Mar 15 2012

An Apple a Day….

They say that an Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away.

Around here we seem to be having an unseasonable epidemic of good health.

Over the last couple of weeks, the number of acutely sick people presenting each day in our practice is about half our normal number.

 Being an optimist, I thought that maybe our proactive approach to lifestyle modification was finally demonstrating its benefits.

Being a realist, I also checked that we hadn’t had a negative report in the Northern Star, or on http://ratemds.com.

Butt it appears this outbreak of health is a regional phenomenon. Tumbleweeds are blowing down some of the wards at the hopsital, which are usually packed to the rafters.

If you want to get sick, now would be a good time to miss the usual queues.

However, if you want to stay healthy, you need to be active and eat well.

To help, Hans Blom of the Vale Medical Clinic has compiled a  Guide to Useful Medical Internet Sites. This great resource has hundreds of sites for clinicians and patients, divided into categories. Need the Australian Herpes Health Information Site (http://herpes.com.au)? How about the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee. (http://asdmac.gov.au)?

 Many of the sites that Hans has chosen provide healthy living advice.

You may like to have a look at :

Go For 2 and 5

Recipes on how to Incorporate 2 servings of fruit and 5 of vegetables in your diet each day.

Get Healthy NSW

Information on healthy eating and being active

Measure Up

Good overview of methods to achieve healthy eating and exercise

Activate Mind and Body

Excellent resource for people with mental illness to improve their physical and oral health

Dieticians Association of Australia

Comprehensive A-Z nutritional guides and self assessment tools.

Thanks Hans for sharing this resource. The earliest recorded use of the ‘apple a day’ phrase is an old Pembrokeshire proverb.

Eat an apple on going to bed, And you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.

Too much of this healthy eating and daily exercise by our patients and we’ll have nothing left to do.

I was glad to see that Hans didn’t include Dr Rudi’s advice on healthy eating.

(Dr Rudi was the resident GP on SBS’s Life Support. His advice was usually in the worst possible taste. Therefore I do not recommend you watch this video)