Dr. Oz, who know has his own television show, after being introduced to the world on Oprah’s show, visited with Chicago residents on Thursday to discuss healthy living and health care. He also shared some of his ideas for changes to our approach to health care which would make maintaining good health easier.
Caregivers have the challenge of monitoring the health of the seniors they care for and seniors and their family members have the challenge of tracking their medications and health conditions among all their doctors.
Dr. Oz advocates genetic testing to help understand the diseases we all would be most likely at risk for, while also being mindful that our parent’s generation did not perhaps eat the same diet we eat today and may not have maintained a daily exercise program. We know the healthy foods to eat today and we know that 30 minutes of daily exercise delivers many health benefits. If you practice healthy eating and daily exercise, you can at least know what additional areas you should monitor based on your genetics. For instance, Dr. Oz discovered he actuallyhas low risk for prostate cancer but is at a high risk for macular degeneration. There are additional vitamins he can take to help with keeping macular degeneration from developing and he can be sure to have regular eye exams to catch the disease early, should it develop.
Dr. Oz also discussed the sharing of health records and indicated that many doctors do not want the health records emailed to a patient because they receive so many phone calls from the patients asking for explanations of the recorrds. If they are in a format that is difficult to translate for the non-doctor, then they invite concern. Dr. Oz’s practice delivers health records with detailed information to make it easy for patients to understand the information. His hospital created a health vault to make it easy for patients to access their records.
Dr. Oz also discussed frivolous medical lawsuits which have driven up the costs of health care. He discovered his hospital had paid more than $25 million in premiums for insurance protection from lawsuits and there had only be $3 million in claims. The rest of the suits were settled to avoid the costs of litigation. Dr. Oz suggests having a court where everyone can see the claims and a judge can settle them, to deter the large amount of frivilous suits. Everyone makes mistakes in any industry and it is simple enough for a doctor to make good on a mistake but being sued for items that make no sense should be ended.
Dr. Oz’s website provides tools for healthy diets and exercising to help you enjoy life at all ages to assist you to plan for a healthy retirement.
