How to Get Sick and Stay Sick

Sheldon Cohen M.D. FACP

Description

This book describes how bad habits contribute to ill health. The habits the author refers to that so negatively impact patients by leading to significant illness and mortality, include the following:

–Alcohol abuse
–Tobacco abuse
–Obesity
–Poor dietary habits
–Excessive stress

The impact of the above on all parts of the human body are described in detail.

Exercise, on the other hand, is a habit that can help negate or delay the negative consequences of the first five if practiced continuously and faithfully.

Sujets

• Health Care Delivery
• Medical
• Médecine

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 07 janvier 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456623883
• Langue: English

Extrait

HOW TO GET SICK
AND STAY SICK
 
 
SHELDON COHEN, M.D. FACP

Copyright 2014 Sheldon Cohen M.D. FACP,
All rights reserved.
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2388-3
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

A graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Sheldon Cohen has practiced internal medicine, served as a medical director of the Alexian Brother’s Medical Center in Northwest Suburban Chicago, and served as the medical director of two managed care organizations: Cigna Health plan of Illinois and Humanicare Plus of Illinois. The author taught internal medicine and physical diagnosis to medical students from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine and the Chicago Medical School. Recognizing the fact that busy physicians are pressed for time and thus often fail to capture a thorough medical history, the author perfected one of the first computerized medical history systems for private practice and wrote a paper on his experience with 1500 patients who utilized the system. This was one of the early efforts in promoting electronic health records, a work in progress to this day. Serving as a consultant for Joint Commission Resources of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the author did quality consultations at hospitals in the United States, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Copenhagen, Denmark, and served as a consultant to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine, assisting them in the development of a hospital accrediting body.
Dr. Cohen is the author of 25 books.

 
 
 
DEDICATED TO GAIL COHEN, HER OWN BEST PHYSICIAN, WHO
KNOWS HOW NOT TO GET SICK AND HOW TO STAY HEALTHY

 
 
 
The information, ideas, and suggestions in this book are not
intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. Before
following any suggestions contained in this book, you must
consult your personal physician. The publisher or the author
shall not be liable or responsible for any loss or damage
allegedly arising as a consequence of your use or application of
any information or suggestions in this book.

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PROLOGUE
This book describes how bad habits contribute to ill health. The habits the author refers to that so negatively impact patients, but are responsible for the great majority of the world’s deaths, include the following:
Alcohol abuse
Tobacco abuse
Obesity
Poor dietary habits
Excessive stress
Exercise, on the other hand, is a habit that can help negate or delay the negative consequences of the first five if practiced continuously and faithfully. All these first five “habits’’ inevitably lead to significant illness and mortality. This book is written for those who desire good health. It will detail the vast number of negative health consequences that will befall anyone who practices one or more of these habits. How can I be so sure? Because I’ve seen innumerable patients at both ends of the spectrum: at the start when basically well, and at the end when prematurely and seriously ill—or at their early death. This book describes how bad habits contribute to ill health. The habits the author refers to that so negatively impact patients, but are responsible for the great majority of the world’s deaths, include the following:
Alcohol abuse
Tobacco abuse
Obesity
Poor dietary habits
Excessive stress
Exercise, on the other hand, is a habit that can help negate or delay the negative consequences of the first five if practiced continuously and faithfully. All these first five “habits’’ inevitably lead to significant illness and mortality.
Through the different parts of this book, the reader may find some repetition of certain physiological principles. Consider it extra credit as you study and learn.
PART 1: ALCOHOL ABUSE
Oh many a peer of England brews
Livelier liquor than the Muse,
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God’s ways to man.
Ale, mam, ale’s the stuff to drink
For fellows whom it hurts to think.
Alfred Edward Housman
1859-1936
ALCOHOL ABUSE

This is the alcohol found in alcoholic beverages (ethyl alcohol). C is carbon, H is hydrogen, O is oxygen and the hyphens are the chemical bonds between them. Drinking pure alcohol risks life. Alcohol in its pure state is deadly and drinking it, or a high concentration of it, can kill. That should tell a prospective drinker something, but it apparently does not as they continue drinking while the occasional report still comes in about the college student who died after “chugalugging” because blood alcohol level rose past the danger zone—and the alcohol imbibed was usually the high concentration variety of the commercial products available.
Getting ill and staying ill is possible with any alcoholic drink after prolonged use, but will happen quicker when an alcoholic beverage with a high concentration of alcohol is the preferred drink. For instance:
1. Beer has an alcohol concentration between 4 and 6 percent
2. Wine has an alcohol concentration of 7 to 15 percent
3. Champaign has an alcohol concentration of 8 to 14 percent
4. Whiskey, vodka, rum and gin have a concentration of 40 to 95 percent
From the above, it should be evident that the frequent use of whiskey, vodka, rum, or gin will bring on illness more rapidly, and its continued use will perpetuate the pathological process, keep the imbiber sick, and bring on an earlier demise. That is a guarantee. An alcoholic, by definition, is a man or woman who must drink; they cannot stop, and the reason is because they are addicted. An addiction (by the Merriam-Webster dictionary) is defined as a compulsive physiological need for and use of a habit forming substance characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly: persistent compulsive physiological need for and use of a habit-forming substance known by the user to be physically, psychologically, or socially harmful.
Nobody knows what illnesses an alcoholic may or may not get. There is no way to control this, but alcohol can affect the entire body and target every organ. Socially and psychologically, it can target and accentuate the worst of a person's negative traits, making it very difficult to live with an alcoholic. In the world of an alcoholic, often everything revolves around him or her, or where or how he or she is going to obtain the next drink. A few drinks per day can offer some health benefits, particularly in the realm of cardiology. One or two drinks per day (red wine in France for instance) has demonstrated an improvement in cardiac risk factors and cardiac disease. Anyone who drinks more than this may meet his moment of truth in physical withdrawal symptoms including sweating, tremors, nausea and vomiting, or even blackouts (forgetfulness of recent events). By this time, the now confirmed alcoholic may well be drinking four or five or more drinks per day, and will be well on the way to getting ill. Family members or friends may try to intervene, hoping to reverse what they see as danger signals and a spiraling downward path. The true alcoholic will usually ignore those family members or friends, but some do buckle under the pressure, especially when the pressure emanates from a spouse; they manage to stop. Clearly, the desire to get sick did not overcome the fear of losing their spouse. But for many, the addiction is so pervasive that nothing can come between the drinker and his drink. He or she refuses to allow the thought of a possible destructive path to deter alcohol use; there is no room for any thought other than the next drink.
However, for the alcoholic, there may be a bump on the road to getting sick; an unexpected bump—early death. It is well established that chronic alcohol use results in a higher rate of death from injury or violence than a non-drinker. For instance, half of all automobile fatalities involve the use of alcohol. Studies demonstrate that as few as two drinks can impair driving ability and four or more drinks increases risk 11 times. In the persistent drinker, alcohol is incriminated in more than half of all fatal auto accidents, 25 percent of all suicides, and over 50 percent of all murders. Domestic violence is common amongst alcoholics manifesting itself as verbal and physical abuse involving spouses and children who may suffer long-lasting coping effects. But the drinker does not worry about such possibilities because they believe they happen to other people. So the road to a chronic alcohol induced disease progresses unhampered—and there are many. In fact researchers have linked alcohol consumption to more than sixty diseases. For the purpose of this book the author will concentrate on the list below:
Psychological Impact
Liver disease
Heart disease
Cancer
Gastrointestinal tract
Pancreatic disease
Effects on Diabetic disease
Brain and nervous system diseas