NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
What Your Doctor Wants You to Do in 2015 Losing weight and quitting smoking are on top of doctors’ wish lists for their patients By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
T
o many people, New Year’s Day represents a clean slate and an opportunity to do better in the new year. Maybe you’d like this year to be the year you get a raise, get organized or spend more time with your family. Area doctors have a few ideas of New Year’s resolutions they would like their patients to make. Maria Enecilla, a family medicine physician with Finger Lakes Health, simply stated, “Stop smoking.” Smoking negatively affects nearly every function and organ of the body. It can contribute to the development of cancers, and lung and heart diseases. Smoking also makes it harder to ward off illness. Mignon Enecilla, also a family medicine physician with Finger Lakes
Health, hopes more patients will resolve to “eat healthy and exercise regularly, avoid smoking and drinking. Keep an attitude of gratitude to stay healthy and happy.” Marcy Mulconry with Rochester Regional Health System, echoed the other physicians’ thoughts on smoking and weight control. “They’re difficult to face, but set small goals to improve,” said the doctor. “If you’re a smoker, work with your physician on the steps to quitting.” It may seem like if you’ve smoked for decades it won’t make any difference if you quit now; however, the American Cancer Society states that 20 minutes after quitting, the heart rate and blood pressure drop. Just 12 hours after quitting, the carbon monoxide level in the blood drops to normal. In only two weeks to three months after quitting, circulation improves and lung function increases. A year after quitting, the excess risk of coronary heart disease
is half that of someone who continues to smoke. If you keep up the resolution, five years from now, your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder decrease by half. Risk of cervical cancer risk falls to that of a non-smoker. After 10 years of quitting, your risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that if you kept smoking. “These are just a few of the benefits of quitting smoking for good,” the American Cancer Society’s site states. “Quitting smoking lowers the risk of diabetes, lets blood vessels work better, and helps the heart and lungs. Quitting while you are younger will reduce your health risks more, but quitting at any age can give back years of life that would be lost by continuing to smoke.” Mulconry hopes more people consider losing weight as a resolution, even if it’s just a few pounds. “The benefits are huge if you’re even able to make a small reduction in weight,” Mulconry said. “When you look at the number of hospitalizations for smoking and obesity, it’s clear these are so important.” Mulconry also wants patients to “know your numbers” such as blood pressure, blood glucose, weight and what the terms mean.
“Become engaged in your own health and your profile,” Mulconry said. “Many health care organizations are giving people more access to their records online so patients can be a bigger part of their health care team. They are more involved in the conversation.” Katherine Deiss, a physician with Greece Medical Associates in Rochester, wants patients to “talk with their doctor and make at least one goal that would be good for them,” she said. “It’s easier to make one that’s realistic than to make many that are hard to reach. They need to ask their doctor or others for help if they need help.”
Why You Should Hire a Life Coach By Audrey Berger
T
his time of the year people tend to think about what they want to accomplish over the course of the year, but sometimes they’re not sure how to make it happen. Does this sound like you? If it does, you’re not alone. Studies have found that only about 12 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions actually accomplish their goals. To increase your chances of being among the 12 percent who successfully achieve their goals, you could consider working with a life coach. Life coaching helps you to close the gap between where you are in your life and where you want to be, so you can live your life to the fullest. In life coaching, you focus on the things you want to accomplish, the changes you want to make, and strategies you can use to get there. Your coach does not tell you what you should want or what
Page 12
•
you should do. Rather, you commit to an action plan that you and your coach develop together during your sessions. Your coach supports and guides you, inspiring and motivating you to stay on track toward the goals you set, celebrating your efforts and achievements. When you participate in life coaching, your coach asks you thought-provoking questions and listens carefully to your answers. Using a combination of well-established behavior change techniques and intuition, your coach helps you clarify what you want, as well as identify steps you can take to get there. Your coach emphasizes the strengths you already have and helps you recognize how you can use those strengths in pursuing your goals. Together you work to discover and address any obstacles that may be stopping you from achieving your goals, such as self-limiting beliefs.
Sometimes people confuse life coaching with psychotherapy; although there are similarities between them, there are also important differences. Psychotherapy is a remedial health service that addresses emotional distress, problems or crises, in order to facilitate emotional healing and improved functioning. Life coaching is more of a wellness service that focuses on helping you to create the life you desire. The psychotherapy process tends to be directed by the therapist, whereas life coaching is more of a collaborative process between you and your coach. Unlike psychotherapy, which generally can only take place in an office setting, life coaching can occur either in an office or over the phone. Whether your goal is to create a more fulfilling life, establish a healthier lifestyle, become more organized, pursue more education, re-create your
IN GOOD HEALTH – Rochester / Genesee Valley Healthcare Newspaper • January 2015
life during major transitions, creatively manage significant life challenges, increase your resilience or resourcefulness, make your relationships more fulfilling, unblock and unleash your creativity, add more enjoyment, excitement or meaning to your life, achieve better life balance, or better manage stress, life coaching might be for you. Audrey Berger, Ph.D., operates Life Coach at Turning Point Life Coaching. She can be reached at audreybergerphd@gmail. com. More information about her practice at www. turningpointlifecoaching.com.