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Keeping Up With Medical News Can Improve Your Health Care

By Traci Witt


Physicians everywhere go to great lengths to encourage their patients to get involved with their health care, from asking questions to taking the time to explain when they are concerned and why. Ironically, people are more specific in dealings with their car care professional than they are with their doctors. Especially with the massive amount of detailed information available and the changing landscape of available treatments, staying in touch with medical news is important for everyone.

Society is condition, however, that the visit to a hospital is a sterile event wherein they are to be passive, subordinate beings and not interfere with the trained physician as he goes about his work. This leaves the doctor with he need to start without any data on each individual they examine, slowly eliminated concerns test by test. Many clinicians believe such examinations are all but worthless except in rare, obvious conditions.

It is probable that the lay individual feels embarrassment that they can not explain their symptoms scientifically, or that they do not know much about biology. Most sit quietly while the doctor pokes, prods and tries to glean information through practiced questions. Patients who overcome any anxiety and tell the physician what alarmed them, the circumstances and even hazard guesses at causation tend to have better results.

Being an informed patient is not just helpful, it allows for safer and more effective treatment. The person that knows the most about the health of any individual is the person themselves. Each person is actually keenly aware of how they feel, and know very quickly if something has changed, this information, and how one perceived the change is critical to care management.

By its nature, the practice of medicine evaluates each person against a fictional average human being. For the most part, this is an adequate measure of general health. But family history and personal experiences create a unique set of circumstance for each person. Blood pressure readings of 120 mmHG over 80 are considered normal, but not every healthy person has them, what is more important is what is normal to you.

For decades aspiring doctors learned that 120/80 was the standard normal value health individuals should have. Now however, statistical scientific analysis reveals that it is healthier to have values even lower than this log established standard. Much of this analysis comes from the insurance industry, who carefully evaluate who lives longest, disregarding those who do not fit the mold.

Experienced physicians, however, would argue that what is most important is the onset of change. If one has consistently maintained a blood pressure of 130/85, then that measurement is not alarming, whereas in an individual who has always recorded 120/80, it could be problematic. The same is true of an individual who has always had slightly higher blood pressure who suddenly present with lower readings.

Being informed about health does not mean everyone should enroll in biology classes or subscribe to clinical journals. One can gain insight through medical news from an increasing variety of main stream media outlets. The more people know about their health and how to manage it, the fewer crisis will be discovered by the professional in white coats.




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