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| Medical Briefs
House calls, WalkVest, heart book, cancer survival, Memory Assessment Center, designer diet, and aging. |
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By Janice Kleinschmidt
Matters of the Heart
If your idea of essential references stops at a dictionary, phone book, and atlas, your bookshelves probably lack some valuable life-enhancing (if not life-saving) information.
A good place to start building your own medical library might be Dr. Gerry Maddoux’s Your Heart: Treat It Like You Love It (Sea Script Co., 2007). A board-certified cardiologist and fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Maddoux wrote the 468-page book to help nonphysicians understand and be proactive in preventing disorders of the heart and blood vessels.
The book explains, with simple drawings, how the heart and blood vessels work; ways to maintain a healthy heart, including diet; and how to handle cardiac emergencies in the home. Chapters cover everything from high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack to artificial heart valves, rheumatic heart disease, tumors, and uncommon arterial aneurysms. Each chapter ends with a box of “reminders.”
“Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. after age 25,” Maddoux writes. “Diseases of the heart and blood vessels constitute, by far, the largest percentage of health care problems in the civilized world today.”
Maddoux encourages readers to use the information in his book in conjunction with their physicians:
“We have often received excellent and skilled care in the hospital or doctor’s office, only to exit that unique environment with no clue about what to watch out for after leaving and when to call for help. If we are to exert any control over our medical health, we have to become educated about our situations and enter into a partnership with the medical profession.”
Dr. Clifford Sewell of Desert On Call (pictured at right) is one of the doctors making house calls in the Coachella Valley.
Photo: Jack McDonald
The Little Black Bag
Poor 21st century doctors. Oh, sure, they have state-of-the-art technologies such as laser this and laser that. And, yes, they still get away with wearing a stethoscope around their neck and jackets with their names embroidered over the pocket. But their fashion statement no longer includes the little black bag.
Then again, you know what they say about fashion: Wait long enough and it’ll come around again. That’s what has happened to the once-essential accessory. And that’s because doctors have become mobile healthcare providers again. In the last year, two house-call services have “opened up shop” in the Coachella Valley.
Desert On Call Medical Group (www.deserton-call.com) and Desert House Call Physicians (www.deserthousecalldoc.com) make house, office, and hotel calls.
Desert On Call began in San Francisco and expanded to the desert in November. Its doctors’ black bags contain tools and medicines to diagnose and treat a variety of medical conditions such as flu, bronchitis, and food poisoning. They can make referrals to specialists and work closely with Eisenhower Medical Center; the administrative office is located in EMC’s Urgent Care Center in Indian Wells. Fees are charged by the hour, with a typical fee of $255 for first-time patients and $195 for established patients — payable at the time services are rendered. Services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In urgent-care cases, a doctor is usually on site within an hour.
Dr. Peter Kadile, an osteopathic physician with offices in Old Town La Quinta, provides similar services through Desert House Call Physicians. He left the “managed-care environment” of a group office where he saw close to 30 patients a day for “relationship-based” medicine. “By doing house calls, I can do that,” he says. “I can spend time with people.” And, he points out, if they have to wait for him, they are waiting in their own home. He says he spends about an hour, sometimes longer, on a house call. He is on staff at Eisenhower Medical Center and can coordinate referrals to specialists.
Dr. Kadile’s rates for house calls begin at $250 for new patients and $200 for established patients (additional charges apply after hours, on weekends, and for long distances). Typically, his house calls involve upper respiratory infections, bronchitis, flu, and follow-up calls for hypertension and diabetes. He carries instruments for evaluating vital signs and conducting minimal lab work and drugs such as antibiotics, pain medication, and steroids. In addition to regular patients, he calls upon visiting tourists at hotels and resorts.
Kadile bought a doctor’s black bag while in medical school, but kept it in the closet during his office-based practice. He says people today are astounded not only that a doctor makes house calls, but also “that the doctor actually has the black bag.”
More recently, Dr. Timothy Jochen, a board-certified dermatologist and medical director of Contour Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery Center with offices in Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, began making house calls to perform certain procedures such as Botox, dermal fillers, intense pulsed light facials, and cellulite-reducing laser treatments. The cost is $1,000 more than the in-office rate.
Debbie Rocker uses her WalkVest to increase the benefits of walking.
Photo: Courtesy WalkVest
This Vest Was Made for Walking
When Marcia Cross, Tyra Banks, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Demi Moore, and Stefanie Powers put on weight, they’re actually taking it off.
What these and other celebrities have discovered is Debbie Rocker’s WalkVest, a vest with 16 evenly distributed compartments that can each hold two half-pound weights to boost the benefits of walking. Unlike hand and ankle weights, the WalkVest places weights around the waistline, providing support and equilibrium control. Wearing the vest while walking increases calorie burning and bone and muscle strength.
Rocker — who holds a world record for her 12-day tandem bike ride in 1986 from Huntington Beach to Atlantic City, N.J. — developed the WalkVest when she tired of marathon running.
“My design started with an old fly-fishing vest,” Rocker says. “I wanted WalkVest to be made of a breathable, washable material, and I discussed weight load and weight placement with doctors — easily deciding to put weight pockets around the waistline for balance and stability. I added a core-conditioning belt after a few years of testing. … I wanted it to feel like a natural extension of the body and not alter normal movements. Protecting a walker’s natural stride and spinal alignment was reason enough to make sure that the weights were evenly distributed, located at the waistline, and securely fastened to the body.”
The cotton vest with two plastic-clip belts comes in four sizes, but only one color: black. It features mesh sides, reflective logos for road safety, and a utility pocket in the back large enough for a CD player. The basic kit ($79.95 plus $14.95 shipping and handling) comes with eight half-pound weights and a 20-minute CD of music and motivation from Rocker. Additional weights, CDs, and Rocker’s new book Training for Life (Springboard Press, 2007), also are available. Information: www.walkvest.com.
Cancer survival rates have increased in recent years.
Photo: iStockphoto.com/Lisa F. Young
Good News About Cancer
In 1982, Joe Jackson sang what could have been our nation’s anthem: “There’s no cure, there’s no answer, everything gives you cancer.”
But research in fact is yielding advances in early cancer detection and treatment, and public education is leading people to wiser lifestyle decisions. As reported in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians and Cancer Facts & Figures 2007, cancer deaths in the United States from 2003 to 2004 dropped by 3,014 (almost 10 times the decline from 2002 to 2003, which marked the first decline since the compilation of nationwide cancer data began 70 years earlier). Death rates for all cancers peaked in 1990 for men and in 1991 for women.
From 2003 to 2004, the largest decrease in deaths came in the area of colorectal cancer. Mortality rates have decreased across all four major cancer sites (lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal), except for lung cancer among women.
The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 1.4 million new cases of cancer in 2007 and 560,000 deaths from cancer. According to Cancer Facts & Figures, prostate cancer accounts for nearly a third of all cases in men and breast cancer accounts for more than a quarter of all cases in women.
“The hard work of millions is paying off. But they come at a time of great concern about future progress,” says Richard Wender, national volunteer president of the American Cancer Society. “The adoption of tobacco control policies across the country has contributed to our remarkable progress against cancer, but these gains are threatened by cutbacks in funding for research and prevention programs.”
Although progress continues to be made in reducing mortality rates, cancer remains the top cause of death in Americans under age 85.
Connie Walters helps a client sort through food labels at Nature’s RX in Palm Springs.
Photo: Courtesy Healthy Heart Studio
Checking Out Groceries
With both “vegans and hunters” in her extended family, Connie Walters understands firsthand that it’s not a one-diet-fits-all world. Billing herself as “the diet designer,” Walters tailors nutrition programs to individual clients at Healthy Heart Studio in Palm Springs.
“Some people want you to come to their home and see what they have in their cupboards and refrigerator,” she says. “Some people are very interested in having you take them shopping.” Providing such services on a one-time basis runs $50 an hour, though more often Walters works with clients on a full program.
In the grocery store, Walters helps people choose healthy foods. For example, she advises selecting a whole grain cereal sweetened with honey, molasses, evaporated cane juice, rice syrup, agave, raw cane sugar, or date sugar instead of those sweetened with processed sugar or high fructose corn syrup. She also steers them clear of any products with the flavor enhancer MSG, which she says creates cravings, wrecks havoc with the thyroid, and is often hidden under the words “natural flavors.”
While Walters agrees that fresh foods are the best choices, she knows that people with busy schedules sometimes need to resort to frozen dinners. But she notes that today’s frozen-food aisles also offer relatively healthy alternatives. “With people’s lifestyles, if there’s no way they can [cook with fresh produce], then we have to make better choices within the realm of what they can do,” she says. “It’s so much easier to eat healthier these days than it used to be.” And while cut vegetables offer less nutrition than their whole counterparts, the convenience may help shoppers eat fresh foods more often.
The most common mistake that Walters see consumers make is picking up diet foods. “They’re looking at things that advertise on the front ‘low fat,’” she says. “It’s very deceiving.”
For Walters, grocery shopping is about choices.
“I don’t think that there is one right way [to eat] for everyone,” she says. “Balance is the key.”
A PBS special, The Leading Gen, looks at the challenges of aging.
Photo: Jupiter Images
Living Well Past 40
Exactly 100 years ago, when German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer published a report on “presenile dementia,” the average life expectancy was 47 years. Today, the average life expectancy is 77 (accounting for an increase in Alzheimer’s disease), and 125 million Americans are 40 years or older.
Much has changed not only in our life spans, but also in the way we live the last 30 to 60 years of our lives (accounting for the number of people who live past 100).
Dr. James Ausman, a former neurosurgeon, and his wife, Carolyn Ausman, a multimedia professional who has worked on patient education programs for brain and spinal cord injuries, conducted an extensive two-year study of how people 40 and older cope with the challenges of aging. After conducting research and interviews, the Rancho Mirage couple produced a 30-minute television program being aired by PBS KCET-TV Desert Cities.
The Leading Gen, which premiered in February, will be rebroadcast at the following times: 9 p.m. Sept. 9, 8 p.m. Sept. 12, 11 a.m. Sept. 13, 2 p.m. Sept. 14, and 10 p.m. Sept. 15.
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