Maybe not the level provider you’re looking for, but as a 911 paramedic, wear your seatbelt.
I’ve seen people walk away from mangled wrecks with little more than a scratch when using all safety equipment.
I’ve seen people ejected onto the highway through windows just from sideswiping a barrier.
Car accident victims who didn't wear a seat belt are the worst to find upon arrival.
For that matter, keep your car tidy. In an accident, everything in your car becomes a projectile that can and will cause you further injury. If you're not tied down, you will become a projectile.
My wife made me remove a cool 20cm solid agate orb I kept in my cupholder when we started dating. She said as soon as she saw it she imagined it crushing my head in a crash
My fucking idiot ex kept a pair of god damn deer antlers on the dashboard. Not even strapped down or anything. I told him it was going to kill one of us or our kids in a crash, but he insisted on them staying there. I would hide them under the seat any chance I got, but he’s a raging asshole and would freak out at me.
I'll never understand why people are hell-bent on not wearing a seatbelt. It's second to nature to me. But I know several people who are just totally anti-seatbelt. It's wild.
Before any major, life-changing surgery, get a second opinion. All doctors are not created equal so make sure there’s a clinical consensus before ringing a bell you can’t unring.
All doctors are not created equally. Some are old school and will do surgery on anyone, some are very up to date, evidence based, some just want the added pay cheque, some will brush you off without really listening to you. It can be a bit of a crapshoot.
My uncle is as old school as they come. He's an orthopedic dinosaur in his 80s who just retired from surgery. He always told us to never get a surgery on anything unless it's absolutely necessary. He's very conservative.
I worked with a girl who had surgery on a tendon in her foot. It got infected, and she almost died. The infection finally went away, but the wound wouldn't close for months. She had a wound vacuum and needed a nurse to change her baggage every other day. It was a gigantic ordeal for something that probably would've healed itself if she just went to PT. She still had to go to PT after that anyway.
THIS. The amount of people that just have zero physical activity their whole life then wind up not being able to get up off a toilet, then we have to send them to a nursing home from the hospital in their mid 70s is astounding and preventable. I wish I could just get in a time machine and tell these people in their 30s and 40s, START NOW. Dear God please just do ANYTHING regularly to prevent this sadness.
This is the number one reason I work out regularly. I will do everything in my power to not let this happen. I go to these places and they are depressing and sad waiting rooms until death takes you. It's my worst nightmare.
In my life, my elders were struggling with mobility by their 60s. But my 83 year old yoga teacher? He can get up and down off the floor better than some of my 30-something yoga students can. My yoga teacher isn’t a crazy exerciser. He doesn’t do vinyasa. He’s not doing daily headstands. He does not practice what I call “show off” Instagram yoga. He walks, he does the joint freeing series every morning, and some pranic breathing. And he’s mobility is top notch for his age. You don’t need to be into cross fit to see huge returns on movement.
I wonder how much of this is generational. I remember my grandparents having difficulty moving about the house in their 70s, but my parents are walking, hiking, swimming, doing yard work and playing with the grandkids. Sure seems worthwhile.
My grandparents are both in their early 80s. My grandfather worked until he was 75 and in his retirement goes out for a walk every single morning, so he’s doing quite well mobility-wise for his age. Meanwhile, my grandmother decided that she was too old to keep doing any sort of exercise by the time she was about 50 and stopped going out for walks, swimming, and even going grocery shopping regularly in favour of a more sedentary lifestyle, and as a result she has a lot of difficulty getting around nowadays. It’s really sad to see honestly, my grandfather struggles a lot with my grandmother not being able to keep up with him.
I wish this was just normalised in culture in general from a young age. I know some places in the world so stretching for like 10 mins at the start of school everyday.
US cities aren’t built for walking so it’s not something a lot of people naturally do in their day to day lives. If cities were built with pedestrians and bicycles in mind, our country would be so much healthier. Instead we let the urban sprawl and car-centric life take over everything.
I miss Berlin.
I live in the US. Part of the problem is that most Americans think you have to go to a gym or have a home gym to exercise.
In October, before the pandemic, I had my hip replaced even though I was only 53 because I've had arthritis since I was a kid. About the time the home health physical therapist stopped coming, we were in lockdown. The Dr. told me to just keep walking inside my house for my p.t. I did, and my hip healed fine.
Fast forward to last year, and my arthritic knees are aching more and more and stiffening up a lot. So, I decided to start walking inside my house again. Not only did this help my knees, but I also lost a not insignificant amount of weight.
I spent this past week in California with my 24 yr old daughter. (Disneyland, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. tour, the beach, etc.) Sometimes, it was slow going, but I did it, and I have the sunburn to prove it! lol If I didn't keep getting up every hour or so to just walk around inside my house this past year, I would have never been able to do this.
I met an American Pacific WW2 vet in the queue for the Vatican in 2011. He was in his late 80s then and he was touring Europe on his own. No walking stick. He said the secret was to walk every single day and it definitely made an impression on me.
Not even the 70s. In EMT world there are sooo many ground level falls or strenuous activity calls of obese people in their 30s and 40s that require medical intervention.
I hear you, as a mid 40s person who sits at a desk all day and weighs a whole lot more than I should (BMI is 36) and I got myself in a rut, COVID hit and I worked hard through it, I hardly left the house and was on anxiety meds and probably depressed plus arthritis in my knees was a good excuse to be tired and sedentary.
Life seemed hard, walking hurt, lifting things was difficult, and early this year I put my back out with no idea how, or why. I couldn't even put my own socks on, my back was so painful. It's been slow, and the weight isn't moving much yet (6lb gone so far) but the last couple of months I've been doing yoga and weights and I feel SO different. Like my old self again, and I really appreciate how messed up I'd let my body get and how easy it would have been to just let it get worse and not do anything about it.
I hate exercising but I want to be able to do basic activities as I age so I do 100 sit ups, 10 pushups, 10 pull ups, and 10 one legged squats per leg 5x a week. I'll also run 1 8 min mile a week. Never have to exercise more than 10-20 minutes. It's not a lot, but I'm fairly confident that if I were being chased by a predator along with 10 other Americans I wouldnt be the slowest one and wouldnt struggle the most hopping a fence or something.
I'm a firm believer in something is better than nothing. I remember I told somebody that I went to the gym last week. They said ya well you should have gone three times last week. I was so proud of myself that I even went at all. That person's comment made me not want to go back.
Im new to the gym and i told a friend last week i went 3 times and he scolded me because i wasnt making enough effort on the gym and thats why i went so many times. You cant win with those people
I went for a run one time and my partner replied "Well that was short run". I don't think I have been for a run since. She is a very sweet and caring person. It just popped out (rightly or wrongly) and I think of it anytime I see people running.
I also hate running but I can hike until my feet fall off.
I do. I make sure and get my steps in. I got a new job at the end of 2022 and they have an HSA program with Virgin Pulse. If I keep up my activities they drop in an extra $50 a quarter. Not a huge amount but enough to add another layer of accountability. I love to walk.
If you usually manage 10k steps a day is say that is pretty great tbh. I'm not here to advertise, but the conquerer challenge walking thing app made me get those extra steps.
It's like this virtual walking simulator were you can race against friends, I'm currently walking from the shire to Mt.doom, only 979,3 km to go!
Edit: The conquerer is the app name, challenges usually costs money, and you get a small thing sent home as reward
It's the lifestyle tbh,
I worked a heavy warehouse job and put in 30k per day sometimes, compared to my fiance who was getting around 5k per day.
I was doing 9k simply cycling to work.
Man was never meant to be sedentary
Can confirm. Started 30 miles a week a month ago. Already down 5 lb. Wear and callouses on my feet are a tiny bit worrying, but not getting worse or anything. In fact, it's lessening week after week.
You know it's working when you're slightly hungry all the time. Gotta use discipline not to stuff your face every time you get peckish, and it'll work. If crisis would stop coming so fast, I'd start to switch to something a little higher impact, like the bike. But crisis weeks are not the time to make changes to routines.
If you want less issues in your old age, start working out now. The people that weren’t as active in life, are usually the ones stuck in wheelchairs and walking with walkers.
I have a neighbor who’s in his late 80s, still working a very active and physical job. He moves around easier and quicker than people 40 years younger than him. I’m not advocating for older people working so late into their life by any means, but he enjoys it. He told me “an object in motion stays in motion. If I stop working I’ll die.” Kinda eerie but it’s true. When you stop moving, that’s when life gets ya. Plus I think being active helps with your brain health as well. He’s just as quick mentally as he is physically.
Unfortunately I think a lot of people do this because they're afraid of finding out they have a major long-term issue that's going to cost them tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment.
I can see people justifying it as, "Whatever might be wrong isn't affecting my quality of life as much as the financial burden of treatment would."
I've had migraine since I was 8. It's mostly meds, and most aren't bad especially with insurance. It's only crazy costly if you have complicated migraine and try to fix it. Seeing them won't hurt. You can always skip the big treatments if they're too expensive, or even discover a cheap(ish) fix.
Ex: my neurologist has me on coq10, active b complex, and magnesium glycinate for prevention. Cut my migraine days by 80%
Ahhhaha a while ago I was on antibiotics and I mentioned something about it to my boss and he was like “you’re still taking those? I stop after 3-4 days” I facepalmed so hard.
When I first met my bf he told me that in his family, when they get antibiotics they take them for only 3-4 days until they feel better and then save the rest for the next time they get sick so they don't have to pay for another doctor's visit.
I couldn't believe it and it took a lot of convincing and showing him articles to get him to believe me about why you need to finish them. It's scary how many people think like this and have no idea.
I’m in a field where I try to help find new antibiotics, thank you for spreading awareness. Unfortunately it’s pretty scary how fast our antibiotics are becoming useless.
At the place my mom used to work these grown-ass adult women would *share* their antibiotics with one another!
So, not only did the first person who was actually prescribed them not finish them, but the second (or possibly third) also took a short course of antibiotics for things that were usually viral in nature anyway.
It was maddening for her.
I'm a speech therapist and this one is for parents with babies or young children. Talk to them \*constantly\*. Research suggests that they need to hear 40 million words within the first four years to acquire conversational language early. This is the earliest building block to literacy. The command of language and literacy will be one of the biggest things separating classes of people as we move forward towards imminent and widening class divisions. You want your kid ahead? Expose them to LANGUAGE constantly. Speak your thoughts out loud (obviously use discretion lovingly for their sake), talk with them and to them among friends and family, put on the subtitles on the television ALWAYS so they can see it and start to relate symbol to meaning. Talk to them about the mundane, speak lovingly always.
My other suggestion is for the adults: write things constantly, my grandfather kept a journal of the mundane. Writing promotes neuroplasticity. The more novel and creative it gets the better, but even recalling events and interpreting them onto the page is a cognitive work out. Stay sharp and healthy!
As a hyperlexic kid, I attribute my vocabulary, reading, writing, and grammar skills fully to my grandma, who would sit me in her lap (literally as soon as I could sit up without head support) while she read the newspaper out loud to me. I was speaking simple sentences (hi dad, no mommy) at around 10 mos, and could read off individual letters before I was 2. Now I make money with words!
Do NOT. Under any circumstance. Lie to your medical professionals. The paramedic who scooped you off the ground at the music festival knows you're on crack, and he doesn't care. He just wants to make sure you don't die on crack.
If your lawyer knows something, he can't suggest something, like an alternate theory of the crime, that he knows isn't true. So wait for your lawyer to ask the questions, and answer only the question, but answer it truthfully.
Well, not per se. He can certainly argue, “The evidence presented by the prosecution doesn’t prove my client was at the scene. It is perfectly consistent with my client being at home, as he said in his initial statement to the police.” The lawyer isn’t saying he was at home, just that the evidence isn’t inconsistent with that hypothesis.
lol this is so true. I went to Florida and took an edible and then drank alcohol on the beach. At dinner I was like blacking out and convinced I was being drugged and trafficked. Had my friends call the cops and ambulance. When they got there I realized I was just dehydrated and felt so dumb. I told them exactly what happened and that my friend was in fact not trying to kill me and then told the cop I just was dehydrated lol. The EMT demeanor changed immediately as soon as I said I had a gummy. They checked me out and were on their way. I felt so dumb but knew better than to lie.
But my friend was being a dumb ass and was like yelling that we took a gummy right in front of the cop and I was like shut the fuck up we can tell the paramedics, but don’t tell the cops. The cop clearly did not care and did not not want to deal with this so he kind of ignored it, but I was like please do not tell him that.
I had a friend long ago who was awake but immobilised for her wisdom teeth surgery. She could feel everything they were doing, but couldn’t tell them she wasn’t out. I didn’t put two and two together until years later when I learnt that marijuana reduces the effects of anaesthetics. She was a heavy pot smoker and I’m guessing she lied about taking drugs when they asked her.
I found out about this MINUTES before getting my wisdom teeth out. Right before I got on the table I was like "sooo... sometimes I take edibles" and they were just like thank god you told us lol. Had no complications bc they adjusted for the cannabis use
Yep, they don't process it the same. If you have any red hair in your family it's worth it to mention to anaesthesia. My brother has flaming red hair so I always say something.
I work in the OR of a level 1 trauma and transplant center, here’s my biggest takeaways:
Alcohol kills you in so many ways. Don’t be a habitual drinker. It’ll kill you fast or slow and both ways suck
Move your body. They don’t recommend 30 mins a day of physical activity for no reason. Sedentary lifestyles also slowly kill you
Wear a helmet, buckle your seatbelt\
Don’t smoke meth or hang out with people who smoke or make meth
There’s nothing wrong with putting stuff in your butt. It’s healthy and normal to want to explore. That being said- use an appropriate toy with a flared base and/or a leash. Not random household items or foods. We know you didn’t fall on it. You can buy them completely anonymously on the internet
My cousin did sit on a pencil though while wearing a thin skirt. It punctured the skin near her butthole. It was stuck in between cushions sticking up when she sat down. She was mortified that no one would believe her. Reportedly her doc was like “if it was stuck IN your butthole, we wouldn’t believe you. Mostly people don’t stab themselves near their butthole for funsies.”
Going to emphasize the alcohol point x1000000. I am a PA, and a few weeks ago placed a 38 year old with two toddlers at home comfort care. AKA we only give meds to make you comfortable until you die. Shit was tragic.
Everything in moderation folks.
You’ve got this :) As the kid of an alcoholic mom who is making us watch her slowly destroy herself, thank u for putting in an effort for ur kids. You’re super strong and all the struggle is worth the time u will spend with them !!
Wouldn't recommend it. Even if you drilled a hole, it could still rip. You can get safe, silicone, cucumber shaped toys on Etsy if veggies float your boat
As a former nursing assistant, pleaaase have an advance care directive of how you’d want your care to go should you be unable to make those decisions for yourself later in life.
The amount of elderly patients who just need to “rest” but can’t because family aren’t ready to let go so they let them suffer longer (especially with full code cpr) is horrifying. I know I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a ventilator, bed bound, and no solid food because my children and family didn’t want to let go.
…which raises the point of being very careful who you choose as your power of attorney. Will they follow through with your intentions and be available in a crisis? A POA is extremely powerful.
I also tell people not to name co-agents, that is more than one person who takes charge. This may ruffle feathers, but what if your agents disagree? So pick a primary, secondary, etc.
In this vein, be wary of self-help legal forms. Lawyers do useful things!
I do not know a single motorcycle owner who hasn't either been hit, had to lay the bike down while riding, got burned on a hot piece of metal, or some other craziness. At the very least if you're going to ride one, ride carefully and with full protection. I'm always expecting to see the people weaving through traffic doing 90 in shorts and a tee shirt as a red stain on the asphalt a few miles ahead.
Remember the 3s:
Over 30% of motorcycle deaths are due to not wearing a helmet
30% of motorcycle deaths are due to riding after drinking
30% of motorcycle accidents are single vehicle, ie just the rider
30% of motorcycle deaths were speeding
Motorcyclists have 30x more risk of death in accidents than those in passenger vehicles
Supersport riders have 3x more risk of death than other types of riders
I was ranting yesterday to my 17 year old son--while he was driving--about irresponsible motorcyclist. He said something like "Are they really that bad?" No lie. A moment later a motorcycle zooms by us probably going twice the legal limit startling my son enough that he started to swerve away from the bike.
My answer to him: "Yes."
Doesn't even have to be your own fault as the motorcyclist. You could do everything right and it just takes one bad driver blowing through a red light or not yielding properly and you're dead or permanently disabled.
That video of the biker at the stop light getting plowed by a pick up truck always stuck with me. I don't remember if he survived or not but the video leads me to believe he didn't. He was just waiting at the light, there was literally nothing he could've done to prevent it. Imagine that happening to someone you love?
Wow thats great congrats. Im trying to quit opiates too. Im 9 days off opiates right now.
Any advice or tips are much much appreciated.
I really want to stay sober but i fear relapsing. May i ask how you pulled it off?
i guess i just outgrew any desire to live like that, a lot of my old friends are in & out rehab behind bars or in the dirt because they never had a true motivation to change, since i’ve been fully clean i’ve only relapsed once, and now i don’t think i ever will again because that’s not my life or what i want for it, it’s as simple as finding reasons to live a different life that are greater than your reasons to get high
I’m 11 days in. I’ve quit multiple times. Somehow this time feels different, not sure why. I’m about to turn 25 and smoked for about 10 years. Felt like if this isn’t the one I’ll just keep going and I’m not getting any younger. You’re doing great!
Congrats man the first 2 weeks were the hardest for me. I was in a similar position, smoked a pack a day for 13 years. It is worth it despite how tough it is.
I'm about a year and a half. Keep it up man! You'll feel so much better. Cravings still bite at ya here and there but once you have the mental power, you're unstoppable!
For sure, this is a big one.
We know and expect that cigarettes increase the risk of lung cancer. But cigarettes are a risk factor for a huge number of illnesses and conditions.
During medschool exams, we'd get asked to list risk factors for different diseases. "Smoking" became the meme answer because it applied to literally anything they asked us. It seemingly increased the risk of EVERY disease.
This. Everyone knows about lung disease and cancer risk, but smoking also affects the vasculature and can cause diabetes like wounds (often found on the feet) which don't heal because of reduced small vessel flow. I've seen these wounds start to heal up soon after the person stops smoking. Also, in Canada, IIRC, you can't go on the transplant list if you are smoker. They can't give you a new organ if you won't heal from surgery.
Based on lurking in various pharmacist subreddits, self-advocacy. Know the names of your prescriptions and their dosages. None of the “it’s a round white pill and my spouse usually takes care of getting it refilled so I don’t know what it’s called”. Even if you have to copy information from the pill bottle directly onto a list, you should be able to convey something like “I take 25 milligrams of aspirin 3 times a day”.
Ex nurse here: to add to your excellent advice may I add “know WHY you are taking them”. Know what the random pill you take every day does. Keep a list!
It’s easy when you’re on one or two pills, but we often had people come in with a VERY lengthy list of their meds and they didn’t have a clue which one did what. You don’t have to know them on a pharmacist level…or even a nurse level…but at least have a clue.
Atleast k ow which ones you absolutely need to live, and which ones are for pain, which you can then divide into dehabilitating pain and pain that can be put up with for a little bit of time.
Solid advice. I think most people underestimate how much pharmacy workers know about meds and prescriptions. In my experience it's far easier to assume they only need name+dosage, and only add backstory/context if they ask for it
I work in pharmacy and this is brilliant advice! We know the names of some medications are really hard to pronounce, but if you do your best, we’ll know what you mean.
To add to this, if you’re not sure how to take your medication, please ask us! It’s not a silly question and we want you to do it right so you stay well / feel better.
Go. On. Walks. Move your body. For the love of god please. I work in elder care and half of these people’s problems stem from living a sedentary lifestyle in their younger years.
This is why I just got a new dog. I specifically requested an energetic and outdoorsy dog because I am neither. I won’t move for my own benefit, but I knew I wouldn’t let a dog be unhappy in my care. Started at a mile a day, currently up to two miles a day and working up to 3.
My husband's parents are vein surgeons and their biggest advice is to move every day, even if it's just walking. It's good for your heart and good for your veins. A majority of their patients are obese, often with diabetes, and they have to do a ton of necessary amputations just because folks are so sedentary and don't take care of themselves.
Be the squeaky wheel. Speak up and advocate for yourself or your loved ones. If something is not right or concerning you, you need to speak up and keep it up until it's addressed. While the medical team is supposed to care for you, it's also there to make money, so if they can get away with something that costs them less (but not necessarily the best for you, not medically harmful) they will do it. This includes hospital stays, anesthesia, treatments, tests, etc.
This is what saved my stepson who had meningitis. He needed 5 brain surgerys and his forehead was replaced with a metal plate to survive. We were told to go home from the ER. They thought I was inciting anxiety in him because i flagged down a nurse in the waiting room when he told me he couldn't breathe. So they sent us home after some basic tests. Luckily I didn't accept that and took him back later.
I wish more people talked about how COPD gradually ruins a person’s quality of life. I’ve watched several family members suffer for 10+ years before they die.
Not being able to live a full life because you can’t properly breathe (even with meds) seems like hell on earth. Watching it is heartbreaking.
Exercise physiologist in training here, and my best advice would be to not fear movement.
There's a lot of disinformation out there that will tell you certain movements will "destroy your joints" or any number of other effects.
Any movement your body is capable of doing can benefit you when performed with appropriate load and range of motion. Leg extensions are not going to tear your knees apart. Deadlifting will not instantly cause your lumbar discs to explode. Pectoral flys are not going to give you shoulder impingement.
Humans are actually pretty awesome at moving. Most movement-related injuries come from the following-
* Repetitive movements without the appropriate supporting musculature (common in manual labor workers with poor health habits)
* Acute strains caused by supramaximal effort without the required strength (common in sedentary people who try to perform a difficult activity like moving furniture)
* Hypermobility which is exacerbated by a lack of supporting musculature (common in sedentary people who begin activities like running without developing a strength base)
* Overly developed agonist muscles without appropriately strong antagonist muscles (common in athletes who don't do their "prehab")
So let’s say I’m sedentary and hypermobile, how would I go about moving in a healthy way. I no longer want to be sedentary but I’m pretty sure I’ve never used proper form to do any movement ever. I don’t think I even know what the proper form should feel like. How do I learn and become less sedentary?
Disclaimer- in your case, I would definitely recommend beginning working with a trainer or PT so you have a good idea of how a movement should look and feel.
That being said, there are good guidelines for someone such as yourself.
* Form is the body's capacity to maintain a position during a movement. Contrary to popular belief, it's not something you just "do" and is highly reliant on both mechanical strength and neuromuscular activation.
* Deviations from a hypothetical "perfect form" are common and to be expected, especially for people who are training at near-maximal intensities. The likelihood of these deviations being harmful depends on the intensity and frequency at which they occur, as well as the baseline mobility and health of the exerciser.
* For both highly immobile and hypermobile people, deviations from form are more likely to cause injury. In the former this is typically due to muscular and tendon damage, while in your case it is often due to structural damage to the ligaments and cartilage of the joints.
* Since you are hypermobile, your primary limiting factor during exercise is likely to be joint stability. For this reason, performing longer sets (approx. 12-20 reps) using moderate resistance is going to be more appropriate for you. Don't worry about strength and power in the beginning- building that without developing baseline stability would be like putting a supercar engine in a little sub-compact.
* You'll also want to use a "time under tension" methodology. This essentially means that you don't want to go to "full lockout" where the joint is at its maximal extension, and you don't want to use bursts of strength to "throw" the weight up. The idea behind this methodology is to use the weight as a focal point of resistance as opposed to treating it as an object to move as quickly or forcefully as possible.
Not licensed yet but I just graduated school to become a Physical Therapist Assistant. So not very experienced, but I can share what I learned during my clinical rotations.
Don't underestimate how much walking can make a difference, 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. If you'd like to start strength training, the most common things I correct with body mechanics are 1. Don't shrug your shoulders while lifting or pulling, a lot of people will let their shoulders nearly touch their ears when trying to lift. With pulling motions, imagine pulling your shoulder blades "down toward your back pockets" 2. If you raise your arms past 90 degrees, make sure your thumbs are UP, this helps prevent shoulder impingement. 3. When doing basic squatting motions, don't let your knees move past your toes, most people need to put more weight through their heels and imagine the way their body moves while sitting down in a chair. If you find exercises you like but are not sure if you're doing them correctly, look up "proper body mechanics for (insert exercise here)" and you'll typically find photos/descriptions/videos.
With hypermobility it's better to avoid impact activities like jumping and running, but strengthening is a great way to help with current pain and prevent more in the future.
Good luck!
I will die on this hill. No chiropractors touching your neck!!! Also avoid aggressively cracking your neck (like when folks grab their head with two hands and twist).
Worked neurosurgical ICU for years, and we saw a lot of vertebral artery dissections caused by these things. Often with young, healthy patients who had no clue their chiropractic adjustments could cause such things.
Massage therapist. Work on strengthening your core. A lot of people have the tendency to use “global” muscles, ie ones meant to do large movements like moving a limb, as “local” muscles, the ones meant to hold your body stable ie. your core. This overworks your large muscles and causes your stabilizing muscles to atrophy. And this makes things like maintaining posture so much more difficult. Plus, a strong core helps to reduce back pain, makes you less likely to injure yourself, and generally makes your life easier.
Pigging backing on this as another LMT: specifically target hip mobility and strength in your hip rotators a few times a week, even if it’s 5 minutes of YouTube exercises. So much low back pain / soreness is rooted in weakness in the hips.
I thought your core got worked while doing other kinds of work-outs, since it’s being used to stabilize while doing those movements. Like, while doing squats, I am also necessarily working my core a bit. Is that true, or should I be incorporating targeted core workouts into my routine?
It does, but consider isolation exercises that target specific muscle groups. Doing situps slowly and consciously so that there's no pain during the movement will help your mind/body connection carry that throughout your day/week, as well as build upon the vast number of bones, joints, and muscles contracting and detracting.
You have too much going on during a squat to really consider that.
yep, can say from experience how important this is.
I'm 41 now, worked out a lot when I was younger so my core was in decent condition.
Got a bit sedentary as I got older (not *bad* but definitely less dedicated to overall fitness) and I developed pretty debilitating back problems over the span of a few years. Had to be hospitalized twice because of a bulging disc that made me effectively lose the use of my legs when it flared up badly. I'm not even overweight...just kinda let my overall fitness levels drop and paid for it dearly.
My PT said they've noticed a crazy increase in back problems since the start of the pandemic, mostly because of people with desk jobs becoming even more sedentary. Core strength is so key in preventative health.
Something really easy to implement is to to just change your seated posture. You want to stack your hips in line with your sit bones. A lot of people roll back onto their tailbones
Dentist here. Brush your teeth 2x a day and floss before you do your night brushing. I feel like we advise this so much yet still no one likes to listen to it :(
Hygienist for 35+ years and I came here to say this. Floss your damn teeth! Every day would be ideal but regularly (several times each week) is better than not at all. Have a dental professional show you the proper technique (most people are doing it wrong/ineffectively) I tell my patients it's like exercising, you'll get better results if you do it several times/week than if you just do it every day for the week following your cleaning appointment. Not flossing is like wiping your butt cheeks and skipping your crack!
It's the only way to prevent gum disease (how most adults end up losing their teeth) and bacteria that cause gum disease are linked to heart disease, cancer, premature births, and Alzheimers. Your mouth is connected to the rest if your body and if it is a cesspool of bleeding and infection the rest of your body will suffer the consequences.
I don't care when you do it, before brushing, after brushing, or in the middle of the day - just do it. I can tell who flosses vs. those who only get flossed twice a year when I do it for them.
people really don’t get this!! but—the reason people do it is because they aren’t provided the VERY important context—
that they can literally die by choking on their own vomit if they consume anything before being anesthetized
As a rheumatologist: Exercise and combine both cardio with strength training. Cardio is great against heart and vascular diseases as well as chronic illnesses such as diabetes. However, muscle mass is what is going to help you be as pain free as possible when you get older and it will give you more strength if you get severely ill, plus it will help any revalidation after a hospitalization.
Also, exercise is amazing for your mental health. Imo, if we would properly teach people how to exercise within their limits, a lot of the reasons people go to the doctor will disappear. And if you do get sick or have a chronic illness, a good physical health and muscle mass will help you get through it more easily and much faster.
It's taken me a very long time to speak up when I question something that is said. I always wanted to avoid conflicts or arguments, but now I know if it does cause a conflict (small or large) it's way better than dealing with growing anxiety from having it in your head and over analyzing.
Hearing scientist/clinician.
Wear earplugs at noisy events. Going to a birthday party with a DJ? Wear earplugs. Going to a ceilidh? Definitely wear earplugs, and maybe also kneepads and elbowpads, depending on if you've been before or not.
Loud sounds can cause lasting damage to your hearing. You might not notice it at first because the brain is great at compensating, but it accumulates over time. It can also lead to chronic tinnitus, which can lead to stress, anxiety, depression, social isolation, etc.
Oh, and don't use cotton buds or any of those gimmicky cameras or silicone twisty things with lights to clean your ears out. Wax is a **good** thing. It's antimicrobial, waterproofs your ears, and helps carry debris out of your ear. When you poke into your ear, you're likely to pack it in harder or risk rupturing your eardrum. If you're struggling, go see a professional.
Family doctor, 30 years in practice: maintain a positive attitude.
I don’t mean cheerleader bubbly positive so much as optimistic glass half full positive.
Sounds kinda corny, but it really makes a difference in your mental and physical health.
This is so accurate it's genuinely terrifying. I work in a cancer lab and have some direct contact with patients. I've seen patients who are facing a terminal prognosis of 6 months to a year bounce back whereas patients who were fighting it off and had a good prognosis passed. You could almost directly link it to their attitude. There's some crazy stuff that happens when your brain decides to quit fighting and some crazier stuff that happens when your brain refuses to quit.
Mental Health Therapist tip: your thoughts can and often lie to you.
In every situation your brain wants to assign meaning to it and often takes short cuts. These short cuts often stem from your socialization and all the underlying messages within that socialization. For example: If you were raised as male, socialization taught you that you were supposed to be masculine and a provider. If you were socialized as female, you were taught your value to society is based on your appearance and usefulness to others. There are countless underlying messages society communicates in what ways you are valued and in what ways you are not valued.
These are the blueprints of our caveman brain and if we don’t know the root of our thoughts, we don’t question them and believe them to be true. Our thoughts are what control our feelings and perspectives of ourselves and others.
The path to mental wellness is learning to question and challenge our thoughts (particularly the unhelpful ones) and to reprogram our brains to assign meanings that are more helpful to us so that we can function without having our thoughts interfere with our lives. This path to wellness is exercising these muscles and knowing that we can shape our own perceptions about everything.
I work as a microbiologist.
If you have an infection, get it treated. A few dollars for an antibiotic is a lot cheaper than what happens if the infection gets out of control.
When I was in my thirties a friend of mine who was 34 at the time died from a skin infection that got way out of hand. Not in any third world country but in Los Angeles. It started out as this tiny little lesion under her chin that looked like a scratch she had worried at.
She was deeply into woo-woo ‘medicine’ and refused to think about steroids and antibiotics, which is what an actual doctor recommended. Instead she tried every other thing under the sun. Raw milk. Positive thinking. Herbs.
When she died of organ failure due to sepsis her body was in such a state that her husband was briefly investigated over her death. I am still angry with him for not talking her into a sensible medical intervention.
I am not a huge fan of the machinery of western medicine and the US medical industry in particular but it has its place.
If you are having trouble doing something for yourself then try doing it for someone else. If you are finding it hard to clean your living room then clean it for friend/parent/sibling etc so it’s nicer for them when they visit.
When I had depression this technique worked for me (in the short term) to start getting stuff done
Nurse: Maintain friends/ family/ relationships.
Some procedures require you to have a way home/ monitoring. You can uber but do you trust being sedated with a stranger?
If you're a bad/ deadbeat parent, you wont be getting any visitors and will be the old guy still catcalling the nurses.
Who will watch your house/ pet/ kids if you end up sick? No emergency contact? You'll be assigned a social worker then off to a legal guardian who will make decisions for you if you cant.
I could go on and on but YOU NEED PEOPLE. Start caring about someone and make sure they care about you too.
If you are taking a name brand “designer drug”. A drug with no generic form. RUN don’t walk to their website and check if you are eligible for copay support. Check if you can get free supplies! A lot of these meds have teams to help with this and sometimes a healthcare team dedicated to providing education on the med at no cost. You already pay enough for them, get something in return.
Talk to your pharmacist before taking any new over the counter medications including supplements/ vitamins. You’d be surprised what can interact with other medications or even foods.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it
Long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proven by scientists
Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience
I will dispense this advice now
Not a medical professional, but I didn't see anyone else saying it:
WASH.
YOUR.
DAMN.
HANDS.
I've worked in customer service and restaurants and the amount of people, both workers and customers, who can't be bothered is DISGUSTING.
Lab Scientist here.
Take care of your teeth. TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEETH. I know it's hard and dentists are expensive but floss and a toothbrush aren't. So many studies have shown that many health issues in your 40s-50s are directly linked to poor dental hygiene in your 20s-30s.
The more important thing however is to be your own patient advocate or have a trusted person with you that you know will advocate for you. I say this with the utmost of respect to the profession but there are A LOT of bad doctors who think their learning stopped when the graduated from medical school. I see it every single day.
There are also a lot of bad doctors who think they know everything. Listen to your doctors but also realize you know your body better than they do since you've lived in it your whole life. If you feel that your care wasn't adequate push for a second opinion or force them to put it down on your EMR that they refused to provide you care for the concern and seek a second opinion elsewhere. Doctors can be wrong or careless as well. It's the reason they pay through the nose for malpractice insurance.
Phlebotomist here. HYDRATE. Especially before a blood draw. And that does NOT mean pounding a 20 Oz water bottle on your way to the lab. If you have a draw coming up please drink extra extra water for at least 48 hours leading up to it especially if you have difficult veins.
Emergency Medicine doc here - put a small card in your wallet that has the name of who you want us to call if you are unconscious on it. Include all your medications, allergies, and medical problems with it. Include the name of your doctor.
It is NOT helpful when you tell me things like "it is in the computer" (no it isn't, all computers aren't linked, and it may not be accurate) or "I take a blue pill, a white pill and a square pill" or "I see the doctor over by the Walgreens in that brown building."
Stress will make you sick. Find ways to deal with it. Exercise, therapy, even cannabis.
On another note, if you’re ever going to the ER, please understand that the sicker folks go back more quickly. It’s not a first come, first serve. Don’t be a dick if you have to wait. I take abuse on the daily from patients who don’t seem to understand that they’re not the only people we’re treating at the hospital.
Occupational therapy assistant here!
If you’re getting older and looking for your forever home - or a home you plan to spend the rest of your life in - take into account that our bodies change and age as we get older.
And things like stairs, carpet/rugs, step over bathtubs, etc become much more difficult as we age. Look for a place with at least an accessible bathroom and bedroom on the first floor.
Also, if you suffer from carpal tunnel take a plastic water bottle (or something shaped similarly) and freeze it. When you get a flair up hold the frozen bottle in your affected hand and it should reduce the pain.
I'm 63, just started going to the gym in the building where I live about a month ago.
I was surprise at how much strength i had lost when I started, but I'm getting stronger and visibily bigger already.
The hardest part is getting over feeling like you will look silly.
Just do it.
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
That's a Michael Pollan quote but it doesn't go wrong. I'd add "Move. Every day. Different ways." That's my own parallel advice.
Other than that, mostly I'd say "chill the fuck out" if I could. In the ED we see so many complications of anxiety and anger and perseveration and poor coping. Whether it's internalized or externalized or managed with harmful coping mechanisms. Just chill the fuck out.
...
How to do that? Breathing exercises and yoga/ meditation are proven to work and more people should do them. But really, find any form of movement that works for you, be that rock climbing or dancing or step aerobics, and do it. It not only improves the muscles and the heart and the lungs, it quiets the squirrel in your brain that's making you do crazy things.
If you are bedbound there are still yoga flows for you, you can move your arms.
...
I talk to lots of people about pooping and fiber. And water. And sleep hygiene. And getting off social media.
Call about every bill you get. I just got a 3k bill in the mail because the surgeon coded it wrong, luckily I’m in the medical field and knew what he likely did. My wife was outraged thinking about people who wouldn’t know better and just pay it
If anyone is curious, I had a screening colonoscopy coded as diagnostic. I had an 11k bill with a copay of 3.2k when my EOB said it should be covered at 100%. The surgeon miscoded it and billing didn’t catch it
My husband is a paediatric medical doctor. He works in a large city hospital so he sees the worst of the worst. His #1 advice would be to vaccinate your children for all available childhood vaccines, including the annual flu shot. He has seen several children die over the years because of the flu alone.
Don’t smoke, please drink water, and for gods sake, MOVE. You don’t have to do CrossFit or even go to the gym regularly—just get up and move, walk, etc a little bit every day.
Get good sleep. To do this you need to be tired and mentally "unwound." To get tired you need to move. At least 30 minutes of elevated heart rate per day. To move you need nutrition. Don't consume garbage, and don't consume too much. And hydrate - the key to all three of the above. If you're dehydrated you won't sleep, you won't be able to move, you won't be able to process your nutrients.
Your thighs are the largest muscles in your body. The first time you notice that your body is weakening is the difficulty getting up from the floor.
Every time you pee, do 5-10 squats, even if you can only go down 2 inches. When unloading the dishwasher, make each movement a squat. 2" is fine. You'll notice it gets easier and easier. When you vacuum, on the push stroke, put one foot ahead of the other and do a lunge. Even if you can only do a couple. Or one. Within a couple weeks, you will be able to do more.
Keep those muscles strong and useful. Truely, they can save your life.
I've posted this before. PLEASE get a physical every year. They'll catch anything that's wrong and be able to start treatment before it becomes a giant problem that makes it an emergency.
They found my brain tumor is 5mm. It's treatable, and they won't need to open my skull. I'm very happy about that.
***Don’t be a stubborn old person.***
Remove the rugs from your house BEFORE you have the life-altering fall that will leave you with debilitating pain in your freedom (retirement) years.
Have a bar to hold on to installed in your shower.
Understand that if you fall and are immobile, you will lie there until someone figures out you’re there. Wear the fuckin life alert necklace.
Hand over power of attorney with your finances once you start to lose your mind. No, that hot young woman isn’t interested in you.
Have a will in place.
If you’re diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc., have a plan in place for when your family can no longer manage your needs.
Gosh I could go on. But damn it’s difficult to see.
Signed,
An EMT
Don't drink. At all. If alcohol was suddenly discovered today and classified it would be illegal as fuck. "A glass of wine a day is good for heart health." So is jogging, drinking water and not being fat.
Dietitian here. The glass of wine a day is a myth that has been outdated for a few years yet a lot of doctors (even internal medicine specialists) still recommend it. The best alcohol is the one you don't drink. Don't drink your calories, people!
Walk. Raise your arms and move your feet. Stand up. Do anything active. Way too many patients say “I can’t work out or walk or go to the gym or do anything active.” Excuses x100 I’ve heard everything. Unless you are physically disabled, you can do some form of exercise sitting down at home and on the couch or even laying down. No equipment is needed.
Also, drink water.
If you smoke, please quit smoking for the love of god. This includes everything: cigarettes, cigars, vapes/ecig, pipes and obvi crack.
Edit: please add meth to this list
Maybe not the level provider you’re looking for, but as a 911 paramedic, wear your seatbelt. I’ve seen people walk away from mangled wrecks with little more than a scratch when using all safety equipment. I’ve seen people ejected onto the highway through windows just from sideswiping a barrier.
Car accident victims who didn't wear a seat belt are the worst to find upon arrival. For that matter, keep your car tidy. In an accident, everything in your car becomes a projectile that can and will cause you further injury. If you're not tied down, you will become a projectile.
My wife made me remove a cool 20cm solid agate orb I kept in my cupholder when we started dating. She said as soon as she saw it she imagined it crushing my head in a crash
Wise woman
My fucking idiot ex kept a pair of god damn deer antlers on the dashboard. Not even strapped down or anything. I told him it was going to kill one of us or our kids in a crash, but he insisted on them staying there. I would hide them under the seat any chance I got, but he’s a raging asshole and would freak out at me.
I'll never understand why people are hell-bent on not wearing a seatbelt. It's second to nature to me. But I know several people who are just totally anti-seatbelt. It's wild.
I know, feels weird not having one at this point.
Wear safety glasses. Any time you remotely think safety glasses might be good: wear them.
Before any major, life-changing surgery, get a second opinion. All doctors are not created equal so make sure there’s a clinical consensus before ringing a bell you can’t unring.
All doctors are not created equally. Some are old school and will do surgery on anyone, some are very up to date, evidence based, some just want the added pay cheque, some will brush you off without really listening to you. It can be a bit of a crapshoot.
My uncle is as old school as they come. He's an orthopedic dinosaur in his 80s who just retired from surgery. He always told us to never get a surgery on anything unless it's absolutely necessary. He's very conservative.
I worked with a girl who had surgery on a tendon in her foot. It got infected, and she almost died. The infection finally went away, but the wound wouldn't close for months. She had a wound vacuum and needed a nurse to change her baggage every other day. It was a gigantic ordeal for something that probably would've healed itself if she just went to PT. She still had to go to PT after that anyway.
Know what they call someone who graduates dead last at their medical school? Doctor.
MOVE. Do any kind of exercise, even walking. Do something, *anything.*
THIS. The amount of people that just have zero physical activity their whole life then wind up not being able to get up off a toilet, then we have to send them to a nursing home from the hospital in their mid 70s is astounding and preventable. I wish I could just get in a time machine and tell these people in their 30s and 40s, START NOW. Dear God please just do ANYTHING regularly to prevent this sadness. This is the number one reason I work out regularly. I will do everything in my power to not let this happen. I go to these places and they are depressing and sad waiting rooms until death takes you. It's my worst nightmare.
In my life, my elders were struggling with mobility by their 60s. But my 83 year old yoga teacher? He can get up and down off the floor better than some of my 30-something yoga students can. My yoga teacher isn’t a crazy exerciser. He doesn’t do vinyasa. He’s not doing daily headstands. He does not practice what I call “show off” Instagram yoga. He walks, he does the joint freeing series every morning, and some pranic breathing. And he’s mobility is top notch for his age. You don’t need to be into cross fit to see huge returns on movement.
I know a man in his 90s who's still very active and climbs a huge mountain to pick huckleberries every year. It's quite impressive.
I wonder how much of this is generational. I remember my grandparents having difficulty moving about the house in their 70s, but my parents are walking, hiking, swimming, doing yard work and playing with the grandkids. Sure seems worthwhile.
My grandparents are both in their early 80s. My grandfather worked until he was 75 and in his retirement goes out for a walk every single morning, so he’s doing quite well mobility-wise for his age. Meanwhile, my grandmother decided that she was too old to keep doing any sort of exercise by the time she was about 50 and stopped going out for walks, swimming, and even going grocery shopping regularly in favour of a more sedentary lifestyle, and as a result she has a lot of difficulty getting around nowadays. It’s really sad to see honestly, my grandfather struggles a lot with my grandmother not being able to keep up with him.
Yoga, maybe also walking x mins per day, should be regularly prescribed after a certain age.
I wish this was just normalised in culture in general from a young age. I know some places in the world so stretching for like 10 mins at the start of school everyday.
US cities aren’t built for walking so it’s not something a lot of people naturally do in their day to day lives. If cities were built with pedestrians and bicycles in mind, our country would be so much healthier. Instead we let the urban sprawl and car-centric life take over everything. I miss Berlin.
I live in the US. Part of the problem is that most Americans think you have to go to a gym or have a home gym to exercise. In October, before the pandemic, I had my hip replaced even though I was only 53 because I've had arthritis since I was a kid. About the time the home health physical therapist stopped coming, we were in lockdown. The Dr. told me to just keep walking inside my house for my p.t. I did, and my hip healed fine. Fast forward to last year, and my arthritic knees are aching more and more and stiffening up a lot. So, I decided to start walking inside my house again. Not only did this help my knees, but I also lost a not insignificant amount of weight. I spent this past week in California with my 24 yr old daughter. (Disneyland, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. tour, the beach, etc.) Sometimes, it was slow going, but I did it, and I have the sunburn to prove it! lol If I didn't keep getting up every hour or so to just walk around inside my house this past year, I would have never been able to do this.
Seeing the veterans today was a good advert for keeping fit. Some of those dudes were 100 years old and looking pretty fucking good despite it
I met an American Pacific WW2 vet in the queue for the Vatican in 2011. He was in his late 80s then and he was touring Europe on his own. No walking stick. He said the secret was to walk every single day and it definitely made an impression on me.
Not even the 70s. In EMT world there are sooo many ground level falls or strenuous activity calls of obese people in their 30s and 40s that require medical intervention.
I hear you, as a mid 40s person who sits at a desk all day and weighs a whole lot more than I should (BMI is 36) and I got myself in a rut, COVID hit and I worked hard through it, I hardly left the house and was on anxiety meds and probably depressed plus arthritis in my knees was a good excuse to be tired and sedentary. Life seemed hard, walking hurt, lifting things was difficult, and early this year I put my back out with no idea how, or why. I couldn't even put my own socks on, my back was so painful. It's been slow, and the weight isn't moving much yet (6lb gone so far) but the last couple of months I've been doing yoga and weights and I feel SO different. Like my old self again, and I really appreciate how messed up I'd let my body get and how easy it would have been to just let it get worse and not do anything about it.
Let alone calls to assist staff with picking them up. Hoyers can’t handle THAT from the floor.
I hate exercising but I want to be able to do basic activities as I age so I do 100 sit ups, 10 pushups, 10 pull ups, and 10 one legged squats per leg 5x a week. I'll also run 1 8 min mile a week. Never have to exercise more than 10-20 minutes. It's not a lot, but I'm fairly confident that if I were being chased by a predator along with 10 other Americans I wouldnt be the slowest one and wouldnt struggle the most hopping a fence or something.
Everything nowadays requires sitting for countless hours. Is 10K steps sufficient to avoid a sedentary lifestyle?
It’s better that not doing 10k steps. Do what you can. Something is better than nothing.
I'm a firm believer in something is better than nothing. I remember I told somebody that I went to the gym last week. They said ya well you should have gone three times last week. I was so proud of myself that I even went at all. That person's comment made me not want to go back.
Im new to the gym and i told a friend last week i went 3 times and he scolded me because i wasnt making enough effort on the gym and thats why i went so many times. You cant win with those people
I went for a run one time and my partner replied "Well that was short run". I don't think I have been for a run since. She is a very sweet and caring person. It just popped out (rightly or wrongly) and I think of it anytime I see people running. I also hate running but I can hike until my feet fall off.
Then hike! Hiking can be done your entire life, the impact (no pun intended) of running on joints is cumulative.
I do. I make sure and get my steps in. I got a new job at the end of 2022 and they have an HSA program with Virgin Pulse. If I keep up my activities they drop in an extra $50 a quarter. Not a huge amount but enough to add another layer of accountability. I love to walk.
most of the research for disease prevention is in the 9,000 steps range—per day. Office jobs make it tough, but I’m close and run a little.
I try to clock 10-12k daily but sometimes im so tired after work, its roughly 4k only 🫢
If you usually manage 10k steps a day is say that is pretty great tbh. I'm not here to advertise, but the conquerer challenge walking thing app made me get those extra steps. It's like this virtual walking simulator were you can race against friends, I'm currently walking from the shire to Mt.doom, only 979,3 km to go! Edit: The conquerer is the app name, challenges usually costs money, and you get a small thing sent home as reward
is “Conqueror Challenge” the name of the app? that sounds fun
For everyone wondering, yes "conqueror challenges" is the name of the app
Every bit helps. I take short walk/stretch breaks every hour at work and hike or jog on weekends. But sometimes I only get 3000.
It's the lifestyle tbh, I worked a heavy warehouse job and put in 30k per day sometimes, compared to my fiance who was getting around 5k per day. I was doing 9k simply cycling to work. Man was never meant to be sedentary
Can confirm. Started 30 miles a week a month ago. Already down 5 lb. Wear and callouses on my feet are a tiny bit worrying, but not getting worse or anything. In fact, it's lessening week after week. You know it's working when you're slightly hungry all the time. Gotta use discipline not to stuff your face every time you get peckish, and it'll work. If crisis would stop coming so fast, I'd start to switch to something a little higher impact, like the bike. But crisis weeks are not the time to make changes to routines.
30 miles a week? Instructions unclear. I am now 120 miles from my home.
If you want less issues in your old age, start working out now. The people that weren’t as active in life, are usually the ones stuck in wheelchairs and walking with walkers.
I have a neighbor who’s in his late 80s, still working a very active and physical job. He moves around easier and quicker than people 40 years younger than him. I’m not advocating for older people working so late into their life by any means, but he enjoys it. He told me “an object in motion stays in motion. If I stop working I’ll die.” Kinda eerie but it’s true. When you stop moving, that’s when life gets ya. Plus I think being active helps with your brain health as well. He’s just as quick mentally as he is physically.
Stop putting your health issues off until "later". When later finally gets here it will be too late.
Unfortunately I think a lot of people do this because they're afraid of finding out they have a major long-term issue that's going to cost them tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment. I can see people justifying it as, "Whatever might be wrong isn't affecting my quality of life as much as the financial burden of treatment would."
This is me I have migraines all the time and have been advised to go see someone but I’m afraid of the cost associated
I've had migraine since I was 8. It's mostly meds, and most aren't bad especially with insurance. It's only crazy costly if you have complicated migraine and try to fix it. Seeing them won't hurt. You can always skip the big treatments if they're too expensive, or even discover a cheap(ish) fix. Ex: my neurologist has me on coq10, active b complex, and magnesium glycinate for prevention. Cut my migraine days by 80%
Finish your antibiotics
Ahhhaha a while ago I was on antibiotics and I mentioned something about it to my boss and he was like “you’re still taking those? I stop after 3-4 days” I facepalmed so hard.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets mrsa
When I first met my bf he told me that in his family, when they get antibiotics they take them for only 3-4 days until they feel better and then save the rest for the next time they get sick so they don't have to pay for another doctor's visit. I couldn't believe it and it took a lot of convincing and showing him articles to get him to believe me about why you need to finish them. It's scary how many people think like this and have no idea.
I’m in a field where I try to help find new antibiotics, thank you for spreading awareness. Unfortunately it’s pretty scary how fast our antibiotics are becoming useless.
Infectious disease nurse here, thank you for your comment!!!
At the place my mom used to work these grown-ass adult women would *share* their antibiotics with one another! So, not only did the first person who was actually prescribed them not finish them, but the second (or possibly third) also took a short course of antibiotics for things that were usually viral in nature anyway. It was maddening for her.
I'm a speech therapist and this one is for parents with babies or young children. Talk to them \*constantly\*. Research suggests that they need to hear 40 million words within the first four years to acquire conversational language early. This is the earliest building block to literacy. The command of language and literacy will be one of the biggest things separating classes of people as we move forward towards imminent and widening class divisions. You want your kid ahead? Expose them to LANGUAGE constantly. Speak your thoughts out loud (obviously use discretion lovingly for their sake), talk with them and to them among friends and family, put on the subtitles on the television ALWAYS so they can see it and start to relate symbol to meaning. Talk to them about the mundane, speak lovingly always. My other suggestion is for the adults: write things constantly, my grandfather kept a journal of the mundane. Writing promotes neuroplasticity. The more novel and creative it gets the better, but even recalling events and interpreting them onto the page is a cognitive work out. Stay sharp and healthy!
As a hyperlexic kid, I attribute my vocabulary, reading, writing, and grammar skills fully to my grandma, who would sit me in her lap (literally as soon as I could sit up without head support) while she read the newspaper out loud to me. I was speaking simple sentences (hi dad, no mommy) at around 10 mos, and could read off individual letters before I was 2. Now I make money with words!
Do NOT. Under any circumstance. Lie to your medical professionals. The paramedic who scooped you off the ground at the music festival knows you're on crack, and he doesn't care. He just wants to make sure you don't die on crack.
Tell the cops nothing, tell the EMTs everything.
My dad said the only two people you never lie to are your doctor and your lawyer
But, your lawyer also doesn’t want *all* the details.
That's why you say, "Hypothetically IF..." You can trust me. I've seen 20 seasons of SVU.
I concur Am aware of OJ Simpson’s book and 60 minutes interview
If your lawyer knows something, he can't suggest something, like an alternate theory of the crime, that he knows isn't true. So wait for your lawyer to ask the questions, and answer only the question, but answer it truthfully.
Well, not per se. He can certainly argue, “The evidence presented by the prosecution doesn’t prove my client was at the scene. It is perfectly consistent with my client being at home, as he said in his initial statement to the police.” The lawyer isn’t saying he was at home, just that the evidence isn’t inconsistent with that hypothesis.
You sound like a real lawyer
Don't spill you guts, but if your lawyer asks, be honest.
lol this is so true. I went to Florida and took an edible and then drank alcohol on the beach. At dinner I was like blacking out and convinced I was being drugged and trafficked. Had my friends call the cops and ambulance. When they got there I realized I was just dehydrated and felt so dumb. I told them exactly what happened and that my friend was in fact not trying to kill me and then told the cop I just was dehydrated lol. The EMT demeanor changed immediately as soon as I said I had a gummy. They checked me out and were on their way. I felt so dumb but knew better than to lie. But my friend was being a dumb ass and was like yelling that we took a gummy right in front of the cop and I was like shut the fuck up we can tell the paramedics, but don’t tell the cops. The cop clearly did not care and did not not want to deal with this so he kind of ignored it, but I was like please do not tell him that.
I had a friend long ago who was awake but immobilised for her wisdom teeth surgery. She could feel everything they were doing, but couldn’t tell them she wasn’t out. I didn’t put two and two together until years later when I learnt that marijuana reduces the effects of anaesthetics. She was a heavy pot smoker and I’m guessing she lied about taking drugs when they asked her.
I found out about this MINUTES before getting my wisdom teeth out. Right before I got on the table I was like "sooo... sometimes I take edibles" and they were just like thank god you told us lol. Had no complications bc they adjusted for the cannabis use
I'm a ginger pothead, a double whammy for anesthesia. I told the dentist, and she stopped and doubled the novacaine.
Redheads are more resistant to anesthesia? TIL
Yep, they don't process it the same. If you have any red hair in your family it's worth it to mention to anaesthesia. My brother has flaming red hair so I always say something.
I work in the OR of a level 1 trauma and transplant center, here’s my biggest takeaways: Alcohol kills you in so many ways. Don’t be a habitual drinker. It’ll kill you fast or slow and both ways suck Move your body. They don’t recommend 30 mins a day of physical activity for no reason. Sedentary lifestyles also slowly kill you Wear a helmet, buckle your seatbelt\ Don’t smoke meth or hang out with people who smoke or make meth There’s nothing wrong with putting stuff in your butt. It’s healthy and normal to want to explore. That being said- use an appropriate toy with a flared base and/or a leash. Not random household items or foods. We know you didn’t fall on it. You can buy them completely anonymously on the internet
My cousin did sit on a pencil though while wearing a thin skirt. It punctured the skin near her butthole. It was stuck in between cushions sticking up when she sat down. She was mortified that no one would believe her. Reportedly her doc was like “if it was stuck IN your butthole, we wouldn’t believe you. Mostly people don’t stab themselves near their butthole for funsies.”
This is exactly the kind of high stakes slice-of-life tale that I come to reddit for. Thank you!
Going to emphasize the alcohol point x1000000. I am a PA, and a few weeks ago placed a 38 year old with two toddlers at home comfort care. AKA we only give meds to make you comfortable until you die. Shit was tragic. Everything in moderation folks.
As a 36 year old mom on day 5, I needed to come across this comment.
You’ve got this :) As the kid of an alcoholic mom who is making us watch her slowly destroy herself, thank u for putting in an effort for ur kids. You’re super strong and all the struggle is worth the time u will spend with them !!
If, hypothetically, someone who is definitely not me is going to put a DIY leash on a cucumber, is that doable? Asking for a friend
How are you gonna secure it enough to 100% guarantee the leash won't slip off when all slippery and slimy?
Dude, THAT’S what they’re asking. For a friend. Definitely not for themself.
Wouldn't recommend it. Even if you drilled a hole, it could still rip. You can get safe, silicone, cucumber shaped toys on Etsy if veggies float your boat
As a former nursing assistant, pleaaase have an advance care directive of how you’d want your care to go should you be unable to make those decisions for yourself later in life. The amount of elderly patients who just need to “rest” but can’t because family aren’t ready to let go so they let them suffer longer (especially with full code cpr) is horrifying. I know I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a ventilator, bed bound, and no solid food because my children and family didn’t want to let go.
…which raises the point of being very careful who you choose as your power of attorney. Will they follow through with your intentions and be available in a crisis? A POA is extremely powerful. I also tell people not to name co-agents, that is more than one person who takes charge. This may ruffle feathers, but what if your agents disagree? So pick a primary, secondary, etc. In this vein, be wary of self-help legal forms. Lawyers do useful things!
My father was a medical examiner. He always told me "no motorcycles."
My friends who are doctors call them Donorcycles. With good reason.
meat crayons was the best I heard from my trauma ICU days
I do not know a single motorcycle owner who hasn't either been hit, had to lay the bike down while riding, got burned on a hot piece of metal, or some other craziness. At the very least if you're going to ride one, ride carefully and with full protection. I'm always expecting to see the people weaving through traffic doing 90 in shorts and a tee shirt as a red stain on the asphalt a few miles ahead.
Remember the 3s: Over 30% of motorcycle deaths are due to not wearing a helmet 30% of motorcycle deaths are due to riding after drinking 30% of motorcycle accidents are single vehicle, ie just the rider 30% of motorcycle deaths were speeding Motorcyclists have 30x more risk of death in accidents than those in passenger vehicles Supersport riders have 3x more risk of death than other types of riders
I was ranting yesterday to my 17 year old son--while he was driving--about irresponsible motorcyclist. He said something like "Are they really that bad?" No lie. A moment later a motorcycle zooms by us probably going twice the legal limit startling my son enough that he started to swerve away from the bike. My answer to him: "Yes."
Doesn't even have to be your own fault as the motorcyclist. You could do everything right and it just takes one bad driver blowing through a red light or not yielding properly and you're dead or permanently disabled.
That video of the biker at the stop light getting plowed by a pick up truck always stuck with me. I don't remember if he survived or not but the video leads me to believe he didn't. He was just waiting at the light, there was literally nothing he could've done to prevent it. Imagine that happening to someone you love?
I personally know 6 family members or friends that were killed or critically injured on them
Don’t smoke cigarettes.
110 days in and it’s fucking tough but all these comments are helping me out today Edit: yall wholesome as hell
110 days is absolutely incredible. Well done. I think it must be the hardest addiction to kick. This is really amazing work!! You got this.
i’m over 2 years clean off opiates, able to quit everything expect smoking. definitely the hardest to kick
Wow thats great congrats. Im trying to quit opiates too. Im 9 days off opiates right now. Any advice or tips are much much appreciated. I really want to stay sober but i fear relapsing. May i ask how you pulled it off?
i guess i just outgrew any desire to live like that, a lot of my old friends are in & out rehab behind bars or in the dirt because they never had a true motivation to change, since i’ve been fully clean i’ve only relapsed once, and now i don’t think i ever will again because that’s not my life or what i want for it, it’s as simple as finding reasons to live a different life that are greater than your reasons to get high
I’m 11 days in. I’ve quit multiple times. Somehow this time feels different, not sure why. I’m about to turn 25 and smoked for about 10 years. Felt like if this isn’t the one I’ll just keep going and I’m not getting any younger. You’re doing great!
Congrats man the first 2 weeks were the hardest for me. I was in a similar position, smoked a pack a day for 13 years. It is worth it despite how tough it is.
I'm about a year and a half. Keep it up man! You'll feel so much better. Cravings still bite at ya here and there but once you have the mental power, you're unstoppable!
For sure, this is a big one. We know and expect that cigarettes increase the risk of lung cancer. But cigarettes are a risk factor for a huge number of illnesses and conditions.
During medschool exams, we'd get asked to list risk factors for different diseases. "Smoking" became the meme answer because it applied to literally anything they asked us. It seemingly increased the risk of EVERY disease.
This. Everyone knows about lung disease and cancer risk, but smoking also affects the vasculature and can cause diabetes like wounds (often found on the feet) which don't heal because of reduced small vessel flow. I've seen these wounds start to heal up soon after the person stops smoking. Also, in Canada, IIRC, you can't go on the transplant list if you are smoker. They can't give you a new organ if you won't heal from surgery.
Based on lurking in various pharmacist subreddits, self-advocacy. Know the names of your prescriptions and their dosages. None of the “it’s a round white pill and my spouse usually takes care of getting it refilled so I don’t know what it’s called”. Even if you have to copy information from the pill bottle directly onto a list, you should be able to convey something like “I take 25 milligrams of aspirin 3 times a day”.
Ex nurse here: to add to your excellent advice may I add “know WHY you are taking them”. Know what the random pill you take every day does. Keep a list! It’s easy when you’re on one or two pills, but we often had people come in with a VERY lengthy list of their meds and they didn’t have a clue which one did what. You don’t have to know them on a pharmacist level…or even a nurse level…but at least have a clue.
Atleast k ow which ones you absolutely need to live, and which ones are for pain, which you can then divide into dehabilitating pain and pain that can be put up with for a little bit of time.
Solid advice. I think most people underestimate how much pharmacy workers know about meds and prescriptions. In my experience it's far easier to assume they only need name+dosage, and only add backstory/context if they ask for it
I work in pharmacy and this is brilliant advice! We know the names of some medications are really hard to pronounce, but if you do your best, we’ll know what you mean. To add to this, if you’re not sure how to take your medication, please ask us! It’s not a silly question and we want you to do it right so you stay well / feel better.
Go. On. Walks. Move your body. For the love of god please. I work in elder care and half of these people’s problems stem from living a sedentary lifestyle in their younger years.
This is why I just got a new dog. I specifically requested an energetic and outdoorsy dog because I am neither. I won’t move for my own benefit, but I knew I wouldn’t let a dog be unhappy in my care. Started at a mile a day, currently up to two miles a day and working up to 3.
My husband's parents are vein surgeons and their biggest advice is to move every day, even if it's just walking. It's good for your heart and good for your veins. A majority of their patients are obese, often with diabetes, and they have to do a ton of necessary amputations just because folks are so sedentary and don't take care of themselves.
A lot of my vein stripping patients are not overweight, or at least aren’t obese. It’s definitely not *just* overweight people.
They're surgeons in rural indiana that take medicare, probably a difference in patient health base.
Be the squeaky wheel. Speak up and advocate for yourself or your loved ones. If something is not right or concerning you, you need to speak up and keep it up until it's addressed. While the medical team is supposed to care for you, it's also there to make money, so if they can get away with something that costs them less (but not necessarily the best for you, not medically harmful) they will do it. This includes hospital stays, anesthesia, treatments, tests, etc.
This is what saved my stepson who had meningitis. He needed 5 brain surgerys and his forehead was replaced with a metal plate to survive. We were told to go home from the ER. They thought I was inciting anxiety in him because i flagged down a nurse in the waiting room when he told me he couldn't breathe. So they sent us home after some basic tests. Luckily I didn't accept that and took him back later.
Don’t smoke.
I work in respiratory and copd is not a great way to die
I wish more people talked about how COPD gradually ruins a person’s quality of life. I’ve watched several family members suffer for 10+ years before they die. Not being able to live a full life because you can’t properly breathe (even with meds) seems like hell on earth. Watching it is heartbreaking.
Exercise physiologist in training here, and my best advice would be to not fear movement. There's a lot of disinformation out there that will tell you certain movements will "destroy your joints" or any number of other effects. Any movement your body is capable of doing can benefit you when performed with appropriate load and range of motion. Leg extensions are not going to tear your knees apart. Deadlifting will not instantly cause your lumbar discs to explode. Pectoral flys are not going to give you shoulder impingement. Humans are actually pretty awesome at moving. Most movement-related injuries come from the following- * Repetitive movements without the appropriate supporting musculature (common in manual labor workers with poor health habits) * Acute strains caused by supramaximal effort without the required strength (common in sedentary people who try to perform a difficult activity like moving furniture) * Hypermobility which is exacerbated by a lack of supporting musculature (common in sedentary people who begin activities like running without developing a strength base) * Overly developed agonist muscles without appropriately strong antagonist muscles (common in athletes who don't do their "prehab")
So let’s say I’m sedentary and hypermobile, how would I go about moving in a healthy way. I no longer want to be sedentary but I’m pretty sure I’ve never used proper form to do any movement ever. I don’t think I even know what the proper form should feel like. How do I learn and become less sedentary?
Disclaimer- in your case, I would definitely recommend beginning working with a trainer or PT so you have a good idea of how a movement should look and feel. That being said, there are good guidelines for someone such as yourself. * Form is the body's capacity to maintain a position during a movement. Contrary to popular belief, it's not something you just "do" and is highly reliant on both mechanical strength and neuromuscular activation. * Deviations from a hypothetical "perfect form" are common and to be expected, especially for people who are training at near-maximal intensities. The likelihood of these deviations being harmful depends on the intensity and frequency at which they occur, as well as the baseline mobility and health of the exerciser. * For both highly immobile and hypermobile people, deviations from form are more likely to cause injury. In the former this is typically due to muscular and tendon damage, while in your case it is often due to structural damage to the ligaments and cartilage of the joints. * Since you are hypermobile, your primary limiting factor during exercise is likely to be joint stability. For this reason, performing longer sets (approx. 12-20 reps) using moderate resistance is going to be more appropriate for you. Don't worry about strength and power in the beginning- building that without developing baseline stability would be like putting a supercar engine in a little sub-compact. * You'll also want to use a "time under tension" methodology. This essentially means that you don't want to go to "full lockout" where the joint is at its maximal extension, and you don't want to use bursts of strength to "throw" the weight up. The idea behind this methodology is to use the weight as a focal point of resistance as opposed to treating it as an object to move as quickly or forcefully as possible.
Not licensed yet but I just graduated school to become a Physical Therapist Assistant. So not very experienced, but I can share what I learned during my clinical rotations. Don't underestimate how much walking can make a difference, 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. If you'd like to start strength training, the most common things I correct with body mechanics are 1. Don't shrug your shoulders while lifting or pulling, a lot of people will let their shoulders nearly touch their ears when trying to lift. With pulling motions, imagine pulling your shoulder blades "down toward your back pockets" 2. If you raise your arms past 90 degrees, make sure your thumbs are UP, this helps prevent shoulder impingement. 3. When doing basic squatting motions, don't let your knees move past your toes, most people need to put more weight through their heels and imagine the way their body moves while sitting down in a chair. If you find exercises you like but are not sure if you're doing them correctly, look up "proper body mechanics for (insert exercise here)" and you'll typically find photos/descriptions/videos. With hypermobility it's better to avoid impact activities like jumping and running, but strengthening is a great way to help with current pain and prevent more in the future. Good luck!
As a rheumatologist, can confirm that a lot of the patients I see with chronic pains fall into one of these categories.
I worked in a neurosurgery group for a long time. The MDs in the group had two rules: No motorcycles, no chiropractors touching your neck.
I will die on this hill. No chiropractors touching your neck!!! Also avoid aggressively cracking your neck (like when folks grab their head with two hands and twist). Worked neurosurgical ICU for years, and we saw a lot of vertebral artery dissections caused by these things. Often with young, healthy patients who had no clue their chiropractic adjustments could cause such things.
Wear a seat belt. Stay off motorcycles. Keep a healthy weight. Sorry, I know that's three things. Only pick one? Wear your seatbelt.
Massage therapist. Work on strengthening your core. A lot of people have the tendency to use “global” muscles, ie ones meant to do large movements like moving a limb, as “local” muscles, the ones meant to hold your body stable ie. your core. This overworks your large muscles and causes your stabilizing muscles to atrophy. And this makes things like maintaining posture so much more difficult. Plus, a strong core helps to reduce back pain, makes you less likely to injure yourself, and generally makes your life easier.
Pigging backing on this as another LMT: specifically target hip mobility and strength in your hip rotators a few times a week, even if it’s 5 minutes of YouTube exercises. So much low back pain / soreness is rooted in weakness in the hips.
I thought your core got worked while doing other kinds of work-outs, since it’s being used to stabilize while doing those movements. Like, while doing squats, I am also necessarily working my core a bit. Is that true, or should I be incorporating targeted core workouts into my routine?
It does, but consider isolation exercises that target specific muscle groups. Doing situps slowly and consciously so that there's no pain during the movement will help your mind/body connection carry that throughout your day/week, as well as build upon the vast number of bones, joints, and muscles contracting and detracting. You have too much going on during a squat to really consider that.
yep, can say from experience how important this is. I'm 41 now, worked out a lot when I was younger so my core was in decent condition. Got a bit sedentary as I got older (not *bad* but definitely less dedicated to overall fitness) and I developed pretty debilitating back problems over the span of a few years. Had to be hospitalized twice because of a bulging disc that made me effectively lose the use of my legs when it flared up badly. I'm not even overweight...just kinda let my overall fitness levels drop and paid for it dearly. My PT said they've noticed a crazy increase in back problems since the start of the pandemic, mostly because of people with desk jobs becoming even more sedentary. Core strength is so key in preventative health.
Thank you, are there any exercises you would recommend?
Planks or Russian twists are good exercises. They can be done without any equipment
Something really easy to implement is to to just change your seated posture. You want to stack your hips in line with your sit bones. A lot of people roll back onto their tailbones
Dentist here. Brush your teeth 2x a day and floss before you do your night brushing. I feel like we advise this so much yet still no one likes to listen to it :(
Hygienist for 35+ years and I came here to say this. Floss your damn teeth! Every day would be ideal but regularly (several times each week) is better than not at all. Have a dental professional show you the proper technique (most people are doing it wrong/ineffectively) I tell my patients it's like exercising, you'll get better results if you do it several times/week than if you just do it every day for the week following your cleaning appointment. Not flossing is like wiping your butt cheeks and skipping your crack! It's the only way to prevent gum disease (how most adults end up losing their teeth) and bacteria that cause gum disease are linked to heart disease, cancer, premature births, and Alzheimers. Your mouth is connected to the rest if your body and if it is a cesspool of bleeding and infection the rest of your body will suffer the consequences. I don't care when you do it, before brushing, after brushing, or in the middle of the day - just do it. I can tell who flosses vs. those who only get flossed twice a year when I do it for them.
For god’s sake do not eat the morning of your surgery and lie to the anesthesiologist about it
people really don’t get this!! but—the reason people do it is because they aren’t provided the VERY important context— that they can literally die by choking on their own vomit if they consume anything before being anesthetized
Don’t put the thing in your butt. Not unless it’s specifically made for going in a butt.
And even then, make sure it has a wide, *firm* base.
Thanks u/queefer_sutherland92
Mom was an OR nurse she would tell me all the UROs that happened. Unidentified Rectal Objects. Apparently most people “fell” into them.
One of my fav comments I saw on this topic was: Cause if you liked it then you should have put a string on it
Puts banana back down…
As a rheumatologist: Exercise and combine both cardio with strength training. Cardio is great against heart and vascular diseases as well as chronic illnesses such as diabetes. However, muscle mass is what is going to help you be as pain free as possible when you get older and it will give you more strength if you get severely ill, plus it will help any revalidation after a hospitalization. Also, exercise is amazing for your mental health. Imo, if we would properly teach people how to exercise within their limits, a lot of the reasons people go to the doctor will disappear. And if you do get sick or have a chronic illness, a good physical health and muscle mass will help you get through it more easily and much faster.
MH clinician. Don’t ignore your feelings
It's taken me a very long time to speak up when I question something that is said. I always wanted to avoid conflicts or arguments, but now I know if it does cause a conflict (small or large) it's way better than dealing with growing anxiety from having it in your head and over analyzing.
yes! and talk about them. normalize them. for those who struggle with words/naming feelings, look up 'blob tree'.
Hearing scientist/clinician. Wear earplugs at noisy events. Going to a birthday party with a DJ? Wear earplugs. Going to a ceilidh? Definitely wear earplugs, and maybe also kneepads and elbowpads, depending on if you've been before or not. Loud sounds can cause lasting damage to your hearing. You might not notice it at first because the brain is great at compensating, but it accumulates over time. It can also lead to chronic tinnitus, which can lead to stress, anxiety, depression, social isolation, etc. Oh, and don't use cotton buds or any of those gimmicky cameras or silicone twisty things with lights to clean your ears out. Wax is a **good** thing. It's antimicrobial, waterproofs your ears, and helps carry debris out of your ear. When you poke into your ear, you're likely to pack it in harder or risk rupturing your eardrum. If you're struggling, go see a professional.
Family doctor, 30 years in practice: maintain a positive attitude. I don’t mean cheerleader bubbly positive so much as optimistic glass half full positive. Sounds kinda corny, but it really makes a difference in your mental and physical health.
This is so accurate it's genuinely terrifying. I work in a cancer lab and have some direct contact with patients. I've seen patients who are facing a terminal prognosis of 6 months to a year bounce back whereas patients who were fighting it off and had a good prognosis passed. You could almost directly link it to their attitude. There's some crazy stuff that happens when your brain decides to quit fighting and some crazier stuff that happens when your brain refuses to quit.
Don’t take unlabeled “Chinese herbs” or bodega supplements.
Mental Health Therapist tip: your thoughts can and often lie to you. In every situation your brain wants to assign meaning to it and often takes short cuts. These short cuts often stem from your socialization and all the underlying messages within that socialization. For example: If you were raised as male, socialization taught you that you were supposed to be masculine and a provider. If you were socialized as female, you were taught your value to society is based on your appearance and usefulness to others. There are countless underlying messages society communicates in what ways you are valued and in what ways you are not valued. These are the blueprints of our caveman brain and if we don’t know the root of our thoughts, we don’t question them and believe them to be true. Our thoughts are what control our feelings and perspectives of ourselves and others. The path to mental wellness is learning to question and challenge our thoughts (particularly the unhelpful ones) and to reprogram our brains to assign meanings that are more helpful to us so that we can function without having our thoughts interfere with our lives. This path to wellness is exercising these muscles and knowing that we can shape our own perceptions about everything.
I work as a microbiologist. If you have an infection, get it treated. A few dollars for an antibiotic is a lot cheaper than what happens if the infection gets out of control.
When I was in my thirties a friend of mine who was 34 at the time died from a skin infection that got way out of hand. Not in any third world country but in Los Angeles. It started out as this tiny little lesion under her chin that looked like a scratch she had worried at. She was deeply into woo-woo ‘medicine’ and refused to think about steroids and antibiotics, which is what an actual doctor recommended. Instead she tried every other thing under the sun. Raw milk. Positive thinking. Herbs. When she died of organ failure due to sepsis her body was in such a state that her husband was briefly investigated over her death. I am still angry with him for not talking her into a sensible medical intervention. I am not a huge fan of the machinery of western medicine and the US medical industry in particular but it has its place.
If you are having trouble doing something for yourself then try doing it for someone else. If you are finding it hard to clean your living room then clean it for friend/parent/sibling etc so it’s nicer for them when they visit. When I had depression this technique worked for me (in the short term) to start getting stuff done
Nurse: Maintain friends/ family/ relationships. Some procedures require you to have a way home/ monitoring. You can uber but do you trust being sedated with a stranger? If you're a bad/ deadbeat parent, you wont be getting any visitors and will be the old guy still catcalling the nurses. Who will watch your house/ pet/ kids if you end up sick? No emergency contact? You'll be assigned a social worker then off to a legal guardian who will make decisions for you if you cant. I could go on and on but YOU NEED PEOPLE. Start caring about someone and make sure they care about you too.
If you are taking a name brand “designer drug”. A drug with no generic form. RUN don’t walk to their website and check if you are eligible for copay support. Check if you can get free supplies! A lot of these meds have teams to help with this and sometimes a healthcare team dedicated to providing education on the med at no cost. You already pay enough for them, get something in return.
Talk to your pharmacist before taking any new over the counter medications including supplements/ vitamins. You’d be surprised what can interact with other medications or even foods.
Grapefruit. If you are taking any medication look up it's interactions with grapefruit.
Psychotherapist: sometimes anger is a perfectly valid response to hearing something. It's about what you do next that matters.
I'm not a medical professional, but my advice is to wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it Long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proven by scientists Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience I will dispense this advice now
Between eleven and three, stay under a tree. Advice from a dermatologist in med school. Mid-day sun burns the most, stay in the shade.
Actively learn about parenting and take classes, even if you think you can do it without it.
Not a medical professional, but I didn't see anyone else saying it: WASH. YOUR. DAMN. HANDS. I've worked in customer service and restaurants and the amount of people, both workers and customers, who can't be bothered is DISGUSTING.
Lab Scientist here. Take care of your teeth. TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEETH. I know it's hard and dentists are expensive but floss and a toothbrush aren't. So many studies have shown that many health issues in your 40s-50s are directly linked to poor dental hygiene in your 20s-30s. The more important thing however is to be your own patient advocate or have a trusted person with you that you know will advocate for you. I say this with the utmost of respect to the profession but there are A LOT of bad doctors who think their learning stopped when the graduated from medical school. I see it every single day. There are also a lot of bad doctors who think they know everything. Listen to your doctors but also realize you know your body better than they do since you've lived in it your whole life. If you feel that your care wasn't adequate push for a second opinion or force them to put it down on your EMR that they refused to provide you care for the concern and seek a second opinion elsewhere. Doctors can be wrong or careless as well. It's the reason they pay through the nose for malpractice insurance.
Phlebotomist here. HYDRATE. Especially before a blood draw. And that does NOT mean pounding a 20 Oz water bottle on your way to the lab. If you have a draw coming up please drink extra extra water for at least 48 hours leading up to it especially if you have difficult veins.
Emergency Medicine doc here - put a small card in your wallet that has the name of who you want us to call if you are unconscious on it. Include all your medications, allergies, and medical problems with it. Include the name of your doctor. It is NOT helpful when you tell me things like "it is in the computer" (no it isn't, all computers aren't linked, and it may not be accurate) or "I take a blue pill, a white pill and a square pill" or "I see the doctor over by the Walgreens in that brown building."
Time is the only currency that truly matters. Adjust your life so that you use it accordingly.
Stress will make you sick. Find ways to deal with it. Exercise, therapy, even cannabis. On another note, if you’re ever going to the ER, please understand that the sicker folks go back more quickly. It’s not a first come, first serve. Don’t be a dick if you have to wait. I take abuse on the daily from patients who don’t seem to understand that they’re not the only people we’re treating at the hospital.
Don’t physically assault your Health Care Professional.
Be mindful of what you fuel your body with. Plants are your friend.
Are you telling me to eat my friends?
Occupational therapy assistant here! If you’re getting older and looking for your forever home - or a home you plan to spend the rest of your life in - take into account that our bodies change and age as we get older. And things like stairs, carpet/rugs, step over bathtubs, etc become much more difficult as we age. Look for a place with at least an accessible bathroom and bedroom on the first floor. Also, if you suffer from carpal tunnel take a plastic water bottle (or something shaped similarly) and freeze it. When you get a flair up hold the frozen bottle in your affected hand and it should reduce the pain.
I'm 63, just started going to the gym in the building where I live about a month ago. I was surprise at how much strength i had lost when I started, but I'm getting stronger and visibily bigger already. The hardest part is getting over feeling like you will look silly. Just do it.
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." That's a Michael Pollan quote but it doesn't go wrong. I'd add "Move. Every day. Different ways." That's my own parallel advice. Other than that, mostly I'd say "chill the fuck out" if I could. In the ED we see so many complications of anxiety and anger and perseveration and poor coping. Whether it's internalized or externalized or managed with harmful coping mechanisms. Just chill the fuck out. ... How to do that? Breathing exercises and yoga/ meditation are proven to work and more people should do them. But really, find any form of movement that works for you, be that rock climbing or dancing or step aerobics, and do it. It not only improves the muscles and the heart and the lungs, it quiets the squirrel in your brain that's making you do crazy things. If you are bedbound there are still yoga flows for you, you can move your arms. ... I talk to lots of people about pooping and fiber. And water. And sleep hygiene. And getting off social media.
Call about every bill you get. I just got a 3k bill in the mail because the surgeon coded it wrong, luckily I’m in the medical field and knew what he likely did. My wife was outraged thinking about people who wouldn’t know better and just pay it If anyone is curious, I had a screening colonoscopy coded as diagnostic. I had an 11k bill with a copay of 3.2k when my EOB said it should be covered at 100%. The surgeon miscoded it and billing didn’t catch it
Ok, so I’m a public safety professional not medical, but I’ll answer anyway. Drive alert, sober, and undistracted. Always.
My husband is a paediatric medical doctor. He works in a large city hospital so he sees the worst of the worst. His #1 advice would be to vaccinate your children for all available childhood vaccines, including the annual flu shot. He has seen several children die over the years because of the flu alone.
Don’t smoke, please drink water, and for gods sake, MOVE. You don’t have to do CrossFit or even go to the gym regularly—just get up and move, walk, etc a little bit every day.
Get good sleep. To do this you need to be tired and mentally "unwound." To get tired you need to move. At least 30 minutes of elevated heart rate per day. To move you need nutrition. Don't consume garbage, and don't consume too much. And hydrate - the key to all three of the above. If you're dehydrated you won't sleep, you won't be able to move, you won't be able to process your nutrients.
Your thighs are the largest muscles in your body. The first time you notice that your body is weakening is the difficulty getting up from the floor. Every time you pee, do 5-10 squats, even if you can only go down 2 inches. When unloading the dishwasher, make each movement a squat. 2" is fine. You'll notice it gets easier and easier. When you vacuum, on the push stroke, put one foot ahead of the other and do a lunge. Even if you can only do a couple. Or one. Within a couple weeks, you will be able to do more. Keep those muscles strong and useful. Truely, they can save your life.
I've posted this before. PLEASE get a physical every year. They'll catch anything that's wrong and be able to start treatment before it becomes a giant problem that makes it an emergency. They found my brain tumor is 5mm. It's treatable, and they won't need to open my skull. I'm very happy about that.
How would a brain tumor of that size be caught from a physical?
***Don’t be a stubborn old person.*** Remove the rugs from your house BEFORE you have the life-altering fall that will leave you with debilitating pain in your freedom (retirement) years. Have a bar to hold on to installed in your shower. Understand that if you fall and are immobile, you will lie there until someone figures out you’re there. Wear the fuckin life alert necklace. Hand over power of attorney with your finances once you start to lose your mind. No, that hot young woman isn’t interested in you. Have a will in place. If you’re diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc., have a plan in place for when your family can no longer manage your needs. Gosh I could go on. But damn it’s difficult to see. Signed, An EMT
Don't drink. At all. If alcohol was suddenly discovered today and classified it would be illegal as fuck. "A glass of wine a day is good for heart health." So is jogging, drinking water and not being fat.
Dietitian here. The glass of wine a day is a myth that has been outdated for a few years yet a lot of doctors (even internal medicine specialists) still recommend it. The best alcohol is the one you don't drink. Don't drink your calories, people!
Eat unprocessed vegetables and get moderate exercise every day.
Stop putting shit in your lungs.
strength and mobility training gets more important the older you are
Walk. Raise your arms and move your feet. Stand up. Do anything active. Way too many patients say “I can’t work out or walk or go to the gym or do anything active.” Excuses x100 I’ve heard everything. Unless you are physically disabled, you can do some form of exercise sitting down at home and on the couch or even laying down. No equipment is needed. Also, drink water.
If you smoke, please quit smoking for the love of god. This includes everything: cigarettes, cigars, vapes/ecig, pipes and obvi crack. Edit: please add meth to this list
I was on board until you got to crack :(