Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Senior Citizen

Two patients limp into two different medical clinics with the same complaint. Both have trouble walking and appear to require a hip replacement. The first patient is examined within the hour, is x-rayed the same day and has a time booked for surgery the following week. The second sees his family doctor after waiting a week for an appointment, then waits eighteen weeks to see a specialist, then gets an x-ray, which isn't reviewed for another month and finally has his surgery scheduled for a year from then.
Why the different treatment for the two patients?
The first is Golden Retriever.
The second is a "Senior Citizen".

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Anti-Aging Advice: 99 Steps to 100

Anti-Aging Advice: 99 Steps to 100 by Walter M. Bortz, M.D. Enjoy a healthy retirement with Dr. Walter Bortz's anti-aging strategies. This leading aging expert offers 99 simple steps for longevity that show how diet, attitude, exercise and renewal can help you control your body's change, growth and repair.

Step 1: anti-aging nutrition
Step 2: read well to eat well
Step 3: time to eat?
Step 4: your body's need for calories
Step 5: fat alert
Step 6: count cholesterol
Step 7: push carbs
Step 8: protein pros and cons
Step 9: don't dry up
Step 10: slash the salt
Step 11: keep your fiber up
Step 12: vitamin care
Step 13: calcium matters
Step 14: a coffee break for longevity
Step 15: alcohol: anti-aging foe or friend?
Step 16: chemical cuisine?
Step 17: beware free radicals
Step 18: cancer-fighting diet
Step 19: believe in longevityStep 20: be necessary

More anti-aging steps:
Read more about Dr. Walter Bortz!
Buy the Book!
What Will Be Your Retirement Strategy?
DARE to Be 100, the best-selling book by Dr. Bortz, contains his fundamental program for living a long, enjoyable and healthy life.

The DARE Philosophy "DARE to Be 100" is based on Dr. Bortz's "DARE" philosophy: Diet, Attitude, Renewal and Exercise.

Diet. Regarding diet, Dr. Bortz focuses on variety and activity, likening inactive people to zoo animals: "When you're a zoo animal, you must be carefully fed, but wild animals can eat anything." Through exercise, you can boost your metabolism and help slow the aging process. "The most important step is to stay physically active," says Dr. Bortz.

Attitude. This is a crucial and sometimes overlooked category. "Believe in 100," Bortz challenges. If you want to become a centenarian, you must believe you can. Set goals for your retirement, develop a plan and remain optimistic.

Renewal. "Recharge, keep working and stay in the mainstream," says Dr. Bortz. Remain resilient because "it's not how many times you fall -- because age brings losses -- but how many times you stand up" that's important.

Exercise. The anti-aging benefits of aerobic exercise are clear. However, Dr. Bortz cautions us to be strong, stay loose and stay balanced. "The most important organ in an older person is not the heart or lungs but the legs." Legs are what give a person an active, independent lifestyle.

About Walter M. Bortz II, M.D.

Walter M. Bortz is one of America’s most distinguished scientific experts on aging. After training at Williams College and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, he has spent his career at Stanford University, where he holds the position of Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine.

His research has focused on the importance of physical exercise in the promotion of robust aging. Dr. Bortz’s books include We Live Too Short and Die Too Long, Dare To Be 100 and Living Longer for Dummies.

Dr. Bortz has been president of the American Geriatric Society and co-chair of the American Medical Association's Task Force on Aging, and chairman of the board of directors of Fifty-Plus Lifelong Fitness.

An avid runner, the 75-year old physician completed thirty-five marathons and is a columnist for Runner’s World magazine.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

The Cracked Pot


An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?" "That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them."
"For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.