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Health

He helps make everyday health an open book

 Medical editor helps ordinary people get clear information to make health decisions.

By ROBERT N. JENKINS
Published June 27, 2006

Are people more knowledgeable now about their own health?

I think laymen are far better informed than they ever were - there is far more information. Just walk into your supermarket and there is a half-mile row of magazines, and if they are not dealing with cars or sex, they are going to feature health information. Certainly, it is also prominent in newspapers and on radio.

For instance, we all know that if you want to lose weight, you either have to get more active or reduce your calorie intake - preferably both.

It's very simple. But it ain't so simple when it comes to taking action.

There is concern about an increase in obesity among children, that this may be the first generation to be fatter than their parents. It is harder to get them to lose weight because they have been raised to eat junk food, noshing.

There you are! The rate of incidence of obesity has more than doubled in the past 20 years. Children get more fat cells . . . and this leads to more diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, increased cancer of certain sorts.

A high percentage of the public knows this, but the unconscious mechanism of denial comes into play. Otherwise, we would have to make a behavior change.

Is there some easy way to change?

I have a simple way: Eat slowly. You don't even have to change what you eat. Even if you stuck to your unhealthy diet, if you ate slowly and took smaller bites, you would feel full faster, and you could cut your portions.

If you only reduced intake by 200 calories a day - a pittance, a glass of milk is almost that - you could lose a half-pound every eight or nine days, almost 2 pounds every month.

It's part of the corporate culture. Merck was a German company that came to the U.S. in the 1890s and became aware that American doctors did not have access to as good scientific information as was available in Europe. So it published the Manual.

Several years ago we learned that about one of every five medical reference books was being bought by laymen, so we translated the Manual into plain English . . .

We like people to partner with their doctors. Medical care is technologically far better than ever before, but it is also much more complex. That puts a greater burden on the patient to be well-informed:

His care is going to be better because he can ask better questions of the doctor, can understand better what the doctor is advising. They can work out a partnership.

To me this is very gratifying.

--Robert N. Jenkins can be reached at 727 893-8496 or jenkins@sptimes.com.

Learn more

Each issue of the free publication Your Health Now focuses on a single subject, such as the spine or cancer. You can read it online at www.yourhealthnow.com; back issues are also online.

[Last modified June 27, 2006, 15:43:39]