A DOSE OF YOUR OWN MEDICINE
WENVOE FORUM
Considering tomorrow today
A dose of your own medicine
The queue waiting within the NHS, in any part of the UK, for any kind of treatment or consultation is at the best long, and at worst it vanishes over the horizon. In a recent response to an e-consult to my GP I was e-mailed
“Unfortunately we are not able to expedite referrals without an urgent indication as this is only for suspected cancer cases etc.”
It was followed by some very general non-medical advice. So there is the message -Take responsibility for your own health. For a while I felt abandoned and neglected but deep down I know there is a great deal of wisdom in that statement. While there are doctors, nurses, consultants and specialists with a great deal of expertise in all sorts of illnesses, conditions and emergencies, the only real expert on your health, is the only person who is available on call 24/7 and that’s you! It could be that out of the “crisis of capacity” in our dearly loved NHS will be born a new possibly better way of delivering a healthy population a change from public health management to personal health management.
Let’s start at the beginning by asking the question “What do we mean by health?”. How people describe their health varies from person to person and even for the same person from day to day or hour to hour. A person with say type 2 diabetes who takes their prescribed medication, and follows the lifestyle advice given, may feel very well and declare them-selves completely healthy, whereas an adult who has no long term condition but a nasty head cold is likely to tell you they are really ill. There are many different techniques and measures used to monitor people’s health but research has shown that individuals are actually quite reliable is assessing their own health. A long term (27 years) study of over 1000 people in Finland were asked on several occasions over a number of years to rate their health (SRH) by answering the question
“…in general, how would you rate your health”
with reply alternatives: 1. good, 2. rather good, 3. poor, and 4. very poor.
The study concluded that SRH performs well in comparison with objective health status (OH), it is considered a useful tool.
So if you have rated yourself as healthy, how do you ensure you stay that way? Monitoring change is a good starting point. The doctor has many different machines and monitors to check your functions, your heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, ECG, lung function and on and on. Of course some of these monitors you can buy for your own use or use a wrist monitor or your smart phone to assess, but there are some simple ways to keep a check on your-self. The essence is to be alert for changes and per-haps to know which changes might be important.
The changing tightness of your waistband will help you monitor your weight. Sudden weight loss often
goes unnoticed and should be investigated. Checking regularly how long it takes to walk up the local hill and taking your heart rate at the top will give you a heads up of change in your fitness level and alert you to problems with high blood pressure or heart issues. Changes in your sleep patterns, in your digestive system, in your sense of smell or taste can all indicate health problems. As you get into the later years you might want to set yourself some daily challenges like testing your balance by putting your socks and shoes on standing up.
The NHS itself now delivers information on how to deal with some conditions on the internet through NHS 111 Wales. There is a great deal of information on health from all over the world. Whereas at one time people were warned off turning to the internet to answer their health queries now it is encouraged. Be cautious, use recognised sources, seek supporting information from another reliable source and if in any doubt check with your GP.
First steps
If you are working toward being healthier, improving your fitness levels seems to be the starting point for many and the simple act of setting yourself a target of a number steps taken in a day suits many. At one stage the accepted recommendation was to walk 10,000 steps a day which is about 5 miles and at an average speed takes about 1hr 40 minutes. Realistically, unless your walking is part of your travel to and from work or to do some errands, or if you have a dog that needs walking, you need to be quite motivated to keep that up day in day out walking in the same area.
Here are some suggestions to help you get started.
Count your steps for a few days before you start your new regime and set your new target at an in-crease of 20%. You can then increase by 20% each week.
Encourage a friend to walk with you, the time goes by much quicker in conversation and talking and walking is more physically demanding.
Choose a special walk, somewhere nice twice a week.
Get on or off the bus a stop away from your destination and walk the extra distance
If a journey is under half a mile don’t take the car.
Do other active exercise alongside a lower step target some days of the week.
If possible avoid fast roads where there will be small particulate pollution from tyres and brakes or use a mask,
It might be beneficial to do your steps on a tread-mill sometimes so that you can focus on walking correctly with good posture.
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