Category: Resources

Patients’ Roles and Responsibilities

See what patients’ roles encompass. With video.

Earlier this month, I gave a presentation to about 65 residents and other doctors on “Roles in Patient-Doctor Relationships: Seeing Both Sides.”

This is the second post:

      • Doctors’ Roles and Responsibilities (including doctor morale)
      • Patients’ Roles and Responsibilities (and what doctors wish patients knew)
      • Stages of Patient Frustration and Satisfaction
      • Doctor Actions Improving Patient Relationships
      • Patient Actions Improving Doctor Relationships
      • We’re Not There Yet on Doctor-Patient Relationships

Patients typically have the roles and responsibilities highlighted in this image. How do YOU rate YOURSELF across these roles and responsibilities?

Patients' Roles and Responsibilities

As patients, it is also vital for us to educate ourselves. This video shows a few such factors.


 

Regularly Get Your Heart Tested

Treat your heart well.

According to the CDC:

    • “About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year –that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.
    • Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. More than half of the deaths due to heart disease in 2009 were in men.
    • Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of heart disease, killing over 370,000 people annually.
    • Every year about 735,000 Americans have a heart attack. Of these, 525,000 are a first heart attack and 210,000 happen in people who have already had a heart attack.”

Here is an excellent video that encourages you to do proper testing. 🙂


 

Fast Food Getting Even More Unhealthy

Watch what you eat. Especially fast food.

Last month, we asked: Is U.S. Food Safe? Today, we note fast food getting even more unhealthy. That’s somewhat hard to grasp because: (1) Fast food has always been high in calories and less-than-optimal ingredients. (2) There has been such a push in recent years for healthier food. (3) There are many critics of fast food.

New Research Shows Fast Food Getting Even More Unhealthy

Amazingly, Niall McCarthy reports for Statista that:

“Across the United States, 93.3 million people were obese in 2015-2016. While 36.6 percent of the country’s adults consumed fast food on a given day according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A new study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has now found that the size of calorie account of fast food has been increasing steadily since the mid-1980s.”

 
“The researchers studied 1,787 mains, sides, and desserts at 10 popular fast food chains from 1986 to 2016. The restaurants involved were Arby’s, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Dairy Queen, Hardee’s, Jack in the Box, KFC, Long John Silver’s, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s.”

Check out the study highlights in the following Statista infographic.

Fast Food Getting Even More Unhealthy

 

Social Interactions and Our Health

How others affect our health

Jo Bibby, reporting for the UK’s Our Health, asked “How do our family, friends and community influence our health?”

“Going beyond the simple premise that human interactions are good for us and necessary to our wellbeing, this infographic shows how these relationships provide the foundations necessary for a healthy life.”

* “Feeling supported by others – and how this makes us feel about ourselves, our sense of agency and what we believe is possible – is evidently essential for our wellbeing. And it isn’t simply about having people who care for us. Just as important for our self-esteem is our own opportunity to care for and support others.”

* “Beyond our immediate relationships, our connections within and across the communities we are part of – where we live, where we learn, where we work – are all critical to feeling included and valued. Studies have shown that feelings of belonging and trust in others were the strongest predictor of mental wellbeing after controlling for physical health problems.

* “Acting on these feelings of inclusion – coming together with others in our communities to volunteer or participate in collective activities – enhances our sense of purpose and shared identity. It also improves our coping ability during times of stress.”

* “From community participation comes community empowerment. A flourishing society requires people to feel a sense of control and collective voice that can enable them to influence positive change. Community empowerment is increasingly being shown to be a route to addressing health inequalities.”

Social Interactions and Our Health
 

Giving Back to Whom?

Picking the best nonprofits!

If you want to do volunteer work or donate money, how do you determine which organizations are excellent? And which should we avoid?

One objective source for information on nonprofits is Charity Navigator:

“Founded in 2001, Charity Navigator has become the nation’s largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. In our quest to help donors, our team of professional analysts has examined tens of thousands of nonprofit financial documents. We’ve used this knowledge to develop an unbiased, objective, numbers-based rating system to assess over 9,000 of America’s best-known and some lesser known, but worthy, charities.”

“Specifically, Charity Navigator’s rating system examines two broad areas of a charity’s performance; their Financial Health and their Accountability & Transparency. Our ratings show givers how efficiently we believe a charity will use their support today, how well it has sustained its programs and services over time and their level of commitment to good governance, best practices and openness with information.”

Here is an example of a Charity Navigator review, the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. Click the chart to see the full rating of Lustgarten.

Giving Back to Whom?

 

Is U.S. Food Safe?

Be sure to visit FoodSafety.gov

Over the years, there have been many food recalls in the United States. Click the image to see recent U.S. food recalls and to access the links on the Web site. Then, read below.

Is U.S. Food Safe?

Is U.S. Food Safe?

Consider the infographic below. And read the comments from Niall McCarthy, writing for Statista:

“In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. It was supposed to regulate how foods are grown, harvested, and processed. Furthermore, it gave the FDA mandatory recall authority, something it had been trying to get for years. Despite passing that law, the U.S. is still experiencing hundreds of food recalls every year, many of which are extremely serious. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 6 Americans contracts a foodborne illness every year.” 

“The volume of food recalls can provide an insight into food safety standards in different countries. A recent analysis by U.S. PIRG shows that the total number of recalls in the U.S. fell between 2017 and 2018. Even though that might seem like good news, the long term trends are far less positive. Recalls of meat and poultry rose 66 percent between 2013 and 2018. In an even more troubling development, the most hazardous Class I recalls of meat and poultry are up 83 percent since 2013. Class I refers to food that presents serious health risks such as containing botulinal toxins or undeclared allergens.” 

Is U.S. Food Safe?