Six Tips to Take Charge of your Health

Angelina Jolie’s revelation that she recently had undergone a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer due to her positive test result for the breast cancer gene, is a helpful reminder about the task for all of us to take charge of our health.  While this must have been a difficult decision for her, it’s an excellent illustration of remaining vigilant regarding your health and being proactive regarding your health care.

Here are six things you can do to help you to take charge of your health:

1. Learn about your family medical history, this includes parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. This will give you a heads up regarding what “runs” in your family; red flags so to speak, to make you aware of some of your possible genetic risks for certain diseases. Knowing this is invaluable. For example, if Heart Disease runs in your family, you’ll want to take extra care to control your weight, exercise daily, not smoke, and eat a healthy diet, such as a Mediterranean Diet to help reduce your risk. (These are healthy habits for everyone and help to prevent a variety of diseases, but especially important if your risk is higher.) 
2. Read up on any medications you are prescribed from side effects to dosing instructions. Educate yourself by reading the package inserts that come from the pharmacy and reading credible medication websites such as MedlinePlus which is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
3. If you’re diagnosed with a disease or acute illness, learn as much as you can about it from trusted, professional sources, examples of which are the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control) and Medline Plus (as mentioned above) also has a site dedicated to information on illnesses. Maintain an awareness of the typical lab tests that may be required to follow the course of the illness, medications that are generally prescribed to surgeries that may be recommended. Becoming familiar with these things can help you psychologically through your illness and also help you determine if you’re receiving the appropriate care.
4. Follow the advice of your physician regarding when to obtain lab tests, taking medications as prescribed and when to follow up with appointments and diagnostics tests such as ultra sounds, MRI’s, CT scans etc.
5. Get a second opinion when you feel the need.  If your inner voice is nudging you that something does not seem right; seek out a second opinion from another physician.
6. Ask questions. While no one expects you to become an expert, be sure to ask questions, especially if you need clarification on any information you received or simply desire more knowledge regarding your diagnosis and particular situation.

Be your own health advocate - 4 Easy steps

You are the key component for achieving an optimum level of health.  In addition to leading a healthy lifestyle by exercising  on most days of the week, eating healthy foods, not smoking, and limiting alcohol intake; advocate for yourself and your health by practicing the following:

1.  Get your yearly check-ups – This can be also referred to as, “preventative care visit, well care visit or annual physical”. This is of the utmost importance to stay on top of any existing health concerns or chronic problems you may already have, to obtain the recommended screening tests for your age and gender, (in order to catch anything early that may be brewing), and for additional preventative care such as getting your annual influenza vaccine or any other vaccines you may still need to complete. 

     2. Ask questions -   Find a health care provider you can talk to. Obtaining care from someone you feel comfortable with is half the battle. Being able to discuss embarrassing symptoms, medication concerns, natural remedies or anything that does not make sense to you is an integral part of good health care. Don’t be intimidated to ask questions; write them down if you have to and pull out your list before the doctor gets in the room, so you don’t forget once you are undressed and a little stressed.  

      3. Competent support staff –  Are you comfortable with the staff in your doctor's office? Are the staff courteous and helpful or rude and detached? If they are the latter, tell the provider. If things don’t improve, go somewhere else.  Lousy support staff can impede good care; timely appointments may not be given, inaccurate vital signs may be taken, information may not be passed along correctly from patient to provider or provider to patient, if the staff cannot accurately relay information due to incompetence. The provider is responsible for keeping good staff, and if they don’t or won’t; find another provider.

      4. Check your prescribed medications – If you do receive a written prescription, confirm the dose and instructions with your MD, NP or PA when you get it. Then, when you pick it up at your pharmacy, confirm you were given the right medication and dose, Read the label.  Are the medication name, dose and instructions on the bottle from the pharmacy the same as what was written on your prescription?  Make sure it is before leaving the pharmacy.  Also, read the label regarding the physical description of the pill on the prescription bottle, then *make sure the pills inside of the bottle match what is said on the label. If there is any discrepancy/difference; ask to speak to the pharmacist immediately and do not take the medicine until this is resolved.