Mega Doctor News
By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez
This year, the McAllen South Rotary Club invited Dr. Michael Mohun, a local Emergency Medicine physician to address the members of the club. The idea was to educate and remind Rotarians how important it is to pay attention to our health.
John King, past Rotary president invited Dr. Mohun after the late McAllen City Commissioner and businessman Scott Crane collapsed and passed away on December 14, 2014 after suffering a massive heart attack. He was 50 years old.
Commissioner Crane, an avid long-distance runner, suffered the heart attack while participating in the second annual McAllen Marathon – an event he helped to create and launch in 2013. Mr. Crane was a distinguished citizen and admired by Mega Doctor News and Texas Border Business.
Dr. Mohun had the full attention of the Rotary members who listened to his presentation and advice.
He said, “I’m hoping today that I will teach you a few things that you haven’t heard and that it might make you more interested in your health, or it may make you look up something on the internet and get a little more vested in creating a better you,” Dr. Mohun said.
He said that his presentation was about a short talk about everything on how to stop worrying about the things you can’t control. “In light of Scott’s death we are not really sure exactly why he died but that it certainly is a sad thing.”
Dr. Mohun pointed out that stroke is the fifth leading cause of death followed by Alzheimer’s, diabetes, influenza, pneumonia particularly in the older population, immune compromised population, kidney disease, and then suicide.
During his presentation he brought information that few people know, for example he said, “If you are over the age of 70 I think the average number of medications a person is on is 14 medications a day. There is no one who knows what all those medications do when you take them all together. But I can tell you that the healthier you are, the less medications you’ll take.”
He said that alcohol related deaths are up and that even though a cup of red wine can be very good for you; if you drink too much, it’s not good for you.
Dr. Mohun said, “There are car deaths, suicide deaths, drug abuse deaths, and then shootings; most of these risks are attributable to your gender, lifestyle, old age, drinking excessively, drug use, and car accidents.” He said, “It’s very interesting having been in emergency medicine for close to 35 years, back when I first started working in emergency departments you never saw roll overs. A roll over car accident was highly unusual and very strange,” he noted.
“Today it’s highly unusual not to see a roll over… That happens every day.” Any car or SUV, combined with a distracted driver using a cell phone is an accident waiting to happen. He emphasized, “It’s not raining. It’s a clear sky, with dry pavements and you get all these rear end collisions. People aren’t paying attention.”
He said that for those who are on multiple medications and want to reduce heart disease, stroke, and cancer to become healthier, then you need to pay attention to your lifestyle. He said, “You’d rather run and lose weight than having to take a blood pressure pill. It makes sense. You want to control your hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol. Stop smoking and reduce your weight.”
The doctor said that proper food choices, a diet rich in organic fruits and vegetables is best. “The more unprocessed the food the better. Avoid sugar and fructose, which probably is the biggest killer in my mind; that is high fructose corn syrup. You should be an aware consumer.”
His advice is not to eat after 8:00 pm. “Eating late spikes your insulin, and you go bed and you are storing fat.”
He also said that all the cooking oils are particularly bad for you however he said, “Extra virgin olive oil is really the only one that has shown any benefit.” In addition, he said that garlic, onion, soya sauce, nuts and seeds all help stabilize your glucose.”
Among other important comments to better our health, Dr. Mohun said that stress reduction is important. He recommends exercising outdoors, for the vitamin D exposure that is critical. MDN
