Talking About Health; Why Health Communication Matters

119_1914 September 21, 2010

Today is my daughter-in-law’s birthday. I thought about her this morning as Dr. Oz talked about the health of skin for women in their 30s, their 40s, and their 50s… For women in their 30s, like my daughter-in-law, the guest dermatologist noted that ‘stress’ is a big contributor to skin problems. Sigh. From the vantage of late 50s, I wish that we might use other words to communicate about health conditions and changes. What if instead of saying with stern expression and furrowed brow, “When we don’t get enough sleep because our toddler doesn’t sleep eight hours or our elementary age child wakes up sick and keeps up in the night, it causes us stress,” we said with a chuckle, “I have a much greater appreciation for my parents now that I’m learning to catch a few hours of sleep here and 20 minutes there. I understand now why ‘sleep’ could make the top five list for ‘things I want to do on my vacation.'” Sometimes, it is all in the framing.

We talk about loss versus gain frames in communicating about health. Loss frames emphasize the costs associated with developing new health habits, while gain frames emphasize the benefits associated with developing new health habits. Stress is all about losses and costs. Life is all about gains and benefits. So, yes, even though the dermatologist also cautioned that alcohol causes premature aging of the skin, I hope my daughter-in-law is celebrating her life today, and perhaps even toasting the year ahead….

imgp0014 January 1, 2010

A couple of days ago, I was listening to the Dr. Oz show, and he talked with the audience about ‘gas.’ He described how much gas or flatulence is ‘normal’ and showed the audience a balloon filled with the amount of gas that any one of us on average has in a given day. Dr. Oz described some of the foods linked to forming flatulence. He did a great job of filling some of the void in our understanding about this topic.

But there is more to it than that as anyone who watched could tell from the giggles and embarrassed expressions on audience members’ faces. While we many now understand both that having gas is part of the human experience and that some foods cause more gas than others, we may be struggling with the fact that our doctor told us to start eating a diet that is higher in fiber and doing so has — you guessed it — caused us to have more gas than is normal for us and some discomfort or gas pains as well.

So now the problem is that we are not sure how to tell our doctor about the discomfort. It is after all embarrassing. So do we just give up trying to eat a diet that is higher in fiber? I hope not. A higher fiber diet has a lot of health benefits. So try increasing the fiber in your diet with a little less gusto… perhaps add 1-2 servings of fiber a day rather than 7, and keep track of how that makes you feel. Still a problem? Realize that your doctor may have advice to help with the gas, and no way of knowing you are having discomfort if you don’t disclose the experience. Tell your doctor what you have been eating and what you have experienced and that the gas is not normal for you and is causing discomfort. Normal is, after all, best judged by each one of us when it comes to our own health.

Category: Thoughts about Dr. Oz show

Could we please use a different word–one besides ‘stress’–when we talk about what causes health problems?

Why does Dr. Oz talk about “gas”?