How Keeping Medical Records Promote Healthy Aging

Tip for Healthy Aging: Keep Medical Records

Many people do things by observing other people and noting down what they do. However, the same people tend to fail at taking notes when it comes to making sure they live a healthy life when they get older. Doctors keep their patients' medical records not just for a year, but for several years. Through medical records, doctors keep track of the health of their patients. Your doctor cares about your overall health. Shouldn't you care about your health?

You don't have to be a doctor to keep medical records about yourself. A simple journal will do. You can write in your journal the dates, time, place and other information about your hospital stay, for instance. You can also start recording the days when you are sick, how long you were sick and what medications you took. Whenever you feel off, you can record your observations in your journal. You can write down dates and times when you consulted a doctor. Write down diagnostics and the names of the doctors who examined you.

You should also keep a record of your family's medical history. List down the names of the members in your family tree and identify the ailments that had or have. Your family may have a history of diabetes. Which ones in your family tree had the disease? Your personal medical journal can be an invaluable tool that you can show to your doctor whenever you come in for your regular check ups. You can show your journal to your doctor. It can give your doctor a better idea about your overall health as well as enable him to catch symptoms of diseases common in your family early on.

Your vaccinations are also some of the things you need to include in your personal medical journal. Write down the date, time and what type of vaccine you got. Also keep records of your lab visits, results, conditions as well as the treatments administered to you. Update your records every year. For example, if your doctor diagnosed you as having a liver disease in 2000, and treatments were able to cure it because it was caught early, write this down. The following year, record new information if you experience similar symptoms. On your next doctor appointment, show your personal medical journal to your doctor.

Your personal medical journal can also be a place where you write down information about illnesses you had. For example, if you had a history of colds, you can learn about the upper respiratory system. Study your illnesses and try to understand them. When you know about your illnesses, you can take steps to prevent them.

When it comes to your health, prevention is key. As we age, our body starts on a downward spiral. Our bodily functions slow down, the cells begin the degenerate and our immune system weakens, making us more susceptible to diseases. Your personal medical journal can be an extremely useful reference tool for you.