If you are an African American then
you must be concern about hypertension or high blood pressure. About
45million people have hypertension in the United States. Many folk
who have hypertension are not under control thus more strokes, heart
attacks and kidney failure. New studies suggest that the more lean
body mass that one has, the more likely one is to have better blood
pressure control, when related to stress. Keeping your weight down
and exercising on a regular basis can help control chronically high
blood pressure. Good muscle tone is obtained by lifting weights 3
times a week for at least 10 minutes. For older folk, twice a week
is good. Remember, stretching prevents injury and walking develops
stamina. Go slow and you will do just fine. I am
Health Literacy
Minorities would be better off if they
understood more about the medical conditions that affect them.
Unfortunately, physicians are not compensated well for patient
education. Yet, we know that education is one of the keys to quality
health care. Patients say that physicians do a poor job in this
area, often using words they don’t understand and having no real
desire to educate. In my experience, health literacy is one of the
major reasons health disparities exist and will continue. Excellent
care means different things to different people, but it should mean
always doing what is best for patients. That is difficult to do.
Sometimes patients will not let you do what is best, but the attempt
must be made. Patient satisfaction includes the relationship that
you have with your personal physician. If the relationship is poor,
then you have No relationship.
Honesty in
Medicine
Honesty in medicine
should be practiced by the patient as well as the physician. When
not practiced, the outcome is devastating for the patient (bad
outcomes, complications and death). For the physician, patient
suffering and malpractice headaches are the price paid. The other
day one of my patients declared that she was taking her medications
like she was encouraged to do, but every time she was seen in the
office her medical outcome was not improving. Her daughter
eventually came in to talk with me and we both confronted her about
compliance. Most of the time physicians can tell from lab work,
blood pressure readings, pill counts and physical examination as to
how you are doing. Bad outcomes are directly related to patients’
noncompliance most of the time. When you see your loved one getting
sicker in front of your eyes ask your physicians if compliance is
the issue. My patient stopped taking her heart, thyroid, and
diabetes medications and told her daughter she could not understand
why she had to go to the Emergency room so much. Remember telling
the truth will save your life.
Watch
partners of the hospitalized spouse;
They are risk for early death.
This tip will have
special meaning to many folk with elderly parents of whom one may be
sicker than the other or maybe one parent is the primary caretaker.
A new study in the February 16th edition of the New England Journal
of Medicine reports that among older couples in which one partner is
hospitalized for debilitating illness, the well partner is at risk
for early death. Perhaps this phenomenon is new to you, but
certainly not to me. We have seen this in medicine far too often.
The research, however, shed new light on the fact that the death of
the well spouse and the sick spouse can be within 30 days of the
hospitalization. It is also apparent that older men are more prone
to die earlier than their female counterpart. It also appears that
the diagnosis of dementia or some other mental illness has much to
do with it. Caretaker stress seems to be a major contributor to the
death of the apparent well spouse. If you have parents and one of
them is ill, make sure the well parent is not totally responsible
for the wellbeing of the ill parent.
“Ima gonna”
Surely you know some
folk who make all kinds of promises to do the right thing when it
comes to their health. As you can imagine, I hear this all the time.
I have to ask myself “Who are these folk kidding?” The other day I
received a call informing me that a former patient passed away
because “Ima gonna” never turned into “I did what was recommended.”
Here are a few “Ima gonna’s” that I hear all the time. 1) Ima gonna
start walking next week to keep my diabetes under control. 2) Ima
gonna stop eating when I feel full and before I become
uncomfortable. 3) Ima gonna keep my appointment next time, Doc. 4)
Ima gonna keep my stress levels down at work and at home. 5) This
year I’m gonna take my mediations every day. Transform your “Ima
gonna’s” into “I did.” You’ll notice the differences and be glad you
did. I am Dr. Thaddeus John Bell--- Closing the gap in healthcare.
