Today is World Cancer Day...

...
...or so says the email I rec'd from the LiveSTRONG foundation.

In the email, it recommended that we send out an email to our family and friends and gently nudge them to call their doctor and talk with their doctor about their family histories and their habits and their risks and get bloodwork...

I hardly imagine most of you would be able to get your doctor on the phone and have this chat and share recipes and such.

So here's my gentle nudge:

Promise me you'll have a physical once a year.

That's all. Catching cancer or whatever early, early prevention, etc. that's what's going to find it if you have it and what'll save your life.

If you don't have health insurance, check in your area for options. Here in Austin there's the People's Community Clinic and other resources, like the MAP program, and some which unfortunately don't kick in until you actually have something serious... you can also check with places like Susan Komen foundation for help with screenings for breast cancer, etc.

I've had health insurance in the past that didn't cover physicals. Isn't that amazing? (Hmmmm? Are insurance companies afraid they'll find something they have to pay for?) Anyway, my doctor at the time required a physical every year to be his patient. In helping me to rationalize this he asked me how much I spent each year at the vet. Good question. Since most people pay the vet by the visit and don't have pet healthcare, it can be expensive--especially if you have multiple or aging pets. Well, his cost for a physical was--at the time--about $500, which I had to pay out of pocket and yes, I paid that much or more per year at the vet. Still do.

The point: sometimes we think if it's that expensive we can't afford it, but we'll rush fluffy to the vet and walk out with $300, grumbling, but do it again without thinking. Our lives are as important or moreso than our pets'! (But we have to take them to get their prescription heartworm preventative and/or their prescription flea control, which are expensive out of pockets.)

If you've got something like high blood pressure that you have to be checked annually in order to get the Rx refilled, you can often see your doctor and get it payed for by insurance as a check for this problem...and then squeeze in questions and concerns and such, which then if the doctor schedules a follow-up for a specific issue, it may be covered. But consider a full physical.

You need to get checked. Every year! You and your doctor can decide what tests, if any, are necessary--these are usually covered by insurance, even if your insurance doesn't cover the actual physical. Check your insurance policy. Know your insurance policy.

Talk openly about your concerns. (List them before you go.) Be open to what he/she suggests. And along those lines re-frame the physical into a positive experience. I used to think of it as something like a 'test' I passed, I got through, clean slate. I'd want to do all I could to be sure I'd pass, which unfortunately sometimes meant not bringing up things, because they seemed silly or minor or I'm not a hypochondriac, etc. Now, I treat a physical like an opportunity. An opportunity to bounce what I'm doing off my doctor, an opportunity to check in with me, an opportunity to find something bad before it gets too complicated, an opportunity to ask my doctor about the supplements I'm taking, an opportunity to ask them if there are concerns about alternative methods I'm using to treat things, etc.

(I can always choose to reject what the doctor says: e.g. if they say supplements are a waste of money because they haven't been tested in a double blind test... well, some are... and there are a lot of variances in the strengths of supplements, etc. BUT there are a lot of them that are very beneficial that are not tested and I choose to use. The example of the policosanol/red yeast rice that's reduced my cholesterol dramatically and kept it down for 5 years is one.)

So the goal is:

Get an annual physical.
Stop smoking. (Get strong anti-smoking laws passed in your city.)
Exercise daily.
Cut all processed foods.
Cut out sugars: not just high-fructose corn syrup, but rice and sugar and honey and agave nectar, etc. It's all bad.
Drink filtered water.
Cut out white flour.
Self check yourself for lumps and bumps and unusual looking growths and non-healing sores, etc.

Sure we can't do all these all the time. Who'd want to?
I love a good cookie or piece of birthday cake as much as the next guy.
(dark chocolate is okay!)
But if you're doing these 75% of the time, then you can feel happy about your lifestyle and you're less likely to feel guilty about those other times.

I used to emulate some of the elders in my family who never saw a doctor unless something was serious and/or they were injured and they lived to very old age. They just chose to be healthy and get over a cold/flu or whatever. What I realize now is they lived in very different times. They weren't as exposed to as many things are we are. Cancer has skyrocketed in the latter half of the 20th century--and mostly because of our food and enviromental surroundings. And unfortunately, I learned the hard way, that type of thinking doesn't work.

Do it for yourself, for your spouse, your children and/or grandchildren, your parents, for me...

Thanks,
,m