For physicians and other professionals in the medical world, being healthy often equals "do as I say, not what I do!". In this article, experts confess that they do not always follow some health advice yet widespread.
1. Health Board: sleep 8 hours per night
The benefits of sleep for health – from the simple fact of having more energy, being more vigilant to having a better ability to fight disease – are well documented. But even if your doctor boasts the virtues of a severe routine of at least seven hours of sleep, he may be, himself, in a lack of sleep. According to Dr. Marisa C. Weiss, physicians are often deprived of sleep because the limits between their work and personal time are blurred (they are on call, receive electronic and telephone messages from patients, etc.). In addition, they have an obligation to keep abreast of medical advances. "Sleep is often shortened, disrupted and difficult to protect," said Dr. Weiss at the Wall Street Journal. The good news is that if you are deprived of sleep during the week, the research shows that you can repay some of your sleep debt during the weekend.
2. Health advice: do not skip placebo from contraceptive pills
Most doctors will not formally give you permission to skip your menstruation by throwing the placebos of your pill and taking your contraceptive pills continuously, but according to the research of the Mayo Clinic, if you are in good health to take birth control pills, you are also healthy enough to skip your rules. (And there is no biological reason to have any anyway!) Although many women doctors opt themselves to skip their own menstrual cycle, they will not suggest it because it might make it difficult to establish if you are pregnant.
3. Health advice: do not "Googling" your symptoms
If you are heading to Google to investigate each rash, every bump or headache and to report all your symptoms to your doctors, you may be making them crazy. Many harmless symptoms are associated with severe conditions and relying on doctor Google, you can become a real case of cybercondrie. In addition, all of this "Googling" leads to more patients in waiting rooms for minor health problems that do not require medical treatment. But while doctors will discourage their patients from going on Google, a study conducted in 2011 revealed that they do not follow their own advice. Indeed, researchers have found that 46% of physicians are looking for information online to diagnose and treat patients. Of these physicians, 63% reported modifying a diagnosis based on the information found in their online searches.
4. Health advice: do not replace sleep with caffeine
There is no substitute for a good night's sleep, but many of us rely on caffeine to keep us awake. Doctors are no different. A study conducted in 2015 in the British medical journal revealed that of the 84% of the study physicians who consumed coffee, most did so to manage fatigue and feel more alert. According to the Mayo Clinic, up to 400 milligrams (mg) of caffeine, or 4 cups of coffee, seems to be the limit for most healthy adults.
5. Health advice: avoiding stress
Studies have shown links between stress and many health conditions, including obesity, heart disease, diabetes and asthma. These are the silent signs that stress makes you sick. While it is evident that stress has a detrimental effect on health, physicians are notoriously bad examples because they do not follow their own advice. "We ask our patients to avoid stress, not to work too hard, to balance their professional and personal lives, etc. Yet many of us who give this advice completely ignore it for ourselves. We give it, because it is probably true, but it is difficult to follow, "said Robert M. Wachter, MD, Professor and associate President of the Department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, in an interview with the wall Street Journal.
1. Health Board: sleep 8 hours per night
The benefits of sleep for health – from the simple fact of having more energy, being more vigilant to having a better ability to fight disease – are well documented. But even if your doctor boasts the virtues of a severe routine of at least seven hours of sleep, he may be, himself, in a lack of sleep. According to Dr. Marisa C. Weiss, physicians are often deprived of sleep because the limits between their work and personal time are blurred (they are on call, receive electronic and telephone messages from patients, etc.). In addition, they have an obligation to keep abreast of medical advances. "Sleep is often shortened, disrupted and difficult to protect," said Dr. Weiss at the Wall Street Journal. The good news is that if you are deprived of sleep during the week, the research shows that you can repay some of your sleep debt during the weekend.
2. Health advice: do not skip placebo from contraceptive pills
Most doctors will not formally give you permission to skip your menstruation by throwing the placebos of your pill and taking your contraceptive pills continuously, but according to the research of the Mayo Clinic, if you are in good health to take birth control pills, you are also healthy enough to skip your rules. (And there is no biological reason to have any anyway!) Although many women doctors opt themselves to skip their own menstrual cycle, they will not suggest it because it might make it difficult to establish if you are pregnant.
3. Health advice: do not "Googling" your symptoms
If you are heading to Google to investigate each rash, every bump or headache and to report all your symptoms to your doctors, you may be making them crazy. Many harmless symptoms are associated with severe conditions and relying on doctor Google, you can become a real case of cybercondrie. In addition, all of this "Googling" leads to more patients in waiting rooms for minor health problems that do not require medical treatment. But while doctors will discourage their patients from going on Google, a study conducted in 2011 revealed that they do not follow their own advice. Indeed, researchers have found that 46% of physicians are looking for information online to diagnose and treat patients. Of these physicians, 63% reported modifying a diagnosis based on the information found in their online searches.
4. Health advice: do not replace sleep with caffeine
There is no substitute for a good night's sleep, but many of us rely on caffeine to keep us awake. Doctors are no different. A study conducted in 2015 in the British medical journal revealed that of the 84% of the study physicians who consumed coffee, most did so to manage fatigue and feel more alert. According to the Mayo Clinic, up to 400 milligrams (mg) of caffeine, or 4 cups of coffee, seems to be the limit for most healthy adults.
5. Health advice: avoiding stress
Studies have shown links between stress and many health conditions, including obesity, heart disease, diabetes and asthma. These are the silent signs that stress makes you sick. While it is evident that stress has a detrimental effect on health, physicians are notoriously bad examples because they do not follow their own advice. "We ask our patients to avoid stress, not to work too hard, to balance their professional and personal lives, etc. Yet many of us who give this advice completely ignore it for ourselves. We give it, because it is probably true, but it is difficult to follow, "said Robert M. Wachter, MD, Professor and associate President of the Department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, in an interview with the wall Street Journal.