Embracing Elderhood (REBROADCAST)

Laura Knoy's picture
By Laura Knoy on Monday, January 2, 2006.
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For many Americans, getting older means dealing with illnesses, losing ones independence, and losing friends and loved ones. And that has most of us scared of aging. But Dr. Bill Thomas, an expert in geriatric medicine and eldercare, says our senior years don't have to be a time of isolation and is trying to change the way Americans think about that stage of their lives. We'll talk with Dr. Thomas about his ideas and how he hopes to change the dialogue on aging.

*This show originally broadcast on 9/20/05*

NHPR just rebroadcast today
Submitted by jerrylamos on Mon, 01/02/2006 - 17:27.

NHPR just rebroadcast today Dr. Thomas' interview on the Exchange dated Sept 20, 2005. In the interview Dr. Thomas said he was going to visit Southern New Hampshire Medical Center that week as part of AARP's national "Medicines and You" campaign. Boy did that hit a hot button on me.

I'm 70 and don't look it. I have a heart condition, atrial flutter, very well tolerated, I have a good feeling of well being and a good exercise program. My doctor sent me to the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center where the cardiologist prescribed one heart medication after another, a beta blocker, a calcium channel blocker, and finally a one time 300mg dose of a sodium channel blocker Flecainide. The first two prescriptions made me short of breath, a problem I never have, gave me side effects, dizziness, headache, I was sick. The Flecainide prescription knocked me for a loop taking three months to recover. I subsequently found out Flecainide can cause irregular heart beat and even congestive heart failure - the cardiologist gave me no warning. A second opinion at Massachusets General Hospital in Boston was I didn't need any of those heart prescriptions. So without prescriptions I'm about back to feeling good overall with slightly higher pulse rate still in normal range. You can imagine this elder's opinion about the proclivity of doctors to prescribe un-needed and even damaging prescriptions. I've read prescriptions are the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.; based on my experience I believe it.
Jerry Amos
Hollis, NH
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