two ways: first – play and laugh, second – get enough sleep (less than 7 hours is not enough. I can run effectively on 5 but I need 7 to really be well.).  Eat good food! Not perfectly! Just don’t waste nutritional opportunities on junk.  If it come out of a bag or box and the label has more than 3 ingredients, avoid it.  I generally stick to foods with one ingredient on the label.

When you are really confused or want more information then you need someone to coach you.  You don’t need a doctor in that situation (they are for sickness not health). You need information and a group of people who will share knowledge and encourage you. That is why I began this project to assemble a Tribe. To attract a group to support each other and share information and provide living examples of what works and what doesn’t.  I hope you will consider joining this Tribal Council Online.

The End of Fee for Service Medical Care