In the Doctor-Patient Dance, You Get to Lead by Marilynn Preston on Creators.com

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In the Doctor-Patient Dance, You Get to Lead

I don't usually quote from comic strips when doling out healthy lifestyle advice, but this recent panel from "Wizard of Id" has inspired me.

The king — a wide-bodied fellow with several royal chins — is sitting in an examining room, and his doctor walks in, carrying a medical chart, wearing a scowl.

"You should start losing weight and start exercising right away," the doctor tells him.

"What if I don't?" says the king.

"Then your pallbearers should," the doctor replies, heading out the door.

Ha, ha, ha. A person could die laughing at this one. It's a sad but true fact that most doctors have absolutely no idea how to get their patients to eat better and exercise more. Your doctor may tell you it's important. He might even tell you to change your behavior, or else! But before you know it, he's out the door and, like the king of Id, you're speechless.

It's not always good to be king. Your relationship to your doctor — to all your medical care providers — is crucial to your health and wellness. If it's not what it should be — a frank, honest partnership — it's up to you to change it. Studies show that if you don't work with your doctor, if you don't trust your doctor or if you trust your doctor too much and ignore your own intuitive wisdom, you are not going to get the quality of health care you deserve.

"Taking Charge of Your Own Health" by Lisa Hall (Harvest House Publishers) is an excellent book about how to be a smarter, more active, less intimidated health consumer. There are others. Study them until you understand that the doctor-patient relationship is a kind of dance, and you must lead and follow at the same time. Here are my thoughts on some ways to get started:

1) Repeat after me: You are responsible for your own health and well-being. This mind-shift is mandatory, and only you can make it happen. If you're passive and give all the power to your doctor — heal me! save me! — you're hugely limiting your potential.

Yes, you will need talented, well-informed medical care providers from time to time, but the greater your understanding of your own body and what it needs to be strong, energized and less stressed, the better.

Being responsible for your own health puts you in the driver's seat, and from that place of power and self-confidence, healthy choices just come naturally.

2) Find a doctor who welcomes your willingness to be active, online, involved. It takes research to get a good match, but the pay-off is a partnership that promotes lifelong wellness and disease prevention. Look for physicians who have integrative medical practices, using the best techniques of East and West. Do they have nurses who do follow up? Nutritionists for referral?

Investigate a new medical specialty called lifestyle medicine (www.lifestylemedicine.org) pioneered by Dr. Edward M. Phillips of Harvard's Institute of Lifestyle Medicine. Unlike the majority of well-intentioned but under-trained doctors, these medical experts have studied nutrition, exercise, stress management and smoking cessation, and they actually use lifestyle interventions as the primary therapeutic tool for treating and managing disease. Bravo!

3) When you see your doctor, bring along your spouse, partner or a trusted friend. Visits to the doctor can be stressful and confusing. Have someone with you who can listen, take notes and, with your permission, ask questions.

4) Be organized. Your health is your job. Keep files on your medical condition. Make a list of your concerns so your office visit is focused and productive. If you don't understand a diagnosis or the reason for taking a particular test or drug, speak up. Be polite but firm, and stay fully engaged.

5) Be clever. Since the majority of doctors don't have the time or talent to motivate you to eat smarter and exercise more, find a qualified health and wellness coach specially trained to inspire lifestyle change. It's a great and growing trend at enlightened hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic and Mass General. Begin your search for a personal health coach at www.wellcoaches.com.

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"One-half to three-quarters of all disease, death and health care costs are directly related to behavior choices that patients make." — Dr. Edward M. Phillips

Marilynn Preston — fitness expert, personal trainer and speaker on healthy lifestyle issues — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She has a website, http://marilynnpreston.com and welcomes reader questions, which can be sent to MyEnergyExpress@aol.com. To find out more about Preston and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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