Medical Tips
This RealAge HealthGuide series is designed to help you prevent disease and needless aging. This issue is about how to avoid medical errors.
Hidden Hospital Hazards
RealAge reveals common medical errors.
Ignorance may be bliss in some cases, but it can be downright dangerous when it comes to your healthcare. Many people may die each year due to medical errors. But you can avoid being a statistic by making an effort to get the information you need to fully understand your situation.
Speak Up, Speak Out
Don't trust your doctor to know everything there is to know about you. Many errors happen because of a lack of communication and understanding. Start a strong line of communication between you and each of your healthcare providers by giving every doctor that you work with a complete account of your medical history, including:
Medical conditions
Surgeries or procedures
Medications and supplements
Allergies
Lifestyle information (activity levels, diet, use of alcohol or tobacco)
The RealAge test will automatically generate a personalized Smart Patient Profile for you. Print yours today.
Listen Closely
Communication is a two-way street. Medical errors also can occur when people don't follow their doctor's instructions precisely. Listen to your doctors carefully and take notes. If need be, have a friend or companion accompany you so that you can compare notes afterward. Don't hesitate to ask questions or ask your doctor to repeat any information that you didn't understand. Request clearly written directions on how and when to take any suggested or prescribed medications.
Set Up Some Safeguards
If you are having tests or surgical procedures performed, you can safeguard against testing errors and also help ensure the best results with your surgery by following these steps:
Tests
Follow pre- and posttest instructions carefully.
Ask who will interpret the results.
Ask about that person's qualifications.
Seek a second opinion before agreeing to treatment.
Surgeries
Seek facilities where the procedure is performed frequently.
Ask about the performing surgeon's qualifications, experience, and success rate.
Discuss the risks and benefits of treatment and non-treatment.
Confirm plans verbally with your surgeon; mark areas to be treated.
Follow pre- and post surgery instructions carefully.
Appoint someone you trust to make decisions while you recover.
Being a vigilant, active participant in your own care will help reduce breakdowns in communication and can dramatically reduce your risk of being hurt by any flaws in the medical system itself. Asking questions, taking notes, and reading all about the latest treatments for your condition can help keep you safe and healthy.
The RealAge test will automatically generate a personalized Smart Patient Profile for you. Print yours today.
Go to www.realage.com to get started.
FRIENDS ARE MORE
VALUABLE THAN FAMILY
"You gotta have friends," Bette Midler's song tells us, and it's advice a recent Australian study on longevity dramatically underscored. The study, called the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing, involved regularly scheduled interviews over a 10-year period with more than 1,500 people aged 70 or older about their contact with different social networks, including family members, friends and other confidantes.
"You gotta have friends," Bette Midler's song tells us, and it's advice a recent Australian study on longevity dramatically underscored. The study, called the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing, involved regularly scheduled interviews over a 10-year period with more than 1,500 people aged 70 or older about their contact with different social networks, including family members, friends and other confidantes.
After
controlling for economic, environmental and lifestyle variables that
impact health, the researchers discovered that study participants with
extensive networks of good friends and confidantes outlived the others
in the study by 22%. Oddly, family contact did not have the same impact
on longevity.
Soooo, I spoke with Mary Sano, PhD, professor of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City and the director of its Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, about the implications of the study. Although I wondered if the stress that seems to frequent family relationships plays a role in this, Dr. Sano says the lowered impact of family support likely comes about for other reasons. She points out that many families are no longer geographically close and distance may make family support less important than that of friends. Also, she notes that there is a chicken-and-egg aspect to the study -- if you're well and hardy, you're more apt to be social and spend time with friends and live long. But, if you are frail, your social life is probably limited and because your health isn't good, you probably won't live as long.
In spite of her caveats, Dr. Sano says she feels the study is worthwhile in general. It has, she says, several important messages that should speak to younger and older people. Research has long shown that, for older people, not only is a strong social network important for longevity, quality of life is as well. Her advice:
1 - Stay involved as long as possible in as many activities as you can.
2 - Recognize that age will probably curb your physical activities to some degree, so be sure to have non-physical pursuits in your repertoire as well.
3 - Look for and develop the traits and values that make it easy to create friendships.
Be flexible, be open to other people and different ideas and be willing to initiate social activities, including with people you don't know well but might like to.
4 - Start valuing and building your network early in life, she says, because eventually you will be dependent on others even if just for friendship and comfort. If you learn this lesson well when younger, you will have a network in place for the future with the skills it takes to keep expanding it.
By Boardroom, Inc.
Forget Stress
Don't let stress hormones hamper your brain activity.
High levels of stress hormones muddle memory in people of all ages by impairing brain areas involved in cognitive processing, a recent study concludes. Keep your memory sharp by fighting stress with regular exercise, social interactions with supportive people, and deep-breathing exercises.
RealAge Benefit: Taking care of your emotional health and well-being can make your RealAge up to 16 years younger.
Miracle Tea
Tea lovers may be surprised to learn their beverage of choice touts yet another health benefit: blood pressure control.
Drinking a half-cup of green or oolong tea per day reduced a person's risk of high blood
pressure by almost 50% in a new study. People who drank at least two and a half cups
per day reduced their risk even more. Their risk was reduced even if they had risk factors for
high blood pressure,
such as high sodium intake.
RealAge Benefit:
Keeping your blood pressure at 115/76 mm Hg can make your RealAge
as much as 12 years younger.
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