Dr. Deb

My friend, Mike, is a great guy. Knows everyone, goes out of his way to do nice things, but Mike HATES doctors. I mean he really hates doctors. He hates waiting in the office, wearing that silly gown, talking to the doctor and certainly doesn’ t want to hear any recommendations that the doctor may have.

When Mike started having balance problems while running, the last thing that he wanted to do was go see a doctor. He HATES them. I am sure that he was also afraid that it might be something serious. And it was. Mike was diagnosed with MS in his 20s. This was not supposed to happen. But because Mike saw the doctor and received the proper medication, he has had little symptoms of MS and has continued to lead a productive and healthy life for almost 15 years.

Many men feel the same way Mike does about doctors. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, 55 percent of men hadn’t had a checkup in the last year and 29 percent said they wait “as long as possible” to get help when they were sick.

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2am the morning after I came home from the hospital with my fourth child, I received a phone call from my parents. One of them was on the bathroom floor with chest pain. To my surprise, it was not my father, who has a history of high blood pressure, but my mother, who had been healthy her whole life lying on the floor. I was not surprised that while she struggled to breathe, clutching her chest, she whispered to me, get my makeup!

Men and women are very different, but cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of both sexes. The difference is that when we think of heart disease, we still think of it in terms of how it affects men. Family members as well as health professionals still largely overlook women when it comes to heart disease.

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I love salt. I grew up with salt on watermelon, salt on cottage cheese, salt on cucumbers and extra salt on everything! Ironically, my dad has been on a salt substitute since I was young for hypertension. It always tasted bitter to me and since my blood pressure has always been low, I never worried about it.

A new study has has me thinking otherwise. I often track fat, calories, fiber and protein but by ignoring the sodium, I have made some food choices that were not as healthy as I thought.

We are a salt overloaded society. Shockingly, 75%-80% of our salt does not come from the shaker but from what is packaged in our food. A new study released from the New England Journal of Medicine highlights how cutting just a ½ teaspoon a day may dramatically saves lives and billions of dollars.

How much salt is too much?

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