[Villages PL]

This was part of the result of the USF survey. Also, a high percentage of Villagers said they felt they were in good health. So, the overwelming conclusion of the survey is that we ARE the healthiest hometown in America. See, all that's needed is to declare victory, just as I predicted.

Nowhere in the lecture was the above contradiction pointed out. I believe it's possible to feel healthy while being in poor health. For example, a person taking pain medication for XYZ disease may feel well while the disease still exists. That's healthy? All sorts of medications exist for covering up symptoms while the underlying problem goes uncorrected.

I raised this issue after the lecture and was told the following: The important thing is how people feel.

This is what this USF/Villages health alliance has been about from the very beginning. You live your lifestyle, whatever it may be, and when you get sick, you go to a medical doctor and he/she will make you healthy by prescribing medications or operating on you. Comparatively little attentinon will be paid to dietary or nutritional changes.

[gomoho]

This is what this USF/Villages health alliance has been about from the very beginning. You live your lifestyle, whatever it may be, and when you get sick, you go to a medical doctor and he/she will make you healthy by prescribing medications or operating on you. Comparatively little attentinon will be paid to dietary or nutritional changes.[/QUOTE]

I sure hope you are wrong and won't the care be dictated by the patient's demands? If enough folks walk in there with good questions and asking for alternatives to meds the docs will eventually respond or the program won't get off its feet.

Also isn't how you are feeling pretty subjective? Not sure how you could really measure something like that without labs and stress tests and the likes of such. But then again so much of how we feel is mind over matter and maybe The Villages just makes people feel good!

Whatever I am still going to be positive about this new health alliance and hope it becomes what they are promising.

[ilovetv]

It's a free country. People exercise their right to choose to either get a prescription filled, or not.

Just because doctors' time is spent treating acute illness and acute/chronic diseases and less on nutrition/diet does not mean the people have never heard of healthy diet benefits. It also doesn't mean that doctors don't ever talk about it. You're not there in the exam room and office consultation time, to know what the drs do and don't do.

[lightworker888]

VPL You have brought up a very good point, however I expect that you are singing to the choir. It is a difficult idea to teach, when people have been raised to think of symptoms as "sickness" and lack of symptoms to mean "health". In fact a lot of people are treating symptoms which are related to the body "healing" and stopping the healing process (German New Medicine). That is called a "hanging healing" which continues until the initial cause of the disease is resolved. Many people live their lives with "hanging healings" that never resolve and consider themselves "healthy".

Also, most people will not change their habits consistently until they have a healing crisis and often the changes that they make will not necessarily address the primary cause. For most people, the information is overwhelming and the status quo works as long as the symptoms stay under the radar. The standard outlook is "don't fix something that ain't broke" and the problem with that is that you can't always find what is broke or even know that it is broke.

So to paraphrase Barefoot joyfully living your life has has its merits, at least that way, you will leave with a smile!

LW888

[pooh]

You must remember that some people on meds arrived here on those meds and some medications should not stopped without review of the prescribing physician. Some drugs contraindicate certain foods being ingested.
Can better diet make people healthy? Maybe....maybe not. Again I will state that some bodies will not tolerate some foods, foods that might need to be ingested to help a body get needed And necessary nutrients.

Learning to eat foods that are nutritious is something we all might benefit from, but no matter what you say or I say, we all live in a manner we've learned, adjusted to. Some recognize they need to do something to make life better for them....for some it's weight loss, for some, it's exercise, for others, it's diet. In order to do anything, people need to WANT to do something. If they decide to forgo what some consider the road to good health, well, they must deal with the consequences of their decision. Health care is there to help people in need, be they suffering from obesity, COPD, heart or vascular disease, a broken leg or bacterial infection. Physicians take an oath to provide care to all who come to them. They aren't necessarily trained in advanced nutrition. They can make recommendations, but it is up to the patient to either take the advice or not.

[Mikeod]

To me, your view of a treatment plan is too narrow. When a patient enters a clinic for help with an existing problem, they want that problem to go away. An effective treatment plan, for that patient, has to address both the underlying cause of the symptoms and the symptoms themselves. While there may be a long term benefit from alterations in lifestyle, including diet, if those recommendations do not provide near term relief of the symptoms, the patient will decide that the provider has not helped them. And they will decide to not follow the long term treatment plan, no matter how much the provider extolls the benefits.

I agree that a treatment plan that addresses only the symptoms without consideration of the underlying cause(s) is incomplete. But surely you realize that there are diseases for which nutrition/diet offer no relief and for which there is no real treatment that will eliminate the disease. COPD comes to mind. Symptomatic relief is about all that can be done. The opportunity to employ lifestyle changes is past.

[jimbo2012]

Ask yourself this, how many times have U been waiting to see your Dr for 20-90 minutes and a drug salesman is buzzed right in in two minutes.

Why does the dr give priority to to the drug dealers?

Simple they make money on scripts, more than your office visit.

Diet plays a big role in many (not all) maladies but U know my position on that.

I will say I take no drugs since changing my diet.

The OP said 63% take 3-4 meds how many take 1 or 2 90%???????

[pooh]

Originally Posted by jimbo2012

Ask yourself this, how many times have U been waiting to see your Dr for 20-90 minutes and a drug salesman is buzzed right in in two minutes.

Why does the dr give priority to to the drug dealers?

Simple they make money on scripts, more than your office visit.

Diet plays a big role in many (not all) maladies but U know my position on that.

I will say I take no drugs since changing my diet.

The OP said 63% take 3-4 meds how many take 1 or 2 90%???????

I'm happy for you....no meds. And I do take exception to the drug salesmen comment. While it may seem they are taking up physician time, they may not be. Offices have medical managers, they could be the ones seeing the pharmaceutical rep(s). Remember, the physician needs to treat all who come to him and not all maladies can be successfully treated with diet alone. If there is a new med that may offer some help, I'd want my physician to know.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by jimbo2012

Ask yourself this, how many times have U been waiting to see your Dr for 20-90 minutes and a drug salesman is buzzed right in in two minutes.

Why does the dr give priority to to the drug dealers?

Simple they make money on scripts, more than your office visit.

Diet plays a big role in many (not all) maladies but U know my position on that.

I will say I take no drugs since changing my diet.

The OP said 63% take 3-4 meds how many take 1 or 2 90%???????

Doctors don't make money on prescriptions. No Doctor I have ever visited see pharmaceutical sales people and make patients wait.

We see our doctors twice a year and don't feel ill. They evaluate our wellness. A lot of illnesses have no apparent symptoms; Cancer, thyroid overactivity or underactivity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure.

Because people take medication doesn't mean they are sick or feel ill, many medications keep them well.

My doctor discusses diet and exercise regularly. He is also interested in our level of happiness or unhappiness.

The fact that seniors take medications often mean they are taking care of themselves and living healthily.

Overweight and or plaque in arteries is not the only cause of hypertension. Eating too much fat is not the only cause of high cholesterol. Proper diet will not cure hyper or hypothyroidism or prevent cancer.

[jimbo2012]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

Doctors don't make money on prescriptions.

Here's the money paid to Dr's in Fl, $56 million and this is only the reported payments not under the table.

Here's another article


In total, more than 1,200 Jacksonville-area physicians received $3.1 million from a dozen drug companies during the previous 2 1/2 years, according to a database created by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative news organization. here

That's why the drug company reps walk in ahead of the patients, yes they talk to Doctors.

Originally Posted by graciegirl

The fact that seniors take medications often mean they are taking care of themselves and living healthily.

I wouldn't call that "living healthy" I call it drugs of convenience rather than correct the cause.
Of course there are drugs that R absolutely needed, I'm speaking about BP, cholesterol, triglycerides meds that can be eliminated with diet & exercise.

[graciegirl]

I don't think either of these articles made your point.

[Applepie]

I guess I am not in the 63% I am over 70 years old. And I take NO medications of any kind. ( blood pressure, cholesterol etc) I am not overweight. I exercise everyday and eat a sensible diet- meat, potatoes, vegetables, fruit, chocolate, wine. I am happy camper.

[asianthree]

its all in the genes... i take no meds either and come from a family of extreme high blood pressure choleserol and are diabetic, just lucky

[gomoho]

So read today's article in the Daily Sun to find out what the survey REALLY revealed. Quite a different slant on the senior's taking meds here and the rest of what has been reported in the OP.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by gomoho

So read today's article in the Daily Sun to find out what the survey REALLY revealed. Quite a different slant on the senior's taking meds here and the rest of what has been reported in the OP.

Yes, I see she said 88% because she added in those who rated their health as exellent. I didn't remember what that percentage was.
Good plus excellent = 88% But where does the article say anything about the percentage of seniors taking drugs? That was a very high percentage too, especially if you add in those who take 1 or more drugs per day.

Also, in the newspaper she mentioned cholesterol problems at 42.5% That seems about right. But hypertension 28%? I have a hard time believing that. I always thought it would be much higher. I just did a search that said one out of 4 adults have high blood pressure. But at age 70 it goes up sharply to 2 out of 3. Could it be that some (on the survey) did not report high blood pressure because it's not high when they take their medications?

One thing I consider a mistake is when Petersen said she believes that The Villages survey is the largest ever conducted of older American adults. (33,000 Villagers) In the "NIH AARP Diet and Health Study" over 500,000 people filled out detailed questionnaires and sent them in. The study is still going today.

Here's something you might find interesting: At the lecture, Dr. Petersen said there were (about) 24% of Villagers on diets. One would think she would say, "Good for you! There seem to be quite a few Villagers who want to be healthier!" Instead she said, "What's that all about?!" Is that the way to encourage people to be healthier?