The importance of making informed CHOICES couldn’t be clearer

I was reminded by two different expert sources recently that life is all about choices, and just because we have reached a certain age, if we wish to stay healthy and continue to enjoy our time here on Earth, we need to assume responsibility for staying informed and making good decisions.

The local VNA Community Health Care partners with Consumer Reports Health in a wonderfully useful program appropriately called, CHOICES. One of more than 70 booklets available courtesy of Consumer Reports is “A Guide to Tests and Treatments You Probably Don’t Need,” which discusses exercise and stress tests, imaging tests for lower back pain, bone density tests and colonoscopies so that you can intelligently discuss these with your doctor.

I especially liked the suggested 5 questions to ask your doctor before you get any test, treatment or procedure:

• 1. Do I really need this test or procedure?

• 2. What are the risks?

• 3. Are there simpler, safer options?

• 4. What happens if I don’t do anything?

• 5. Howmuch does it cost?

There is also an excellent booklet on protecting your heart and another one on the best drugs for less money. More about the booklets at consumerhealthchoices.org/campaigns/

VNA Community Healthcare, under the leadership of the truly brilliant and innovative Barbara Katz, has recently started a Family Caregiver School to help those family caregivers who are now often performing medical/nursing tasks such as tube feedings, home dialysis, wound dressing, etc. – the types of complex care once only provided in hospitals and nursing homes or by home-care professionals.

The next Caregiver School will be in Hamden on Nov. 13. More at www. connecticuthomecare.org/caregiverschool.

The second expert I heard, who also stressed the importance of making good choices, was Dr. Richard Diana, an orthopedic surgeon whose book “Healthy Joints for Life” outlines a plan to reduce pain and inflammation and avoid surgery. Diana explains the causes of joint pain, the foods that help to reduce joint pain, supplements that will help and exercises to help you move and feel better. It certainly lends credence to his theories that the good doctor just happens to be a dead ringer for Gene Kelly.

Before he became an orthopedic surgeon specializing in arthroscopic knee and shoulder surgery, Diana played football at Yale and the Miami Dolphins, and if that doesn’t put stress on your joints, nothing will.

His book, although sometimes somewhat confusing, is well laid out and very useful. He has charts with the glycemic index of various foods, suggestions for many supplements which he considers helpful, although it is important to discuss any additional supplements you take with your doctor as they can react with your present medications.

The most difficult part for me is trying to follow some of the doctor’s shopping suggestions. You need unlimited time and a magnifying glass to read all the ingredients in everything you purchase, and he feels almost all desserts other than those you make yourself, are not good for you. .

The child in me would like to be able to approach eating as an unbridled, gastronomic pleasure, but I guess if I want to continue to be able to walk and move without pain, I will make the choices he recommends in this very helpful and thorough book.