"Beautiful afternoon and there are 4 residents playing shuffleboard ( the girls won), one resident is pulling up garden plants for winter, I am cutting herbs for drying and freezing, one resident is making her twice daily turn around the park on her walker. It is a "beautiful life" in Bailey Park." The Most Googled Health Questionsby Candy SagonIs bronchitis contagious? Bronchitis occurs when a chest cold worsens, causing inflammation and congestion in the bronchial tubes. It's generally not contagious, but the cold that led to it can be, David Katz, M.D., director of Yale University Prevention Research Center, told Health. The main symptom of bronchitis is a persistent cough, which can last 10 to 20 days, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.Is pneumonia contagious? It depends on whether it's viral or bacterial pneumonia. Viral pneumonia, a particular risk for those 65 and over, is contagious. This is the type of pneumonia that can develop from a bad bout of the flu and require hospitalization. Bacterial pneumonia is less contagious, according to Katz. To protect against pneumonia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommend that those age 65 and older get two pneumonia vaccines.How much water should I drink? Eight glasses has been the standard advice, but the science behind this has been sketchy, CBS News reports. Water helps flush bacteria and prevent dehydration, but a recent Harvard Health Letter suggests that four to six glasses daily is sufficient - with more if the weather is hot or you're exercising a lot.ow many calories should I eat? That's a tough question. It depends on age, gender, health and activity level. Both too many and too few calories can have serious health consequences. In general, senior health experts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommend that a woman over age 50 should consume 1,600 to 2,000 calories daily depending on whether she has a low activity level or is very active (walking more than 3 miles a day). For a man age 50-plus, daily calories should range from 2,000 to 2,200 calories for a low activity level, to 2,400 to 2,800 if he's very active. For a more personal profile, the NIH recently launched a new calorie calculator, that gives you a personalized calorie and exercise regimen.What is gluten? Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. About 1 percent of Americans have an auto-immune condition called celiac disease and must avoid gluten or risk serious intestinal damage. But lately gluten has been blamed for a wide range of other health problems, from joint pain to mental conditions to weight gain. As a result, interest in gluten-free products and diets remains high, saysConsumer Reports, although gluten-free diets are not necessarily healthier. There is also some evidence that celiac disease or gluten intolerance can develop later in life, perhaps due to changes in intestinal bacteria.How long does the flu last? When you have it and you're feeling miserable, it seems like it's lasting forever, but typically the flu lasts one to two weeks, with the most severe symptoms in the first two to three days. Taking a prescription antiviral drug in the first 48 hours when symptoms start can help shorten the flu's duration. How can you tell if you have the flu or a cold? In general, cold symptoms strike from the neck up, while the flu is felt throughout your body. For older adults, who are at highest risk for flu complications, the best protection is still the flu vaccine.Do You Really Need an Annual Physical?5 myths and facts you should know about that yearly checkupby Amanda McCrackenThe annual physical exam has been a popular fixture in American medicine since the 1940s, as a way to help your doctor get to know you and your medical history, do some screening tests and maybe even catch some problems early. So you'd think that every health expert would be in favor of it.And you'd be wrong.That's just one of the myths about the annual physical - that everyone thinks it's a good idea. There are other things you should know as well, such as whether Medicare covers it. (Hint: It's complicated.)Check out these five myths:Of course an annual physical is a good idea.Well, that depends on whom you ask. Among medical experts, opinions are divided about whether it's really beneficial for those who are otherwise healthy. Among Americans, however, the answer is clear: Ninety-two percent think it's important to get checked out by their primary care doctor once a year, according to a 2015 Kaiser Family Foundation poll, and 62 percent of those polled do go see their doctor annually.Still, many doctors insist that the annual checkup needs its own checkup.Last October, the New England Journal of Medicinefeatured dueling editorials by physicians for and against the annual exam. One side argued that there's no evidence that these exams help Americans stay healthier or reduce deaths, and that basically they waste time and money that could be spent on sicker patients.The other side disagreed, saying the exams help build a doctor-patient relationship and provide the opportunity for doctors to run some basic but important screening tests.The point of an annual exam is to make sure you're healthy.Not exactly. An annual exam does give a quick snapshot of your health, but its aim is to focus on commonplace prevention and screening and to help you establish a doctor-patient relationship in case of an illness. Even the physicians who authored the editorial against an annual exam agree that a periodic checkup is important for establishing that relationship and that primary care doctors need to monitor their patients' attention to preventive care.For example, during an annual exam a doctor should do things like discuss a patient's family medical history for increased risks of heart attack, hypertension, diabetes or cancer; listen to the heart and abdomen; measure blood pressure; and talk about the need for various screening tests like a colonoscopy at age 50 or a Pap test for women, as well as needed immunizations - all subjects that wouldn't come up during a regular doctor visit for a specific problem.I feel fine. I don't need an annual physical.Maybe you don't need an exam every year, but "it's important to maintain periodic contact with your physician, especially after age 50," said Marvin Lipman, M.D., chief medical adviser for Consumer Reports.Besides, you may not even know you're having symptoms. Some serious conditions don't have obvious symptoms, especially in the early, more easily treatable stages - for example, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, colon cancer and cervical cancer. A routine checkup by your doctor can include these basic screenings. Doctors can also make sure you've gotten immunizations important for older adults, including shingles, pneumonia and flu shots.Medicare will cover the cost of an annual physical.Not quite. Medicare covers two types of physical exams: a "Welcome to Medicare" exam when you first sign up, and what is called a yearly wellness visit. You have to ask the doctor's office specifically for the free Medicare wellness visit so that it gets coded correctly on the invoice. Don't just ask for a physical. If you prefer to have a physical, you'll have to pay the doctor's charge yourself unless you have a Medicare Advantage Plan or secondary insurance (such as from a former employer) that covers it. But be aware that Medicare supplemental insurance, known as Medigap, does not cover this cost.For the Medicare wellness visit, the doctor measures your height, weight, body mass and blood pressure and listens to your heart. You don't even have to remove your clothes. The rest of the visit involves a discussion of the patient's medical and family history, any physical and mental impairments, and risk factors for potential diseases such as diabetes and depression. The doctor may refer the patient for other tests and screenings.If an exam is free, there's no downside.Some think there is. For the patient, there's the time and travel to see the doctor, as well as possible "false positive" results from lab tests that could suggest a problem where there isn't one and cause you worry and additional testing, say Harvard physician Ateev Mehrotra and Allan Prochazka of the University of Colorado, authors of the anti-annual exam editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. They also estimate that annual exams cost the health care system $10 billion a year and take up doctors' time. "Approximately 10 percent of all visits with primary care physicians are for annual physicals, which might be crowding out visits for more urgent health issues," they wrote.On the other hand, regular free checkups could help more people get recommended preventive services, said Himmelstein in his editorial, and motivate more high-risk and low-income groups to see their doctor.So who should have an annual physical?Recommendations vary, but if you're healthy - meaning you don't have a chronic condition and are not taking prescription medicines - the best solution might be to ask your doctor how often he or she wants to see you. And if you don't have a regular primary care provider, a get-acquainted physical exam would be good for establishing a baseline doctor-patient relationship in case you do get sick.Otherwise, age and being at risk for certain diseases because of a family history could make an annual exam worthwhile. And if you're taking medication for a chronic condition, even if that condition is under control, regular checkups may be warranted.Best advice: Ask your doctor.
