Chronic Illness Q&A with Dr. B.

Dr. Larry Berkelhammer

This weekly column is for people living with chronic health challenges and their family caregivers, who want to learn to live with mastery & wellbeing.

I invite you to post your questions in the comments box below. When I get a certain number of related questions, I pick one that covers them all and I answer that one.

I post to this blog three times per week. Monday posts are relevant published articles. Wednesday posts are videos of webinars or interviews. Friday posts consist of questions about living better with chronic health challenges, and my answers to them.

Here is this week’s question:

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION: What did you mean when you said empowered patients do their own research?

ANSWER: This means taking meticulous notes on all your signs and symptoms. Doing so allows you to find associations between various foods and behaviors with specific signs and symptoms. It allows you to track your signs and symptoms over a long time period.

Becoming a researcher also means recording all the effects of whatever medications you are taking. You may find that certain foods and certain medications have different effects at different times of day.

Empowered patients also become experts on their conditions and the treatments for those conditions. They read medical journals and newsletters, and they search dot gov and dot edu websites.

They achieve information mastery, which improves their doctors’ abilities to more effectively treat them.

This website is offered as a free public service, supplying information that has been found helpful to certain people living with chronic health challenges. No treatment is offered on this website. The advice is general, and may or may not apply to your individual situation, and is not a substitute for psychotherapy or medical treatment.

What questions do you have about how to live better with chronic health challenges that are related to the relationship between states of mind and health?
Just scroll down and type your question in the comment box. I will post a reply to your comment, but your specific question may not appear in this column.