What Patients Can Learn From the Ways Physicians Take Care of Themselves

[charlesg]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704113504575264364125574500.html

MAY 25, 2010
Checking Up on the Doctor
What Patients Can Learn From the Ways Physicians Take Care of Themselves
By MELINDA BECK

Doctors readily dispense prescriptions and advice, but what do they do themselves? A number of surveys, polls and questionnaires provide some clues — and some surprises.

Physicians as a group are leaner, fitter and live longer than average Americans. Male physicians keep their cholesterol and blood pressure lower. Women doctors are more likely to use hormone-replacement therapy than their patients. Doctors are also less likely to have their own primary care physician — and more apt to abuse prescription drugs.

What's more, many studies show that doctors who exercise and watch their weight are more likely to counsel patients to do so and be more credible, too. "There's a strong link between what doctors do themselves and what they tell their patients to do," says Erica Frank, a professor of public health at the University of British Columbia who was the principle investigator on the Women Physician's Health Study (WPHS) which surveyed the health practices of 4,500 women doctors in the 1990s, and has studied U.S. medical students and Canadian doctors as well. "If we pay more attention to physicians' health, we'll have a patient population that is healthier."

A look at what the studies have found:

[KittyWampus]

1. I really wish medical science would move forward w/ a new generation of hormone replacement therapy

[HereSince1628]

2. But how many have ocular-proctitis?

That's what I'd REALLY like to know.

[Iggo]

3. Should've asked 'em how many of 'em are organ donors.

;)