I’m not going to work-out today”, I said to myself as I got paged for another admission from the Emergency Room. As I make my way down to the patient’s room I can feel the pull of my tired sore back, and I think, “Yup definitely not going to work out.” I walked into the room and in front of me is a male, mid-50s, with a history of uncontrolled diabetes. He’s here because of a diabetic foot ulcer that is now infected to the bone. He tells me that he has not been taking care of his body for the past 10 years, not taking his medications, nor eating properly, and not routinely seeing his physician. I break the news that his leg cannot be saved at this point, and a small tear begins to roll down his face, knowing that this could have been prevented. Later that evening when I got home, I decided that I should probably get on my exercise bike.
Being an internal medicine physician, grants me the privilege of taking care of a plethora of patients; some at their best hour as well as others at their darkest hour. I cannot begin to count the times that I went from my office providing preventative care for one patient to the hospital delivering bad news to another patient. Sure, there are many things in medicine that are, in my opinion, not preventable; however, more often than not, a patient’s chronic, deadly, and life altering conditions could have been avoided. With this in mind, there are a few techniques that can help patients stay in the best health that I preach to them every day.
Go to www.flocalmagazine.com to read the full article in our February issue and to see Dr. Beth Anlas’s five techniques that will keep you in your best health in 2018!
