Self-Care: taking care of yourself for life

MapleLine Magazine: Aug.25, 2010

by Dela Wilkins, RN << Back to Fall 2010 issue

Unlike cars, computers and coffee makers human beings don’t come with owner manuals. Even if we did, how often would we refer to it? In the last 5 years I have opened my 230-page car owner manual only a few times to help me change the clock settings.

The 2008 edition of You: The Owner’s Manual, by Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz, offers a quiz of 50 questions to help you assess how well you know your own body. For example, did you know that the structure of the Eiffel Tower is based on the structure of the long bones in a human body? Another observation is that your intestines release the same chemicals as your brain. There is growing research on the brain/body connection in the field of neurosciences. Science Daily reported in July 2010 that patients with irritable bowel syndrome have demonstrated structural changes in specific brain regions.

The old saying “It’s all in your head” may be more true than we realize.

The best remedy for taking care of the body is to pay as much attention to the inside as we do to the outside and think of our bodies as our homes.

Jessie Mantle, Professor Emeritus, University of Victoria has developed a Personal Health History form and presents a workshop called Get Your Personal Health Facts Straight. This is like starting to write your own fill-in-the-blank Owner’s Manual. She emphasizes that the person responsible for my health is ME. We heard this message in the news in February 2010 when Danny Williams, premier of Newfoundland went to the US for heart surgery: “This is my heart, it’s my health, and it’s my choice.”

So how can we become better at “self care”? The World Health Organization defines self-care as: "Activities individuals, families, and communities undertake with the intention of enhancing health, preventing disease, limiting illness, and restoring health. These activities are derived from knowledge and skills from the pool of both professional and lay experience. They are undertaken by lay people on their own behalf, either separately or in participative collaboration with professionals."

Consider how advances in health science and technology have improved the ability for a person with diabetes to actively manage his own care:
• Insulin was discovered in 1921.
• Blood glucose monitors were developed in the 1960s.
• Biosynthetic human insulin became available in the 1980s.
• A Nano-Tattoo monitor for blood sugar is being tested in 2010.

As new information becomes available, the shift in routine management of a disease condition transfers from health care professionals to the person with the disease.

This shift in care is becoming evident in the medical system as family physicians in BC move towards working in an Integrated Health Network with other health professionals on the team in helping patients learn to manage their own care. Initiatives such as Patients as Partners and How’s Your Health are underway to increase the collaboration between the physician and the patient seeking medical care. The BC government announced in June 2010 that by 2015 every resident in BC will have access to a family doctor.

Working with your physician means participating fully in the discussion. As the owner of a body, you should be aware of the preventive health screening and immunization recommended for your age and gender such as:
• Mammography for women 50-69;
• Screening for colon cancer after 50;
• Making lifestyle changes that can minimize modifiable risks.

There are gold standards and clinical guidelines for physicians for frequency of follow up for acute and chronic diseases, and most include a one-page patient information summary. www.bcguidelines.ca/gpac/alphabetical.html

If you are diagnosed with a disease or chronic condition take advantage of all the opportunities offered to you to learn more about how to manage it yourself:
• Participate in group medical visits with other patients with the same condition.
• Attend classes offered by health care professionals, such as Living Well with COPD or Arthritis.
• Use the BC HealthGuide or 811 for reliable information about your diagnosis. www.healthlinkbc.ca
• Visit Canadian or provincial web sites for conditions such as Diabetes, Parkinson Disease, Celiac Disease
• Ask for a non-medical description of the diagnosis. For example, high blood pressure is easier to remember than hypertension, and is a more descriptive term for the condition.
• Bring a family member or support person to your medical appointments if she will be supporting your self-care.

Good self care does not mean reaching for pills and potions. It can mean:
• Improving the effectiveness of a treatment or medication when taken as prescribed.
• Increased self-awareness of early signs of difficulty and need for intervention such as with allergies.
• Decreased use of the Emergency Room for non-emergency reasons.
• Writing your very own Owner’s Manual.

The top 3 ways to enhance health, prevent disease and limit illness have no price tag:
• Exercise daily to keep the heart pumping and the blood flowing through the 160,000 km of blood vessels in your body.
• Drink 8 glasses of water daily. The average human body is about 75% water.
• Keep in touch – literally – with others. Skin to skin contact has been used for centuries to heal people.

The motto for growing old well in the Greater Victoria Eldercare Foundation newsletter is Be Well, Be Secure, Be Connected, and Be Enriched.

Illness is not a natural, inevitable state. There is no pill that will increase our common sense or motivate us to follow through on good intentions. Maintaining good health should be part of our life plan so that we will have a place to live for a long time. MM

~ Dela Wilkins, RN is a nurse and lifecare coach.

This page is sponsored by the MapleLine Health Writers Workshop Program. Health professionals are invited to participate in the 2010-2011 program.