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Healthy Habits Are Hard to Maintain—Even if You Know What Lies Ahead
Tweet Share on Facebook January 27, 2011 Comment (1)"It's about that time of the month," a physician colleague of mine said to me a few days ago, "when our patients start to let go of their New Year's resolutions." That is, all those well-intentioned promises we make to ourselves year after year to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, to spend 30 minutes in the gym each day, or to start a walking program. Breaking unhealthy habits and starting healthy ones is hard, and most people require several attempts to succeed. As I discussed in a previous blog post, there's good evidence that even multiple intensive lifestyle counseling sessions led by trained professionals are only mildly helpful.
Compounding matters is the fact that every individual is different. You probably know people who’ve lived to ripe old ages in perfect health despite having eaten eggs every day of their lives or not exercising. My great-grandfather smoked cigarettes for 80 years, but died peacefully in his sleep in his late 90s. (Maybe he would have made it to the century mark if he'd quit.) Some researchers have suggested that a more effective way to motivate patients to change their lifestyles could be to give them personalized information about their risk for common chronic conditions such as cancer and heart disease. Others, though, have worried that this knowledge could encourage complacency among those who learn they’re at below-average risk. Why quit smoking, for example, if you think your genes will protect you from lung cancer?
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4 Health Reform Changes to Expect at Your Doctor's Office
Tweet Share on Facebook January 19, 2011 Comment (3)As a family physician, I've gotten used to attending dinner parties where relatives, friends, and sometimes complete strangers ask me about health reform, and how the new law might impact their relationship with their doctor. Unfortunately, because I'm well versed in all the complexities of the legislation, I can't come up with a simple sound bite. But a paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine last August attempted to explain how the Affordable Care Act is likely to transform the practice of medicine and outlined what changes doctors will need to make in order to provide better care for their patients.
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Worried About Your Lung Cancer Risk? Why a Chest CT Scan May Not Be Wise
Tweet Share on Facebook January 6, 2011 Comment (7)Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. and claimed more than 150,000 lives last year. Since most lung cancers are triggered by tobacco use, the best way for family doctors like me to prevent lung cancer in 2011 is to counsel patients not to smoke, or if they already smoke, to quit. Unfortunately, tobacco-damaged lungs often don't heal completely, and ex-smokers continue to be at higher risk for lung and other cancers than never-smokers are.
That's why doctors used to routinely advise that heavy smokers get chest X-rays in hopes of catching cancers at more treatable stages. However, several studies have since found no difference in lung cancer death rates among smokers who got annual chest X-rays versus those who did not. That's likely because the disease is far too advanced to cure by the time it's visible on a chest X-ray.
