PERSONAL HEALTH BLOG

The Media Doesn’t Know Anything About Your Health

Do you read the newspaper or watch TV?  Then surely you’ve heard of the new “Swine Flu” called H1N1.  As you know, experts are predicting a worldwide epidemic, termed a pandemic, of H1N1 and are asking all of us to take protective measures such as vaccination and avoiding sick friends.  People are concerned – and rightfully so.

But just how likely is it that you’re going to get H1N1?  And if you do, how likely are you to get very sick or to be hospitalized, or worse, to die.  Actually, not too likely.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most people with H1N1 have had a mild illness and required no medical treatment.  If you take the vaccine and are careful about exposure, you may not get it at all.

That’s the good news.  Perhaps H1N1 isn’t something you should worry about as much as the media might suggest.  The bad news is that there are probably things you should be worrying about much more than you do.

Things, that in the long run, may be much more critical to your health and well-being.  Like what you say?  Like heart disease, stroke, or injury from risky behaviors such as texting while driving to name just a few.

Take Action and Help Yourself

Perhaps you have your health priorities wrong.  It’s easy to do.  Remember the media doesn’t know anything about your health, and sensational stories sell.  What are the most important health issues that you face?  One could be H1N1, but that wouldn’t be at the top of the list for most Americans.

On that list we would find diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity, arthritis, lung disease and other preventable illnesses.  It’s estimated that 70 percent or more of the burden of illness in Americans is preventable if we will only take action.  Really, I don’t want you to worry, because worrying doesn’t help.  I want you to take action and help yourself.

But what to do first?  Start by identifying as many of your health issues and risks as you can.  Some may come directly from your lifestyle, for example the risk of injury from driving without seatbelts or while distracted.

Others may arise from your genetic makeup, as is the case for heart disease related to familial high cholesterol levels.  And still others may be due to environmental factors, for example skin cancer from ultraviolet (UV) exposure here in Florida.

And of course separate elements may interact with each other.  UV exposure is an excellent example of how lifestyle factors (tanning, use of sun screen), genetic factors (skin tone) and environmental factors (latitude) may combine with each other to raise or lower your individual risk of illness (in this case skin cancer.)  Go ahead and identify as many health issues, risks and actual illnesses as you can.

Pareto Principle

Now that you’ve named your health issues, risks or illnesses, apply the Pareto Principle, also called the 80/20 rule, to decide which to address first.  I’m sure you’re familiar with this concept that some things are much more important than others.

For our purposes this principle means roughly that fixing the most important 20 percent of health issues you face will make 80 percent of the difference in your overall health and well-being.  Everything is not equal to everything else.

If you’re routinely texting while driving, ceasing that practice will probably be a much better investment in your health than an H1N1 shot this year.  I’m not saying don’t take the vaccine, but remember that you’ve also got more important issues to address.

Your doctor should be able to help you out with this.  Physicians are increasingly trained to think in terms of prioritization and risk mitigation.

And, trust me, your doctor is going to love helping you when you tell him or her that you want to do the most important things first!  So many patients don’t want any responsibility and here you are looking to do what matters most.  Good job!

“Prioritization followed by action” should be repeated over and over as you work your health improvement plan.  Why?  Because after you’ve made some changes the 80/20 rule will identify different priorities.

For example, let’s say you’re greatest identified risk is heart disease from a sedentary lifestyle, mildly high cholesterol and smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.  Right now, quitting smoking might be the single most important issue to address.

However, once you’ve quit, your risk of heart disease may have dropped low enough that something else will be the most important issue to address overall.  Perhaps cutting back on drinking or reducing excess sun exposure is now of greater importance to your overall health than adopting a more active lifestyle or reducing the mildly elevated cholesterol level.

Your doctor will be very helpful in reprioritizing based on your progress and remaining issues.  Remember to keep applying the 80/20 rule.  Keep identifying the most important things and work on them first, even if it’s only one at a time.  Of course you can address many issues all at once but most people don’t.  It’s okay not to, but it’s not okay to do nothing.

Peter Weiss, MD

'Dr. Pete' Empowers Individuals To Manage Their Own Health

Peter J. Weiss, MD FACP is a physician, healthcare executive, author, speaker and health coach with a passion for helping others to health and wellness. Recognizing that traditional medical care isn’t helping many people to become well, his personal mission is empowering individuals to manage their own health.  His book on personal health, More Health, Less Care, is due out next spring. Professionally, Dr. Weiss serves as the CEO of Health First Health Plans, Inc.  The views expressed in this article are his alone and do not represent the views of Health First Health Plans, Inc. or Health First, Inc.

Related posts:

1. Dr. Pete: Quit Worrying and Empower Yourself
2. Dr. Pete: Ditch the Excuses
3. Dr. Pete: Take Charge of Your Own Care
4. Dr. Pete Joins Matt Reed On ‘Today In Brevard’
5. Dr. Sims Always in the Heart of the Action