Hello Folks,
Today’s blog is for practitioner and patient alike. We are going to discuss the effects of a positive attitude on health and treatment outcomes.
For many of us going to get medical help is a chore. Something we do when all else has failed. We try to beat the game and the house always wins. We can make ourselves feel better and say historically we are a trauma based medical system and if it isn’t broke don’t fix it. Well is this working? If you believe in healthiest nations indicators it’s time to take another look at our system. We were ranked, last year, in the high 80’s far as the World Health Organization is concerned. We started out at 3. Now seriously, is what we are doing working? However, the model itself is not the topic of this blog, but rather those within the model. Us.
If you think the model can be improved upon, please keep reading. If not, I assume you are already surfing. So lets go. . .
The Women’s Health Initiative, with over 100,000 women in the study, shows clearly that optimists suffer a full 30 percent less heart disease and an incredible 14% decrease in deaths from any cause. Not bad huh. While its delightful to be the pessimist it may a self-fulfilling prophecy. The mayo clinic did a similar study. A full 30% difference in health outcomes between the two groups. The Gallup Agency has done countless studies as well. Employees who focus on strengths did far better than those trying to shore up weaknesses. Now look folks you can drag me to 500 meetings to learn how to by a sycophant and at the end of that tenure of shame I am still going to voice my opinion and fight for what I believe to be right and true. You can’t take the key elements out of a person. So save your money. Focus on your strength and take a look, to quote the Pogues, on the sunny side of the street.
Most positive/optimistic people I have come into contact have a couple of things in common. So if you are a patient or practitioner keep an eye out on this it will save you time. The first thing they believe in is themselves. They believe their body has the capacity to heal. The second thing they believe in is the modality of medicine we are practicing. They believe what we have to offer can make them a lot better. These are our patients. We love them because they are already on board. There is no begging to come back, haggling over progress, etc. Our patients are here and as long as we are improving their health they stay. All day I long I move from room to room and ask the same questions. How are you? Better. Good! It’s easy. So now, as a patient if you are dragging through the day and are not happy with your type of care, get some help you believe in. You don’t have to be a convert, just believe in the ability to change. If you are a practitioner slogging through the day at your clinic it’s probably because either you or your patients don’t believe in the quality of care being delivered. So get to it. Optimists out!
