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I hate to say “I told you so” but go back to my blog SMART PHONE DOCS VS. WISE PHYSICIANS. 3/30/13 and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
In reality in between reading and entering all data into a tablet or laptop young physicians in training have unbelievably little time to get bedside exposure/training. Without the latter the doctor will turn out to be a poor clinician maybe a great clerk at best. Forget about bedside manners I’m talking about listening to your heart, lungs, examining your bodies- something no application or scan will ever be able to replace. It’s very scary! But look at this recent article.
Docs-to-be spending less time bedside
Clinicians-to-be are losing touch, according to a recent Johns Hopkins study, which clocks the time medical interns spend talking and examining patients at 12 percent, superior only to time spent walking about a facility (7 percent) and partaking in other miscellaneous tasks (9 percent).
“One of the most important learning opportunities in residency is direct interaction with patients,” said Lauren Block, MD, a clinical fellow in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and leader of the study, in a prepared statement. “Spending an average of eight minutes a day with each patient just doesn’t seem like enough time to me.”
How much experience can a future doctor gain in 8 minute? What kind of message is being sent to this and other doctors about the value of a clinical exam and history?
They spend 7% of their time walking the halls of hospitals and only 12% with patients! Amazingly frightening at best! Watch out America the future of healthcare is on a downslide and headed towards disaster unless we return to ‘Doctor Care’ instead of Obama care , insurance company mandated and directed care. The strides , leaps and bounds achieved by American Medicine is in danger of becoming a ‘heartless’ bureaucracy which will have little to do with your health and well being. The spirit of medical care in the US is being sapped by insurers, governmental agencies, malpractice attorneys and the ever increasing effort to make everything computerize, paperless and certainly ‘BRAINLESS’ !
I’m not saying to abandon the toys; I’m saying not to abandon the patient and prioritize once again (before it’s too late) just how we train tomorrow’s physicians, including getting back to the wards, bedsides and thorough clinical exams. Some things just cannot change; without jeopardizing the whole!
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It’s amazing how the smartphone is slowly becoming as invaluable as an automobile professionally, socially and perhaps mostly psychologically. Of course before we had cars people would walk more and obesity, diabetes and heart disease were less rampant. Socially we made great efforts to ‘break the ice’ with other people and developed our people skills rather than having others do so for us on Social Media Sites; where we’d often fill in the blanks. Now that so many people have a smart phone today’s youth are lost without texting (as they have no need to talk-not even on their cell phones- if they can avoid it) the use of their calculators or ability to Google a subject; rather than reading a book or an article at a library or book store ( the latter of which has already seen a decimation by online downloads to a kindle, nook etc.) People would gather at a library or book store where social and intellectual exchanges were common place. Who knows perhaps many close friendships, dates, engagements and even marriages may have resulted from these ‘primitive’ hangouts. How do you hang out at with a ‘Nook’? Where have these antiquated places gone? and are we better or worse off as a result? Where are we headed?
In fact we used to walk for miles at a time whereas today many people boast if they can walk around the block. You don’t want to walk all day or very long distances and cars are a must; yet like our computers and TV sets we find it hard to turn them off. Walking rather than driving everywhere we went was extremely relaxing and allowed us to in fact meditate as we walked (although we never thought about it that way); ideas and inspirational thoughts often coming to us. The term ‘walk it off’ had real meaning. We used our hearts as well as our bodies towards our benefit. Once we start up our cars today we’re instantly flooded with various forms of media cluttering our brains and stressing our minds. Our hearts never got into the car as there was no room for meditative, spiritual relaxation as our evolving mode of transportation was an additional source of stress in itself (traffic, watching the road, texting, phones (Bluetooth or not) , and rush to get to where we were going) made sure that relaxation and inspirational thinking were much less likely to be experienced. After all when our God given feet take our bodies for a walk there is a certain biological- spiritual hard wiring and team effort towards achieving a healthy mind, body and spirit. Not so with the couch potatoes, mechanical media blank mindsets, texting trendies we have become.
As we become more and more connected to and controlled by our peripheral brain applications and gadgets we move further from our minds and hearts; unless we take sorely needed breaks.
“Memorial Day weekend is a good time to ……… start small. Don’t try to go 72 hours without e-mail; begin by promising your family one tech-free meal every day this weekend.”
“I think that a three-day weekend provides a unique opportunity for people to unplug and decompress because there is a tradition of people going away. So the expectation by the boss that you will be reachable at a moment’s notice is likely to be less,” she said. “I do think there’s hope. When people are given achievable steps, they start seeing that there’s a difference.”
_By Bob Sullivan of NBC News
We must also learn to speak to one another again without catch phrases and texting clichés or we will lose our ability to connect spiritually; although we’d be fooled to think that we are already connected socially. Studies have shown a trend towards a smartphone being favored over serious social coupling.
Given the choice, the majority of the women in the U.S. said they would rather give up sex than their mobile device for a week, according to a survey.
“Fifty-seven percent of U.S. women would choose their mobile device over sex, according to a survey released Wednesday by AVG Technologies, an Internet security and optimization company.”
We’d be left with plenty of gadgets, networks, social site memberships all along risking subjugation by loneliness and an ‘empty heart’!
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No matter what we do , we do it better when our ‘hearts are in it’. In today’s age of over bombardment with multi sourced technology driven needs to multitask, we are on the verge of being multi stressed out! When President John F. Kennedy faced with the Cuban missile crisis, civil rights and economic woes was asked how he is possibly able to handle it all? He responded ” I think and act upon one problem at a time.”. Thus he did not multitask! In fact it’s been shown in recent studies that those who multitask seem to do worse !
http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/08/27/excess-multi-tasking-has-downside/8013.html
In the long run this can harm not only productivity but the brain as well. (see below)
I’m fully aware of that fact. What I want to share with you is how conscientious, caring individuals who put their hearts into their work are overwhelmed and being told or self propelling themselves into ”multitasking”; these people in fact have a greater chance of getting sick! STRESS! Headaches, palpitations, fatigue, chest pains, depression.. I see it all the time ! It’s well known that complex mental math exercises can raise the human heart rate much higher and faster than moderate exercise on a treadmill for ten to fifteen minutes. Perhaps doing things according to a ‘one task at a time’ routine will result in the ability to more successfully achieve multiple tasks while not jeopardizing our mental and physical health in the long run .
I should be one to talk . I have no choice but to multitask most of the time. I can’t deny enjoying many applications that allow me to do so. But I draw the line! I will be the master but never the servant of any technology! How do I do it? I multitask but do so with ‘multi mini breaks ‘ whether these are physical or mental in nature. So in essence I guess I try to avoid allowing my activities from being run by an Electronic Health Record(EMR), a phone app, or any “system” ( I even try to dodge hospital based mandatory computer entry of data, orders etc. as long as I can get away with it legally). After al we are all human beings with unique individual identities that can never afford to be ‘lump summed’ into any group, category, application or artificial entity. Therein lies the power of the human spirit; and I for one am never giving that one up!
Be good to your heart and it will reward you for many years to come; perhaps even reducing the need of having to see me or my colleagues in the foreseeable future !
http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/08/27/excess-multi-tasking-has-downside/8013.html
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Social Media and Good Health: “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” 4/5/2013
An unhappy heart, broken heart belongs to a person who imagines they are lacking in love.Did you know how much love energizes each of us? You probably know. A lack of energy is almost always associated with illness . It’s quite unfortunate that so many people feel unhappy and even unloved. They seek surrogates of quick fix joy rides through sex, drugs,money, power, alcohol and various other dependencies. Perhaps they are truly denied any form of love, maybe they just don’t recognize its’ presence; regardless love is more than just something we find in relationships. Love is a complex feeling stemming from the border of heart-mind-body-spirit-soul. It is intangible yet extremely felt. Love is more than just something you create or find.In fact love often finds you; if you only learn to open up and allow it to enter! What’s all of this to do with being a doctor? A cardiologist? A wise old physician in his 90′s I once heard about through my brother once told a friend at the gym;”it’s all about love!”. You all know how bitterness, resentment, hatred, anger and jealousy consumes the one who feels it infinitely more than it does their targets. So in this age of social media, twitter, Facebook, others .are we able to text or post this most important sentiment or are we creating a new age shell of protected semi-comitment to anyone including ourselves- devoid of meaningful love? It’s too bad because love energizes you even if you have no idea where it is coming from? How can it get better than that? It’s out there just open your heart and let yourself feel something you love and you will get it going! Love e a feeling in your heart towards your child, parent, spouse, friend, people you’ve never met, nature, the universe; anything that brings the warmth to your hearts.Yet to receive is not enough.Doing anything for the benefit of another, being generous, helping out, donating your money or efforts all elicit love. Love is a visitor that needs to be allowed or projected forward to be shared by others selflessly. So pass it on. Can you do it with your voice? Probably better than with a text.
Have we become the generation shedding its’ warmth and emotional side?
Loneliness probably kills more Americans than anything we can think of. So thank God for social media; it definitely fills a void! The only problem it is too artificial to carry complete messages and feelings of the human spirit. The human voice is a much better vehicle for messages of the heart-spirit-soul!
It’s unfortunate that so many people accept the lack of love in their lives instead of seeking it out every single opportunity they get.
Love is one of the few first hand emotions! It’s as real as anything will ever get!
If so are we inviting illness into our lives? Even if at first only psychological but sooner or later physical I can guarantee.
Controlling our emotions is good to some degree; ignoring them is bad to any degree. Listen to your heart it will guide you even if in the wrong direction; it’s better than being stationary. Each wayward path may be a shortcut to your true destiny and happiness/ Most important of all don’t give up hope; even more so learn to have faith and be grateful for the little these are an integral part of love and your key to good health and happiness.
Every day try and ‘reach out ‘ to another person. Not by e mail or texting! Call or speak to one another as love will find it easier to travel in this natural medium more so than it ever can by social media.Make my job easier and your own health much better!
Tags: cardiology > Dr. E.Michael Weiss > Dr. Emmanuel M. Weiss > Dr. Michael Weiss > Dr. Michal Weiss > Listening to your Heart without my stethoscope > Love > Love and Health > Medicinefrommyheart.com > mind-body-spirit > Social Media > What's Love Got To Do With It? First hand emotion
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SMART PHONE DOCS VS. WISE PHYSICIANS. 3/30/13
AS I’VE STATED IN MY RECENT, BLOG THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE USE OF ELECTRONIC MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY AS IT SERVES TO IMPROVE THE HEALTH AND OUTCOME OF OUR PATIENTS.
IT’S ALMOST LIKE A STETHOSCOPE WHICH SERVES TO AMPLIFY WHAT THE DOCTOR HEARS AND THEREFORE HELP SOLIDIFY THE CONCLUSIONS HE OR SHE COMES TO BASED ON CLINICAL ACCUMEN.
NOW JUST IMAGINE A NEWLY RELEASED STETHOSCOPE THAT INTERJECTS POP-UP COMMERCIALS AND SUGGESTS A DIAGNOSIS BASED ON AN ACOUSTICS CROSS-REFERENCED DATA BASE LOCATED ON SOME ELECTRONIC CHIP FOR VARIOUS AILMENTS. AGAIN ONE HAS TO BELIEVE IN THE ABILITY OF THE HUMAN MIND TO FULLY INTEGRATE EXPERIENCE , KNOWLEDGE, INTUITION AND THE ABILITY TO INTERACT THEM ALL IN ORDER TO FORMULATE A DIAGNOSIS; IS MUCH MORE POWERFUL THAN ANY CONCEIVABLE TOOL , TECHNOLOGY WILL EVER BE ABLE TO PROVIDE.
LET’S TAKE THIS ONE STEP FURTHER AND SUPPOSE YOU BELIEVE THAT THIS TOOL DOES EXIST OR AT LEAST WILL BE DEVELOPED SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE; WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN? BESIDES DOING AWAY WITH LISTENING TO THE HEART LUNGS OR OTHER AREAS OF THE BODY WITH A STETHOSCOPE.
FIRST OF ALL IT WOULD MEAN THAT YOU TRUST COMPUTERS TO HAVE LESS GLITCHES VERSUS HUMAN ERROR. EVEN IF YOU BELIEVE COMPUTERS CAN BE TAUGHT TO BECOME INTUITIVE CAN IT EVER COMPARE TO HUMAN INTUITION? (NOT THAT I BELIEVE THEY CAN- I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE WITH CURRENT THOUGHT ON THAT ISSUE!)
WHAT ABOUT THE ‘WORRY’ FACTOR THAT I TALKED ABOUT AND MY OTHER BLOG?
WILL THIS HIGHLY EVOLVED INSTRUMENT GO HOME THAT EVENING OR BE PLACED IN SOME DRAWER AND SUDDENLY COME TO A REALIZATION THAT PERHAPS A MISTAKE HAS OCCURRED OR A DIAGNOSIS NOT PREVIOUSLY FORMULATED SHOULD NOW BE ENTERTAINED? NO! ONE CANNOT EVER TEACH, AT LEAST IN MY LIMITED CONCEPTION, CONSCIENTIOUSNESS TO ANY TYPE OF EQUIPMENT. ONCE YOU HAVE PUSHED ENTER OR HAVE TURNED OFF THE SWITCH THE GAME IS OVER. NOT SO WITH A HUMAN BEING WITH THE HUMAN COMPASSIONATE CARING PHYSICIAN WHO’S WORRYING DOES NOT END AFTER OFFICE HOURS.
SO BEWARE MY YOUNG COLLEAGUES OF TODAY AND TOMORROW; OF ELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS IN THE MEDICAL FIELD THAT MAY BE INFILTRATED BY COMMERCIALLY BIASED DATA. WHO IS TO SAY THAT COMMERCIAL AS WELL AS LEGISLATIVE MODIFIERS TO OUR ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD AS WELL AS GENERAL TECHNOLOGY WILL NOT INFILTRATE MODERN MEDICAL CARE AS YOU AND I KNOW IT TODAY; NOT AS IF IT HAS NOT ALREADY STARTED? AS LONG AS ONE REMEMBERS THAT WHEN TECHNOLOGY COMES TO THE AID OF THE PHYSICIAN IT IS IMPORTANT AND RELEVANT; WHERE AS WHEN IT TRIES TO INTERFERE OR SUBSTITUTE WITH THE JUDGMENT OF THE PHYSICIAN IT BECOMES DANGEROUS!
AN OBSTETRICIAN Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (German-Hungarian) physician …
who discovered the cause of puerperal (childbed) fever and introduced antisepsis into medical practice ,TAUGHT US ABOUT DECREASING MORTALITY BY WASHING OUR HANDS BEFORE PERFORMING SURGERY. SO TOO MUST EACH PHYSICIAN CLEAR THEIR THOUGHTS OF ANY BIASED INFLUENCE WHICH MAY AFFECT THE BEST POSSIBLE OUTCOME FOR EACH AND EVERYONE OF THEIR PATIENTS! (BY THE WAY TECHNOLOGY CAN POTENTIALLY AND IT DOES AS I HAVE ALLREADY SEEN, MAKE THE PHYSICIAN SUBCONCIOUSLY OR CONCIOUSLY LAZIER AND DECREASE THEIR THINKING POWER!)
IT’S NOT THAT I AM AN ALARMIST OR A PROPONENT OF CONSPIRACY THEORIES. EVEN THOUGH SOME PEOPLE MIGHT SAY “JUST BECAUSE I’M PARANOID DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE NOT OUT TO GET ME”.
AT THE VERY END OR PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANT AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THIS WHOLE DISCUSSION LIES THE THE REALITY AND IMPORTANCE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT.
I AM QUITE CERTAIN THAT THIS WILL NEVER BE REPLICATED OR IMITATED IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM (NOT THAT WE KNOW ITS SHAPE OR FORM AT THIS TIME) BY ANY LABORATORY OR BY ANY START UP TECHNOLOGY COMPANY FOR THE REST OF TIME! THANK GOD FOR THAT!
AFTER ALL HUMANITY NEEDS THAT IMPORTANT EDGE WHICH NO ONE CAN EVER TAKE AWAY FROM US!
I WELCOME YOUR THOUGHTS AND HAVE A GREAT DAY!
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Just how is technology going to effect healthcare in the near future?
I strongly believe that technology can reduce costs and streamline paperwork and bureaucracy which will definitely lower costs for healthcare as we know it. The question then remains at what cost to patients as human beings, society and the ethics of medical care as a whole will the impact have. Starting from a very simple statement made by Hippocrates the father of medicine “The first good a physician shall perform is not to inflict harm.”
If you think about it; when you give up control of your own conscientious efforts to that of a computer or some form of artificial intelligence or technology you have compromised your ethics and put the patient at risk of computer/techno errors!. It’s not difficult to understand how human error can be much easily detected and corrected before an unnecessary morbidity or mortality may occur. You see to worry about the patient is an essential obligation of any physician. There are no Apps out there that can ever replace the ‘worry’ – ‘concern’ factor of your doctor. In fact by relying on some smart phone or EMR (Electronic Medical or Health Record reminders- which by the way are flooding the nation) instead of assuming the responsibility on your own to worry about each and every single one of your patients you are performing an extreme disservice if not a direct harm to your patience!
The other side of the coin is as technology becomes the norm so will the inherent errors and problems associated with it become more and more accepted by physicians, insurers and society. In essence we have become a society of convenience and technology and are shedding ourselves of intellect and responsibility. What happened to the expression “leave the toys at home”?
Let’s take some examples for instance you’re trying to call your doctor how has this process changed? It has become very common for physicians offices to place their phone on or recording rather than use multiple lines or call waiting. This is a result of both available technology and the necessity to cut down on staff due to insurance reimbursement. I guess that’s okay for Sears Macy’s, Walmart or other large businesses that do not involve human life and health.( Not that it’s a pleasant experience) Yet there’s a certain ire that runs within me (especially since I am a physician!) when I call another physician’s office and I get a recording stating “we are either on another line or busy please hang up and call back later”. I got the exact same message the other day when I was trying to locate a colleague. Imagine if the call had been initiated by a patient having a heart attack and not knowing whether to call 911 or not? Nobody is happy to what happened to customer service since the recording technology and menu options from simple phone calls has flooded our nation. Especially since people are also prompted to “ visit us online” for any further questions. I’m sure that similar messages are popping up in physicians offices throughout the nation. It has become routine or periodic for physicians voice recordings or voice messages to patients to say “if this is an emergency go to your nearest emergency room or call 911”. Do the insurers or legislatures ever consider how much money could be saved if physicians were not forced to cut down on staff from answering calls and preventing unnecessary hospital visits costing billions of dollars each year? Has technology turned us into a bunch of buffoons?
How do you like electronic medical records? If you are a doctor you will have difficulty at least in the beginning in trying to deal with the mechanical object while at the same time trying to deal with the human being who is your first priority. As this will take up more and more of your time as a physician you will have less and less time to actually spend with patient contact. Sure the insurance companies and the federal agencies will have clearer and nicer documentation of the patient’s medical records in addition to a lot of unnecessary garbage/fiction content made up by the companies who sell and manufacture these products. I will admit that many physicians have outlandish handwritings. Yet these very same physicians have outstanding patient care outcome results. If these very same physicians were forced into adapting to this electronic medical disaster mode there is no way will they have the similar beneficial results with their patients.
There is no question that technology can enrich and extend our lives and enhance the quality of being alive. Yet to just get dumped onto the run away train of electronic health records/medical care – and replace the conductor-physician with a government and insurance mandated drone is a certain invitation to attack our patients rather than to help them as our calling would dictate.
Sure many patients will say “My Doc is up on the latest!” what they wont realize that it’s a glitzy technology with formulas and algorythms intended to tell your doctor how to treat you (favoring the insurance companies –not the patients) and even sending profiles of how physicians sway from their ‘norm’- ! Big Brother has come to medicine- except this time the drone is the your doctor hooked up to an electronic health record who holds your fate in his or her hands- or should I say keyboard?
Your thoughts???
Michael Weiss
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You’ve all been in my heart since my last posting. Natural disasters throughout the globe, economic disasters, planetary discord, wars, revolutions, climatic catastrophes, political uncertainty and just turn on the news for more. Increased stress and negativity, doubt and uncertainty have rocked the world to react from its own heart. We are approaching a critical time where people would rather smile than frown, laugh than cry, make peace than wage wars relax and show kindness rather than the status quo. Our opportunity for planetary growth is at our doorstep; not even asking for an invitation to enter; only a moment of your awareness. The planetary pains, are a warning sign of a global heart attack to come. There are no pharmaceutical, surgical or medical therapies to averting this sort of catastrophe. There’s but one hope, cure and treatment to this very tangible global disorder and it lies within YOU; within ALL OF US! I’m talking about the HUMAN SPIRIT! We created our problems collectively; we can and must resolve them together. It is time to overlook our differences and fall in love with our commonalities. WE ARE AT THE THRESHOLD OF GLOBAL SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION MANKIND HAS NOT KNOWN BEFORE! We have the knowledge, whereabouts, and tools to succeed in recapturing and solidifying our health, happiness, and mostly; OUR HUMANITY! We are ready to be more, loving, forgiving, aware, accepting, caring, KIND, confronting our SPIRITUAL sides and reaching out to others; as we begin to OUTGROW OUR OLD BODIES! THER’S NO DOUBT WE ARE DEFINITELY CHANGING! TAKE AT LEAST A FEW MINUTES EVERY SINGLE DAY TO RELAX, MEDITATE, PRAY AND TO FEEL THE LOVE IN YOUR HEARTS! IF YOU ONLY SPEND AS MUCH TIME AS WATCHING THE NEWS; YOU WILL LIVE LONGER AND BE HAPPIER! THERE’S MORE TO ALL OF YOU THAN YOUR BODIES! For those who are not yet in the process ; let me know how you feel after even ONE DAY, let alone ONE WEEK of these exercises. So learn to LET GO AS YOU ALLOW YOURSELF TO GROW! EXPERIENCE HOW GREAT YOU REALLY ARE! The world will be grateful and YOU WILL REALLY LIKE THE NEW YOU; AS YOU EVOLVE!
PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES AS OUR SIMILARITIES FLOOD OUR DIFFERENCES!
Tags: FINALLY A BLOG DEDICATED TO HEALTHY COMMUNICATION BETWEEN HEARTS
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As the new House tries to repeal Obama care, stay tuned for a fight to the finish. It is mostly physicians who advocate for their patients; yet they will be the least important players. Powerful Insurance companies will undoubdetdly continue to influence the outcome of who gets most of the insurance premium dollar (currently, they do. No MD title, no liability, no charitable care as hospitals and physicians do.Simply bottom line profits.This is not Healthcare but the American people getting “the business” or “shaft”!) First and foremost YOU MUST BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE AND START TAKING BETTER CARE OF YOURSELF OVERALL. Then I urge you to be an advocate for yourself and fellow Americans by turning over more control to your physicians and less to Insurers and the Government. I SAY THIS BECAUSE MOST PHYSICIANS NOT ONLY CARE FOR , BUT TRULY CARE ABOUT THEIR PATIENTS! SAend me your views, inputs. Happy New Year!
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There are many types of health interventions. There is Medicine (oral, intravenous, suppositories, transdermal pharmaceutical agents etc.). Then there is Surgery a more invasive, risky but often necessary modality in disease management. Then of course there are many legitimate and more dubious alternative modalities that can leave a person cash poor and health free at times. What is not talked about, advertised (as there are no sponsors)( in fact they’d rather you don’t know) is the most vital part of your healthcare needs. Lately this has in a shadow like form been brushed off as Prevention or Preventative care. This is not profitable to the huge billion dollar drug industry, no’r the high tech medical equipment and procedure end of care.I am talking about a concept that is not new! I am reffering to SELF CARE! Addressing your normal needs and requirements which include yet are not limitted to: emotional and psychologic health, companionship, exercise, daily activity and social interactitions, adquate nutrition ( adequate not OVERADEQUATE), eating to satisfy our needs not our run away apetites which are often comercially teased into our lives.Rest and relaxation, minimizing or handling your daily stress and stressors. Common sense remedies you don’t need medication or doctors for. Manage your diet, weight, activity and anxiety levels to a reasonable degree and you will avoid trouble. At the same time don’t wait if you do require medical attention, as treatable problems may become untreatable. Attending social and religious gatherings has been proven to add years to your life. In fact a recent article in the Journal of thr American Cancer Society (July 23, 2010 )— “Sit at leisure, die at haste, an American Cancer Society study finds.
In the 14-year study, people who spent at least 6 hours of their daily leisure time sitting died sooner than people who sat less than 3 hours.
And people who both sit a lot and exercise little are at even higher risk of death, find ACS epidemiologist Alpa V. Patel, PhD, and colleagues.
The effect is stronger for women than for men, but significant for both sexes.” So common sense and SELF CARE can make a “Life” of a difference; take some steps now.
Listening to the messages and hints your own body gives you is of utmost importance. Eating foods which are appealing to your eyes and apettites but land you in the ‘john’ in no time are perfect examples of direct messages from your body! So listen. You will eventually discover healthy foods you can tolerate and enjoy as the body gives it’s final blessing!
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With our economic uncertainties, unemployment rates on the rise, the fear of nuclear confrontations it’s a wonder our whole nation is not in therapy. It is during these times of undue stress that we tend to awaken to our humanity which can bring us closer. This is exactly the antidote of our problems, greed, hatred, war, intolerance which threaten our very existance. By comming together as a planet we stand a good chance of learning to Love instead of improving our technologies to decimate! Get closer with a friend or loved one and strengthen the bonds as you become a planetary building block and example to others and make it ‘viral’ as you learbn to spread the message of love, tolerance, compassion and kindness. These later weapons can easily difuse the bombs we’ve created to destroy the precious Life we all have yet to enjoy!
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as a board certified cardiologist in practice for 25 years I have had the opportunity to examine many patients who suffer heart attacks (myocardial infarctions). Mainstream medicine and clinical trials concentrate on important Framingham risk factors which allow us to calculate herart attack, stroke, cardiovascular death risks by clinically studied factors. High blood pressure, diabetes, elevated cholesterol levels,cigarette smoking, strong family history of coronary heart disease and lately to alesser degree obesity and to the least addressed (ie. would tell you it’s least important ‘psychosocial stress’). Yet 30%-40% or more of patients do not have traditional major risk factors. We spend much energy, time and money in the pharmaceutical arm of combating heart disease. In my experience there is almost always a related or recently occuring physical and or mental (psychosocial ) stressor which precipitates heart attacks. In fact one recent study showed that during severe stress the blood flow (coronary blood flow) to the heart actually decreases. Almost as if stress were some sort of built in self destruct mechanism. Stress also elevates blood pressures, cortisol levels, blood sugars; it even cause your blood to be thicker.All of this favors heart attacks and perhaps even strokes. Yet there is not much in the form of multibilion dollar pharmaceutical like equivalents in the relaxation, yoga, psychology or psychoanalytic industry. It’s somewhat paradoxical that drugs which alter your mood (antidepressants, anti anxiety, antipsychotics) are the top 3 drugs sold. It seems we’d rather take a pill than a tai chi or yoga lesson. Most insurers (probably all) no longer pay for psychiatric analysis sessions. They do pay for limited counseling sessions from social workers or psychologists.Whereas cholesterol lowering medications are almost 100% covered by many. So stress can and will kill you if you allow it to. Yet we are not encouraged to deal with stress but rather to treat associated disorders such as blood preesure, diabetes, cholesterol , heart diseases etc. They will pay for the later (conflict of interest?) but not for the former.
I firmly believe mental stress of all and any forms can precipitate a heart attack, stroke and sudden cardiac death. There I went on th record. (Not that there weren’t studies to suggest the same only their scope was limitted because most finacial backing for clinical trials is paid for by the pharmaceutical industry and to alessor degree the government, whom they lobby quite powerfully.
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There are so many deifinitions to new age or alternative medicine that dozens if not more books have been written and continue to come out. Anything from herbs, yoga, tai chi, meditation, dream analysis (Freud might have been an alternative healer), religious or spiritual based, hand on or even off touch healing (ie. Instantaneous Healing), Tbetian medicine, past life regression, Chakra based therapies,and reconnective healing just to name a few. This may seem unusual for someone who practices cardiology.Yet you will undestand why that is not the case.
There are personal additions to the alternative that various individuals (such as myself) add and keep adding based on their own experience, succes and expertise.
Just as in Mainstream or Allopathic (science based medicine of today) which is my primary practice; newer additions (such as newer findings in medical scientific journals) are being introduced as you read this sentence. Some are simply rediscoveries perhaps lost hundreds or thousands of years ago others are new age innovations intended to improve your state of health and well being.
My own belief is to utilize the very best medical science offers. However I’m working on creating a bridge between modern science, in my field of cardiology, and important alternative and perhaps even many common sense approaches tossed aside in favor of technology which is easier to use and requires less of a thought process. For hundreds of years medicine has been described as both an art and a science. The art is the alternative, new-age or integrative part. Yet we have abbandoned the art in favor of science. This imbalance has lead us to practice a form of heartless or spiritually lacking medical system with ensuing problems which are now begining to surface more than ever. In cardiology I just happened to view thousands of hearts using various technological imaging modalities. I believe I’ve become aquainted with the human heart. I belief the heart is a uniquely spiritual as well as physical organ. Perhaps all cells in our entire body have some form of spirituality (read Dr. Bruce Lipton’s ‘The Biology of Belief’) At the same time I went through my own transitions and realized that not al in general medicine and cardiology is physical. Perhaps it is mostly non-physical.Based upon my findings I describe Non Physical Medicine in my book Listening to your Heart Without my Stethoscope. Some people reffer to this as psychology, others as new-age it matters very little as I unabashedly recognize the dual physical and spiritual (non physical ) nature in mankind especially familiar to me in my own patients. Making use of the non physical to hand in hand with the very best medical science has to offer, to make healing advances in the treatment of cardiology as well as general medicine patients is something I am proud of. Although I have a religious training background my findings are not religion based. I believe perhaps even some of the ‘old time doctors’ might have been aware ; yet unpublished in much of what I write about.
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The specialty in medicine dealing with the heart in health and disease states is called cardiology. You should never seek advice through internet articles or online advice sites as a definitive diagnosis and asessment requires a physician talking to you and examining you. Allthough there is something called Telemedicine where smaller hospitals lacking specialists assist doctors in these areas to diagnose and possibly treat various disorders they may not be able to do so on their own. Even such modalities are “better than nothing” yet are no substitute for the patient to travel a distance to actually be examined in person by a qualified specialist.
Cardiologists are trained to diagnose and treat conditions related to the heart and entire cardiovascular system to help you prevent and treat conditions that may lead to or contribute to heart attacks, strokes, peripheral artery disease , lipid issues, high blood pressure, weak or failing hearts, coronary artery disease (blockages in the arteries of the heart), valvular heart and muscular (cardiomyopathy) heart disorders. For more information visit me at Cardiacare Center of North Jersey.( www.cardiacarecenternj.com/)
