•50-70% of Aging is by choice after Age 30!
While many will question that it is true.
First, we need to explain after age 30. Early in life genetic diseases express themselves and those people often die or are identified. But after age 30 much more of aging is by the choices we make.
After age 30 we do choose environmental things like what we eat but also we choose how we spend out time and other resources. We might choose to smoke or to exercise which are common choices we all would know. But consider the value of choosing to invest in your family and friends as an enormous emotional health benefit. People who go to church also have a large health advantage over those who do not. Trying to speculate on why is difficult is it being part of a group, relating and not working all the time, but what ever it is it is positive.
Common Prevention and Screening. There are preventative things people know like breast cancer screening and checking for prostate cancer. These have low value since most people know them already. This is not new information.
Some other less commonly considered choices are the choice to have health insurance or not. We all indirectly choose to have insurance or not. When you choose your job you also are choosing insurance. We choose our doctor or don’t spend a lot of time on who and how well we know our doctor. As it turns out having insurance is not having a doctor you know, trust, and are confident in developing a long term health and wellness plan with . That is a choice. In many cases if you can’t find a doctor with any unique ideas to share that is a cost effective health decision to forgo having a trusted doctor. If the doctor is going to tell you smoking is bad why would any one pay for that? That is reasonable for a person not to pay extra for that doctor or any doctor who does what all other doctors do. If you could find a doctor with new ideas that would be worth considering.
Unique, Less commonly considered ,choices
For example would you pay extra to find out smoking is bad for you?
On the other hand, if you did smoke and someone said you already know smoking is bad for you but I can suggest a few tests that will reduce your risk of death and disability to less than that of a non smoker that would be new. Can you guess what those cost effective, easy to get, tests are? Ask your doctor. I must also add that if you did those cost effective, silver bullet, screening and simple interventions in a non smoker that would be better than the smoker who did those. Just wanted to be fair.
Emotional health matters. Did you know most medical studies that doctors quote specifically exclude emotional health. That is what they control for. Ask your doctor if he knows why studies don’t translate to real life and to name some big limitations on how to use studies when building a treatment plan. Emotional and financial considerations, time, practical implementation and life considerations all come to my mind. See if your doctor recites those too. They get a control group to eliminate those pesky feelings and social variables which they cant quantify, define, or study. However, we all know we make all decisions based on feeling, emotion, and social variables. That is what advertising is. Doctors studies miss all of that. What you need in a doctor is a person who helps you interpret studies from your view point and balance the "medical" part of the study with your wellbeing choice. If you cant work with the doctor openly that value as your agent and guide is reduced.
The choice we are describing are general. The choice not to have a doctor. Again doctors rarely deal or include things that matter a lot to you. Finance, social and cosmetic things that are cost effective. If they could help decide on those that would have value. What is the most cost effective cosmetic thing you can buy? Are all cosmetic things equally cost effective? Safe, immediately beneficial? It is up to you and not you and your doctor to choose how to spend you time and money. I believe it is better to make those choices with a person like a doctor who is in the position to know what they cost, and the degree and immediacy of the benefits and plan to implement the treatments are.
How is an executive physical different from your physical? The cost effective variable is the stress test. The president of the united states needs it, the air plain pilot needs it, but any other 50 yr old man does not need it? why? It has to do with how we value our own lives.
How much do you value your life? Did you know a life insurance company pays for your stress test. Why? To help you? No they value your life more than you do? If you wanted to live it might be worth paying for the stress test at 200 dollars a year to reduce the most common cause of death and the 2nd most common cause of disability.
We concede. These are only choices if your doctor or someone offers them to you in a cost effective, practical way. Again these are new ideas so we admit it is not really by choice since you need the doctor to descried the cost effective aging plan for you or with you.
Comment and share your ideas with us.
Two examples of continuity in Care and team work in choosing any health care or Assisted Living / care products
