At some age, you may wonder if maybe you’re not immortal.
Not that you actually ever believed you were, but your never took health too seriously. You might schedule a check-up for the first time in years, or maybe decades. That is a good thing! Just vitals and the usual labs will tell you a lot. The physical exam can’t hurt, but the labs are where 95% of all diagnoses come from.
Did something come out not great? Then the doctors go to work. Take a statin for cholesterol. Here’s lisinopril for blood pressure. Start metformin for your blood sugar. Have anxiety? Then take Prozac or something stronger. For your joint pain, rub in some diclofenec, or maybe a cortisone shot, or maybe orthopedic surgery. . . Here’s the bad news.
How Doctors are Helpless
That’s all a doctor can do. If there are no symptoms, no testing. If there is no diagnosis, then no treatment. They are ruled by the insurance companies in this country. Many doctors won’t ask about your lifestyle to avoid disease, much less suggest changes. People get upset when they do, so they don’t. Besides, they don’t have time. 15-20 minutes to examine you, read and document in your chart, chat a little, then send you on your way. Wait, your sister had a thyroid problem? Okay, we’ll order a TSH. Uncle had prostate cancer? Order a PSA.
If you could benefit from medications, then by all means do it. We’re not saying that all pharmaceutical companies are entirely greedy and evil (although they are), because pills can help you when you need them. The pills do work and the companies that profit from sickness are evil. Both things are true at the same time..
What if you want to avoid disease all together, or at least mitigate them? That’s not their department, really. Unless something is broken, they are not paid to fix it. If you want to try to stay healthy, you’re on your own.
Supplement Vendors and Other “Helpers”
Then comes the supplement industry, worth $165 billion worldwide, and hardly regulated at all. They can say almost anything they want about what will keep you healthy, and the retail mark-up is 30-50%.
Gyms and personal trainers will promise fantastic results. Just look at their Instagram!
There are mountains, oceans – whole planets, actually, of promises of instant transformation of your health and wellness, all aimed at you, who just wants to feel a little better and maybe live a little longer.
What Actually Could Help
You can benefit from modest, progressive improvements in your MEDS: mindfulness, exercise, diet and sleep. They reinforce each other, and whichever you work on, the rest will come along.
Aging didn’t happen overnight, neither will slowing or reversing it. A coach can help you decide what works for you, and stick to it. A coach like me, for example. Let’s talk. Sign up for a FREE Discovery Consult.