By Kevin Lamb, Cox News Service
DAYTON, Ohio -- A health insurance company actually gathered
people in four cities this month to hear the keynote speaker say
they should be more tenacious and assertive in fighting for
whatever it takes to improve their health.
``Don't take no for an answer. Pursue your options, and pursue
them with an attitude,'' Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, director of the
Lilly Centre for Women's Health in Indianapolis, said over a
satellite link to the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield conference
on women's health in Dayton and Columbus, Louisville, Ky., and
Indianapolis.
She didn't just mean people should be aggressive when they think
their HMO is wrongly denying them coverage. She said they should be
tenacious about learning their health histories, finding reliable
sources of health information, obtaining the right medical
treatment, identifying which illnesses are most likely to kill or
disable them and establishing habits of good nutrition and exercise
to prevent illnesses. ``Keep trying,'' she said.
Although Lewis-Hall's speech was aimed at women, it is excellent
advice for people of both genders. Medical science in the 20th
century has been so effective at correcting bad health that it has
begun to focus on maintaining good health. But all too often,
people find that greed, laziness and ignorance in the health-care
industry is blocking their path to the knowledge and technology
that could save or improve their lives.
When three-fifths of American women say their biggest health
fear is breast cancer, misconceptions are clearly a problem.
Heart disease kills nearly 10 times as many women each year as
breast cancer. Stroke kills more than twice as many. Lung cancer
has been deadlier than breast cancer since 1987.
``Most women don't die of breast cancer, even though at the end
of October and Breast Cancer Awareness Month you feel like they
do,'' Dr. Margaret Dunn, a surgeon and Wright State University
medical school administrator, told the Dayton segment of the
conference.
It's a serious health concern. It's just not the biggest or only
one.
The four doctors in Dayton offered information that surprised
people about many disorders. Anthem officials found it so
enlightening, they're considering future seminars for nonmembers,
too.
Urinary incontinence, for example, is a problem for 13 million
Americans, and as many as 11 million are women. But half of them
can get relief from the same pelvic floor exercises that are taught
in childbirth classes.
One in every four women will experience depression in their
lifetimes, most of them more than once. They're most susceptible
before menopause. People who turn to excessive alcohol and other
recreational drugs often are medicating their depression without
knowing it. Yet only one-third even seek treatment for depression,
which is effective as often as four times out of five.
Half of all women will break a bone because of osteoporosis.
They lose about 20 percent of their bone mass in the first five to
seven years after menopause. But there are several helpful
medications besides estrogen.
Women are often reluctant to take supplementary estrogen after
menopause because it has been associated with breast cancer. But
Dunn, speaking as the session's breast cancer expert, said the
types of breast cancer associated with estrogen are not usually
fatal. Meanwhile, estrogen clearly helps avoid the much greater
danger of heart disease.
Forty-four percent of women who have heart attacks die within a
year, compared with 27 percent of men. And nearly two-thirds of the
women who die suddenly from bad hearts have no previous symptoms.
And even after years of breast cancer awareness campaigns, Dunn
said only 60 percent of insured women older than 40 have their
recommended annual mammograms and clinical exams.
Women tend to live longer than men, but new U.S. data suggests
even that's a mixed blessing. Nearly one in every four women older
than 85 needs help with a basic activity such as dressing or using
the toilet.
Legendary baseball manager Casey Stengel, a chain smoker born in
the 1800s, said if he had known he was going to live so long, he
would have taken better care of himself. As the 1900s end with life
expectancy up nearly 50 percent, his wisecrack is timely advice.
``Women don't live longer than men,'' Lewis-Hall said. ``They
take longer to die.''
