Every patient is an athlete

An excerpt from Physician—Time to Invest in Yourself: Work-Life Balance, the Needs of the Patient, and Medical-Legal Risk Management. With advances in biotechnology, the average life expectancy is significantly longer today than in the past. As practicing cardiologists, we observe firsthand that even though there are artificial means to prolong our patients’ lives, they are still prematurely aging at an alarming rate. Many are sedentary, overweight, deconditioned, and apathetic. Consequently, they experience heart attacks, strokes, musculoskeletal injuries, cancers, and premature death. The soaring healthcare costs and epidemics of obesity, heart diseases, and cancer are lifestyle-related. Approximately 70% of disease and death is related to lifestyle choices, including heart disease, strokes, diabetes, obesity, and musculoskeletal maladies. We could eliminate more than 50% of these illnesses if we had the constitutional fabric to make healthy behavioral choices. Idleness and fast food are killing us. As physicians, we do what we are trained to do very well—we treat disease. Our training exposes us to every complex disease known to humankind and we learn the methods to control or cure these diseases. However, for a large majority of these patients, their problems are the result of lifestyle choices. Patients would rather take pills or insulin shots to control their diabetes than make the necessary dietary and lifestyle modifications to consume more nutrient-dense foods...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs