The State of Health of Our Healthcare Advisors!

We look to our healthcare professionals to give us advice, but do they follow their own health messages? And perhaps an even better question is, would you listen to your doctor’s advice, or any other health care professional, if clearly s/he was not following it personally?

I recently read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal focusing on what patients could learn from the way physicians take care of themselves. The article summarized that physicians, as a group, are leaner, fitter and live longer than the average American! What can we learn?

Another thing to keep in mind is that many studies show that doctors who exercise and watch their weight are more likely to counsel patients to do so.

The Physicians' Health Study (PHS), which has followed the health practices of about 25,000 male doctors since 1982, found that male physicians had better cholesterol levels than average: 76% were below 200 mg/d, and only 5% were over 240, compared with 20% of U.S. men aged 60. Only 14% of those male doctors had hypertension, compared with 65% of U.S. adults aged 60.

Perhaps this is because physicians tend to eat more healthfully. Forty three percent of male doctors in the PHS ate fish two to four times a week, and 11% ate it five times a week, which was associated with a 37% lower risk of dying of colorectal cancer. In a more recent survey, doctors in Canada ate 4.8 fruits and vegetables (far more than average Canadians) and drank caffeinated beverages just one to two times a day. And results from the Women Physician's Health Study (WPHS) which surveyed the health practices of 4,500 women doctors in the 1990s indicated that 8% of female doctors were vegetarian compared to 2% to 3% of the U.S. population.

These doctors are not just eating well, they are exercising. More than half of 2,115 Harvard Medical School physicians polled said they exercise for 30-60 minutes at least three times a week. And results of the PHS showed that those who exercised daily were only half as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes as those who didn't exercise.

Eating well and exercise are important to overall health, and so too are health screenings and preventative care, which physicians are more likely to do. When it came to breast health 86% of female ob/gyns aged 48 and over have had a mammogram in the past two years, compared with 70% of women in the U.S. population. Nearly 50% of female physicians in the WPHS said they always or nearly always used sunscreen outdoors (although 22% said they rarely or never did).

Where some doctors could use a hand is with their mental health, because as a profession, they are one of the busiest. When surveyed by the American College of Surgeons in 2008, only 36% of surgeons felt their work schedule left enough time for personal and family life, and only 51% would recommend that their children pursue a similar career. We often think of how our practitioners can enhance our own health, but little reflection is given to the mental health of our doctors. In a survey of 763 practicing physicians in California, 53% reported moderate to severe stress; only 38% described their daily stress as light. Thirteen percent said they used sedatives or tranquilizers, one-third reported little or no exercise and poor sleep and one-fifth worked more than 60 hours per week (compared with 34.5 hours for the average American.)

This article is very interesting and provides a lot of information about what we can learn from our doctors. Here is a link to the full article: Wall Street Journal Article