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Show PARADE JANUARY 1983 Long ago. most of us took care of ourselves when we were sick. But starting around 50 years ago. we turned to doctors and to hospitals to make us w ell. Now w e are afraid not to bring our troubles, physical and mental, to the physician lest our afflictions pass the point of no return. No wonder. Medical successes have been incredible the discovery of penicillin that cures a host of deadly infections: surgery that replaces kidneys, livers, hearts; medicines that calm crazed minds. It seemed foolhardy not to take advantage of such progress. Lost in this medical revolution was the idea that we could still take care of ourselves. Lost, that is, until about a decade ago. when a self-car- e health movement reminded us that we could nurse our ailments outside the medical establishment. As I describe on these pages, that self-car- e wave now reaches toward a crest as the medical establishment transfers more and more responsibility for treatment and care to patients. Few medical procedures seem beyond the patient's ability: Adolescents now administer their own cancer treatments. Diabetics can accurately measure and low er their blood sugars to normal. Kidney patients clean their blood at home. Test Blood For Sugar Schwartz's hands numb. Her blurred. At 27 old. she knew that threatened to paralyze and blind her. Now those symptoms are gone. Wendy Costly laboratory visits are less frequent with this home blood test. Diabetic places drop of blood on a test strip Hop). The strip is then fed into the Glucometer, which measures the level of sugar in the blood. Can Take Care of Yourself You Arthritics reduce their pain by 20 percent w ithout drugs. Self-car- e also has cut medical costs dramatically, often by thousands of dollars. The movement received a big push in 1974 w hen Arlene and Howard Eisenberc wrote about the And Schwartz is happy because she has learned to control her diabetes better than any doctor or nurse could Schw artz's pancreas does not produce insulin. Without this hormone, her body cannot burn sugar. It piles up in her blood, flooding every7 organ. Last February, Schwartz's blood pressure soared. Desperate, she ene Prorolled in the Diabetes in healthManhattan. a There, gram care team taught her to use a Glucometer. a machine that measures the sugar in the blood she draws from her fingertips. When her blood sugar climbs, she pushes a button on her insulin infusion pump, a computerized box that she clips onto a belt around her w aist. A tube feeds insulin from the pump into Schwartz through a small needle that is connected to her abdomen. All day. that box pumps insulin into Schw artz. keeping her blood sugar in a normal range. . Self-Car- A nutritionist taught Schwartz how to calculate a safe diet; an exercise phy siologist show ed her how to bum up sugar w ith exercise. Now her blood sugar is usually normal: numbness has disappeared: her eyes cleared up: the blood pressure dropped. Dr. Charles Peterson of Rockefeller University developed the program. "Things aren't as hopeless as we thought only five years ago." he says. "There is something a diabetic-ca- do." work of Dr. Keith V. Sehnert, a pioneer in self-hel- p preventive medicine, in a PARADE article called "How to Be YourOw n Doctor Sometimes." That article became a book and a project called the Health Activation Program. Dr. Sehnert. of the Vinland National Center in Loretto. Minn., teaches people how to doctor themselves. He gives them a little black bag equipped with stethoscope, thermometer, blood pressure cuff, among other items and a list of medications w ith instructions on how to use them. Don Kemper, a health systems engineer, developed a similar project called Healthwise in Boise. Idaho. He has reached 5000 people in 35 states. He reports that the people who took the course went to the doctor fewer times, saving about $100 a year. A special version of the program called Grow ing Younger has enrolled 1500 older people in Boise. They learn relaxation, nutrition, exercise and other health practices. The future? Dr. Sehnert says that, as medicine gets more technical and more expensive, more responsibility will be transferred to the patient. Would anybody have thought to be a gas jockey for his ow n car?" he asks. "The same is happening with medicine, not only here, but all over the world." ' Help From Open Shelves throat felt as if she had a hot coal. She missing classes. Tara then a freshman at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, had a cold. In a few days. Tara's symptoms disappeared. and she went back to school. "I took care of it myself at the cold center." says Mur: d phv. now a junior. "I didn't see Her consulted a phy sician for the ailments that they treat themselves, our medical care system would be swamped. There are drawbacks: The drug industry seems to push its wares with e the. enthusiasm of medicine men Some of the drugs have unadvertised side effects. And some like diet pills work for very few people. old-tim- . pre-me- Tfe adoctororanurse." Students treat their FDA has released 20 ailmentsbyreferring to the pamphlets and questionnaires at the campus health ser- ice's cold center. drugs for over the -- (Serious symptoms are examined by a doctor. ) Tara texsk an instruction sheet for sore throat. "Gargle with warm salt water." it said. Or with Chloraseptic. a anesthetic gargle. Tara is like millions of Americans who treat themselves with preparations from pharmacy shelves. Studies show that these drugs relieve three out of four symptoms. Only 5 percent of the people who use them do so in a potentially harmful way. If only two people out of 100 er countem sale . -- p Nevertheless, people keep on using for headaches, skin problems, indigestion, coughs, constipation and muscle aches. The Food and Drug Administration knows this and already has released 20 prescription drugs for er sale: they plan to release more. That will prov ide an even greater opportunity for people to take care of themsel v es outside the doctor's office. PACE 6 JANUARY 16, 1983 PARADE MAGAZINE |