ToStEk.CoM

A few nice Online Medical School images I found:

Subways Are For Sleeping …..item 1..The Quantity and the Quality of Life (September 13, 2011) ..


Image by marsmet551
According the the Harvard School of Public Health, beginning in the year 2012, 10,000 people a day will start turning 65.We are aging differently than previous generations, however. Physically and mentally, the health of today’s 70-year-old now equals that of a 65-year-old in the 1970s. In that period, deaths from heart disease and many cancers have dipped. And while most older adults have at least one chronic health problem, disability has slowly and significantly declined. It is interesting to note, that the United States has been slipping in its longevity ratings compared to other countries. Israel, on the other hand has been climbing.

…..item 1)…website….Orthodox Union…Shabbat Shalom…

September 13, 2011

The Quantity and the Quality of Life
By Alan Freishtat

www.ou.org/shabbat_shalom/article/the_quantity_and_the_qu…

Long life, Arichus Yomim, has been said as a bracha (blessing) from one Jew to another for thousands of years. We also say L’chaim!, to Life!, as a blessing to each other as we take a drink. Two blessings we give, but very different in their ramifications.

According the the Harvard School of Public Health, beginning in the year 2012, 10,000 people a day will start turning 65.We are aging differently than previous generations, however. Physically and mentally, the health of today’s 70-year-old now equals that of a 65-year-old in the 1970s. In that period, deaths from heart disease and many cancers have dipped. And while most older adults have at least one chronic health problem, disability has slowly and significantly declined. It is interesting to note, that the United States has been slipping in its longevity ratings compared to other countries. Israel, on the other hand has been climbing.

When the numbers are added up more carefully, though, there are obvious differences between men and women and people of different races. A newborn boy born in 2004 or after can expect to live a bit more than 75 years, while his sister can expect to live to slightly more than 80. As you grow older, your average life expectancy stretches. For example, while the life expectancy of a newborn in the United States is nearly 78, a 65-year-old can expect to live 19 years longer, and a 75-year-old for another 12 years. What is just as important as Long Life, is the L’chaim part of it—living life and how to maintain not only longevity but quality of life until 120.

Why did life expectancy increase so much in the 20th century in developed nations? Whether individuals develop a particular disease is usually determined by three things: their lifestyle (including diet and exercise), their environment (such as exposure to infectious microbes or toxins), and their genes. Increased life span surely has nothing to do with genes: our genes today are the same as they were a century ago. Instead, changes in lifestyle and environment are responsible. Changes in the environment—such as better sanitation, the use of antibiotics, and many other improvements in medical care—can claim much of the credit. As for lifestyle, in developed nations, nutritional deficiency diseases largely were eliminated in the last century. Still, not all nutritional changes have been entirely for the better. In the United States, at the turn of the 20th century, most Americans lived on farms or in rural communities. We ate fresh, unprocessed food every day, and we worked hard physically. Today, our diets are less healthful in many ways, and we exercise less. And that leads us to the second blessing—L’chaim!

The doctors can definitely help us live longer with all of the great advancement in medical care and medicines that we have today. But there is so much that we can do that will extend and enhance our lives. And we all understand the value of every second of life. So it is incumbent upon us to take our well
being into our own hands. The Be’er HaGolah at the very end of Choshen Mishpat tells us there is not bigger Hefkerus than not taking care of one’s self and the Rambam in Hilchos Daos 4:1, 14 writes very clearly: "Because for the body to be healthy and wholesome is among the ways of Hashem… therefore a person must distance himself from those things that cause his body damage… And they stated another rule relating to the health of the body: As long as a person engages in physical activity (= exercise) and works hard… no illness will attack him and his strength will increase.”

So what are some practical measures we can take to both extend life and be able to server the Ribono Shel Olam well during that time? Again, Harvard Medical School gives us some practical tips to do to the best of our ability:

1. Don’t smoke.

2. Include physical and mental activities into daily life.

3. Eat a healthy diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, and substitute healthier monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats for unhealthy saturated fats and trans fats.

4. Take a daily multivitamin, and be sure to get enough calcium and vitamin D.

5. Maintain a healthy weight and body shape.

6. Challenge your mind.

7. Build a strong social network.

8. Protect your sight, hearing, and general health by following preventive care guidelines.

9. Floss, brush, and see a dentist regularly. Poor oral health may have many repercussions, including poor nutrition, unnecessary pain, and possibly even a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.

10. Discuss with your doctor whether you need any medication—perhaps to control high blood pressure, treat osteoporosis, or lower cholesterol—to help you stay healthy.

Most of your health and longevity is in your hands. Hashem has given us all the tools at our disposal in order to maintain health. Let’s use them. Be active, exercise, eat right, stay positive, manage and reduce stress. Following these tips can “add hours to your day, days to your year and years to your life.”

For more information on programs and events, or content related to health, family, and community please visit: OU Community Services.

ALAN FREISHTAT is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH. He and Linda Holtz M.Sc are the Directors of the Jerusalem-based Weight Loss and Stress Management center Lose It! Alan and Linda can be reached on their U.S. Line 516-568-5027 In Israel call 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il or linda@loseit.co.il

The Lose It! Center for Weight Loss and Stress Management is a fully integrated Weight Loss program which combines a healthy and balanced eating plan, a supervised and professional exercise program and cognitive behavioral therapy to achieve behavior modification. The emphasis of the program is for long term, sustainable weight loss. Lose it! has programs available to assist people with Stress Management, and overcoming Depression and Anxiety Disorders. The program is done both at their Jerusalem offices and throughout the world online and by telephone.

You can see the Lose It! video and gain much information by visiting our website www.loseit.co.il For more information about Lose It!, email us at info@loseit.co.il or call 516-568-5027. In Israel, contact us at 02-654-0728

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Charlie Silvr of RealAge


Image by Esthr
part of my personal health info series…. (I just finished writing a Release 1.0 on the topic, and will be running a workshop on it Septembr 30.)

RealAge is a model – unfortunately a rare one – of effective personalized outreach to consumers about health care. RealAge.com is an online service accessible through a consumer website that interacts directly with individuals, stores their histories for them only, and uses their self-reported data to figure out their RealAge. “We’re a media company,” says founder Charlie Silver, a serial entrepreneur who sold his chain of quick-oil-change centers to Jiffy Lube in 1994. Now he’s in the preventive maintenance business again – for human beings. RealAge is not an outgrowth of, say, a disabled child or a mourned spouse, but of Silver’s perception that people needed a simple way not just to collect or store health data, but to understand the meaning of it.

That perception didn’t come easy. The company began in 1994, when Silver’s previous business partner, Marty Rom, introduced him to Michael Roizen, MD. Rom and Roizen had met in medical school; in 1994, Roizen was developing medical informatics programs at the University of Chicago. Rom and Roizen recruited Silver to help start a business using interactive tools to collect personal health information. The product was basically a dumbed-down PC with five buttons that doctors could put in front of patients to take their medical histories.

But in hindsight, Silver realizes, the founders got it wrong. The challenge isn’t taking the patient’s history, but rather representing it electronically for easy analysis and making it meaningful to the individual. Most health information is hard to summarize even for a doctor – though it’s easy enough to see and say “You look terrible,” or “You’re looking great.” But exactly how terrible or how great? The numbers people focus on, from cholesterol level and weight to blood pressure and pulse rate, are all too discrete. No one of them tells the overall tale of an individual’s overall health. There’s a complex skein of conditions and dependencies and hedges. In other words, it’s hard to keep motivated to stay healthy when there’s no way to measure the impact.

By contrast, there’s a person’s RealAge, which does change when you change your behavior. based on actuarial analysis of numerous studies and health statistics, and an ever-expanding array of epidemiological survey results and clinical trials. “It needed a single number,” says Silver. “In sports, in business, in school…we measure things with a single number” – even though it hides lots of complexities. With such a number, an individual can use variety of strategies to lower her RealAge, just as a business may use any number of strategies to raise its profitability.

To be sure, there is lots of specific advice and complex background information that RealAge uses to supplement the RealAge (and keep users coming back), depending on each user’s (self-reported) conditions, behavior and prospects. But there is also a bottom line: Your RealAge is 44.5, even though you were born in 1965. Or, congratulations! Your RealAge has dropped two years since you stopped smoking, started walking to work and, oh yes, quit that job you hate and lowered your stress.

Constant comments
For example, registered users received the following tip a week after a journal article casting doubts on Vitamin E appeared: “You’ve no doubt noted articles like ‘Vitamin E Linked to Higher Death Rates’ [with a summary]. [It] may have you wondering if you should change your own health habits based on this news. However, according to a health alert, “Is Vitamin E Bad for You?” published in RealAge Magazine, RealAge’s premium subscription service, you shouldn’t give up on it, especially if you are a relatively young, healthy adult. Just don’t take too much. The RealAge Optimum dose of vitamin E is 400 IU per day. Use this as your upper intake limit. Also, if you take supplements, avoid being a solo supplement taker. Treat supplements the same way you treat your diet and go for balance.”

By contrast, says Roizen, “With all the new information about hormone replacement therapy, we waited for the dust to settle – about three months – and then we tried to summarize the pros and cons.” As for Vioxx, he adds, “In the database we have everyone who says they are taking Vioxx, so we sent them all a message when it was withdrawn. One of the real values of e-mail is that you can get a lot more information out than in a 30-second TV slot.”

In reality, the mailings can sometimes be undercustomized. The studies that RealAge cites sometimes contradict one another. Of course, that’s a function of real life, not just RealAge. Many of them do in fact contradict each other. RealAge’s basic messages, however, are the ones that the medical establishment seems to have the toughest time getting through: Eat right, don’t smoke, exercise, check for the most common diseases. Just getting those messages acted upon would save more lives than any drug invented so far.

While doctors may sniff at RealAge’s commercial aspects and its obsession with vitamins, we’d wager that it has been far more effective in changing people’s behavior than most doctors. It’s not that doctors don’t care; it’s that they aren’t there. RealAge is there seven days a week with its e-mailed tip- of- the- day, reaching 4 million people a day.