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The Doctors 5-Minute Health Fixes: The Prescription for a Lifetime of Great Health - Hardcover

Doctors

 
9781605293264: The Doctors 5-Minute Health Fixes: The Prescription for a Lifetime of Great Health
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1605293261 ISBN 13: 9781605293264
Verlag: Rodale Press, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

Paging Dr. Jim, Dr. Travis, Dr. Lisa, and Dr. Drew! America needs your help—and your 5-minute health hints.

If you are like many, you probably think you just don't have time to be healthy: It's too much work, and there's just too much conflicting information out there. Both leave you feeling powerless. But the best doctors know that an informed patient is a healthy patient. So before you lift your hands in defeat, know that great health is just a page away—and much easier to achieve than you think. After combing the very latest medical literature, the Doctors have isolated the seven factors that have been linked to the most vibrant, happiest, longest lives. The secret? Each body system (heart, brain, gut, skin) can be vastly improved with very small shifts in your lifestyle—most of which take less than five minutes to do. And whether it's adding cinnamon to your coffee to balance blood sugar, sipping cold water through a straw to nix nicotine cravings, or brushing and flossing your teeth before you eat each morning to prevent heart disease, all are easy fixes that anyone can make.

Utilizing the show's dynamic expert hosts, and based on interviews and research from the top authorities in multiple disciplines, The Doctors 5-Minute Health Hints is the one-stop source for readers looking for comprehensive, top-notch self-care advice and novel, cutting-edge tips, trivia, and information. Use these helpers as building blocks, and before you know it you're easily on your way to 24-hour health . . . while preventing disease, reversing aging, getting the most out of your annual checkup, and looking fantastic.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

DR. JIM SEARS, DR. TRAVIS STORK, DR. LISA MASTERSON, and DR. DREW ORDON are the engaging, highly credentialed, and knowledgeable cast of experts on The Doctors, an Emmy-nominated show with millions of daily viewers.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter One

Take 5

In 2005, a very scary article was published in the prestigious medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine. Written by 10 of the best- respected researchers in epidemiology--the study of which factors affect the health and illness of entire human populations--the article's title was "A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United States in the 21st Century."

The researchers analyzed data from numerous studies that together involved hundreds of thousands of people and found that, contrary to the upward trend in longevity that has been the norm for centuries, the average person born today might actually die sooner than his or her parents or grandparents did. Despite all the huge advances in medical research and technology--vaccines, antibiotics, organ transplants, mapping the human genome--all of our predicted gains in longevity might be undone by one condition: obesity.

Sure, in the 21st century, we don't have to chop wood for the fire. Or haul water from the well. Or stalk and kill a wild buffalo for meat.

But by sparing ourselves this routine physical labor and feeding ourselves low-quality, easily acquired fast foods, we may have actually time-saved our way into a shorter life here on earth.

From Time-Savers to Time-Creators

The researchers who performed this landmark review cited some other factors that might also trim our country's longevity rate. Sure, a pandemic flu would do the trick. And, of course, pollution could take its toll. Or hospital-acquired antibiotic-resistant pathogens--such as MRSA--could gang up on us and take over.

But not all of the factors they identified were scary apocalyptic outbreaks beyond our individual control. The researchers also cited the significant risks that accompany a lack of regular exercise and ineffective blood pressure screening. They listed tobacco use. Excess stress.

In other words, like obesity, things we can do something about. Things we can take control of. Things we need only become aware of so we can implement changes to make our lives better, healthier, happier, and most likely, longer.

When we look carefully at what this research tells us, it's clear that the solution to turning around this negative trend is not to go back to the Stone Age. The solution is to look at the changes we've made and then reclaim the activities that have the greatest health benefits--doing yard work, tending a kitchen garden, eating home-cooked meals, walking to school or work--while we also take advantage of the brand-new advances in medical science that can make us even healthier.

That's right: We're going to reverse some of those unhealthy time-savers. But we're also going to adopt something new: healthy time-creators.

The Secrets of Vibrant Health

We're so focused on the immediate--Twitter updates, drive-thrus with 60- second guarantees--we can forget each of those individual moments combine to become, hopefully, a very long life. If we take a different perspective on our lives--the long view--we'll see how the choices we make in each of those seconds really do accumulate.

PLAYING THE ODDS

How Many Years?

Every one of our behaviors can be a net positive or negative in terms of our longevity--and the quality of those years. Take a look at the impact of some of the health behaviors at both ends of the health spectrum.

|Behavior or |How many years? | |condition | | |Smoking |-5 years | |High blood |-5 years | |pressure | | |Diabetes |-5 years | |Obesity |-5 years | |Regular exercise |+5 years |

Most of us say we'd make better health choices if we had more time. But perhaps opting for the quick and easy Big Mac or Big Gulp a few too many times in your life has left you with some physical souvenirs--extra £ds, inches, or units of blood sugar. Perhaps skipping routine tests, such as a mammogram, cholesterol test, flu shot, or yearly physical (as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 80 percent of women and 60 percent of men do), may have saved you an hour here or there, but now you're left with an even more serious problem--a lump, the pain of angina, or a dangerous case of pneumonia--to contend with.

But here's the good news: Just as those negative choices can accumulate and snowball into something larger, so can positive ones. And by making one small choice--what we call a health fix--and then another, and then another, your very small choices can add up to big changes.

Live Long and Prosper

We all want to live for a long time--but what fun is it to live a long life if you're stricken with debilitating diseases that cause you pain and suffering?

With this thought in mind, rather than look exclusively for things that prolong life, we also looked at research on what enhances overall health-- what makes people healthier and happier, not just live longer.

We looked at dozens of longevity and healthy-aging studies from all over the world. We looked for patterns of behavior and outcomes that transcended all cultures. Luckily, the medical literature abounds with helpful information--most of it underscoring the same points over and over.

One of the most interesting studies helped us by defining this longest, healthiest life as "exceptional aging." The researchers described exceptional aging as living to an advanced age without cognitive or physical impairment or having any of six major chronic diseases--coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Parkinson's disease, and treated diabetes. The researchers chose these six diseases primarily because they are among the most common age-associated chronic conditions. The study, published in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, followed a group of 5,820 men for 40 years. Researchers found one out of every two men who avoided the big-six conditions made it to age 85--but among those who didn't, only one in 10 lived that long.

The exceptional survivors had many things in common. They were more likely than those who'd died earlier to have:

. greater grip strength . a healthy weight . lower blood sugar levels . lower triglyceride levels . healthy blood pressure . no history of smoking . no history of heavy drinking . a spouse . more than 12 years of education

This list gave us a great jumping-off point. Considering that many men never make it to age 85--by that age, women outnumber men by 2.2 to 1 in the United States--we agreed that those were findings we should pay attention to.

We looked at many studies just like that one. As we examined their areas of overlap, we zeroed in on 10 key factors that kept rising to the top as the most critical to a long life of health and vitality.

Healthy heart: Since cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in America, it stands to reason that the world's healthiest people avoid heart disease--and most do this by adopting lifestyle choices that also benefit the other nine key factors of health.

Healthy brain: Through what scientists believe is a combination of good genes and those same smart lifestyle choices that protect the heart, the world's healthiest people are able to avoid neurological damage, cognitive decline, and Alzheimer's disease.

Healthy lungs: The world's healthiest people safeguard their respiratory health, primarily by avoiding smoking--still the leading preventable cause of death in the world--as well as steering clear of environmental and industrial pollution.

Healthy gut and immune system: The healthiest people in all cultures eat fresh, whole foods, mostly vegetables and fruits, and enjoy healthy...

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Verlag
Rodale Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2010
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1605293261
ISBN 13 
9781605293264
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
334
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Verantwortliche Person
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