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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Like Dr. Phil McGraw, who turned courtroom consulting with Oprah Winfrey into a small empire, Dr. David may become a household name.
Most Americans have never heard of Dr. David Lipschitz, but experts on aging predict it won't be long before his celebrity spreads beyond Little Rock, Ark., where he's chairman of the University of Arkansas medical school's geriatrics department.
He's an author, columnist, public speaker and TV personality who uses wit to tell audiences that old age has gotten a bad rap. He's also an accomplished geriatrician who dispenses generous doses of personal warmth and unconventional medical advice to patients.
"Dr. Lipschitz is to aging what Dr. Benjamin Spock was to child-rearing," says Dr. Robert Butler, the first director of the National Institute on Aging and now head of the New York-based International Longevity Center.
Dr. Spock's book on parenting, published at the beginning of the baby boom after World War II, rewrote the rules for parents of newborns and toddlers.
As those 77 million boomers approach their golden years, Dr. Lipschitz is turning the conventional wisdom about growing old on its head.
Dr. Joseph Ouslander, director of the Emory University Center for Health in Aging in Atlanta, says Dr. Lipschitz is on a path to becoming "one of the world's renowned geriatricians" with "his unique blend of science and down-to-earth, practical advice about getting older."
Dr. Lipschitz says many of society's assumptions about aging are "just plain wrong."
"If you assume your memory will take a powder, you won't bother doing any of the things that can help keep it sharp," he explains. "If you're convinced your sexual performance is on a downward slope, you'll unnecessarily give up one of life's most fulfilling experiences."
Dr. Lipschitz says doctors pass along misinformation they pick up in medical school. "I've come to understand how poorly patients in their 50s, 60s and beyond are served by their doctors," he says.
His approach to lifelong health can be summed up in a few simple maxims:
-Don't become obsessed with dieting.
-Exercise - which means more than walking.
-Don't think a pill will always cure you.
-Feel good about yourself.
-Don't give in to the "age-related" disabilities that are actually nothing of the kind - stay engaged.
It's a message that's seductive to boomers, who don't intend to spend their retirements in rocking chairs.
The 61-year-old geriatrician, born in South Africa, says the best years are ahead for people who maintain a healthy lifestyle.
"Every day, someone comes into my office and shows me and my staff what old age is capable of," he says, such as training for a marathon at 64 or taking up motorcycling in the 80s.
"Once you see a grandmother on a Harley, you never again think about getting old in the same way," he says.
Dr. David, as his patients call him, delivers his message with the fervor of someone on a mission.
His first book, ``Breaking the Rules of Aging,'' was a regional best-seller, and he's at work on a second. He writes a Sunday column for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
He created a series of programs, ``Aging Successfully with Dr. David,'' for Arkansas Educational Television that appeared on public stations in 49 states.
He's a weekly guest on a Little Rock morning TV show and will soon start his own statewide radio program. And he's launching a Web site, www.drdavidhealth.com.
"I'm the quintessential entrepreneur," Dr. Lipschitz says. "And my product is good health."
Herb Sanderson, director of the Arkansas Division of Aging and Adult Services, says Dr. Lipschitz's message is catching on.
"It's well-suited for our state, which has become a popular destination for retirees," he says.
And as Arkansas goes, so goes the nation. Up to 20 percent of the residents in some northwest Arkansas communities are over 65, which is what demographers expect America will look like in 25 years.
"We're a snapshot of the future," Sanderson says.
Anyone who follows Dr. Lipschitz on his rounds sees that his exams are different. He begins with a hug, and his female patients get a peck on the cheek and the friendly greeting, "You look gorgeous today!"
First-time visits last as long as an hour, and follow-up exams take no less than a half-hour.
"I love all my patients," he says. "If I didn't, I wouldn't belong in medicine.
"Too many doctors won't make time to listen to what their patients have to say - they just order tests and more tests."
Dr. Lipschitz tells one woman to serve her 84-year-old husband - who's been losing weight - bacon and eggs for breakfast, ice cream for dessert at lunch and fried chicken for dinner.
"Too many people are overwrought about being overweight," he explains. "For older people, it's better to be pleasantly plump. Studies show you'll live longer with a few extra pounds."
Dr. Lipschitz tells a new patient, a 67-year-old man, that he's on too many medications, and he drops a couple.
"Americans are pickled in medications," he says. "Doctors spend a hefty percentage of their time treating symptoms caused not by diseases but by the drugs handed out with such abandon."
Dr. Lipschitz sets himself apart in other ways. He makes house calls, and he gives his patients his cellphone number and urges them to call.
The phone in his pocket rings all day.
Ruby Smith, 78, of Little Rock called from Maine when a respiratory disorder threatened to cut her vacation short. "He answered right away and told me exactly what to do," she says. "He was a godsend."
The geriatrics program Dr. Lipschitz has built at the University of Arkansas has captured the interest of experts nationwide. They believe that its emphasis on preventive medicine and its treatment of chronic conditions make it a model for an aging America.
U.S. News & World Report named the program to its 10-best list in 2004, along with geriatrics programs at Duke, Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities.
Dr. Jeanne Wei left a post at Harvard Medical School to join Dr. Lipschitz's faculty two years ago because she was convinced that Arkansas has the right ideas.
She cites the tens of millions of dollars that foundations and entrepreneurs have given to the Little Rock medical school's Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging and the tens of millions that the National Institutes of Health has awarded it for research.
"There's a unique sense of responsibility for older people here," she says.
University of Arkansas medical students must spend time in the geriatrics clinic. Only a handful of schools in this country have such a requirement.
Physicians trained in geriatrics may save society money over the long term, Dr. Lipschitz says.
"We can't afford to keep going the way we've been. So much of our health care system is set up to provide acute care after someone has fallen seriously ill," he says.
"We have to do a far better job of keeping people healthy and dealing with chronic conditions."
Dr. Lipschitz isn't naive enough to think the medical profession will reform itself. He believes it will take a grass-roots movement by patients who want something better and by policy-makers worried about the rising costs.
"The people will have to demand it," he says.
So the good-natured geriatrician from Little Rock keeps writing and speaking - and telling his patients how gorgeous they look.
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DR. DAVID'S ADVICE
Love yourself. Self-esteem is a strong predictor of good health and a long life.
Find the bright side, always. Have a positive attitude, no matter how bad things get.
Retirement isn't an end to anything. Get busy and stay busy.
Cultivate your creative side. Write, paint, restore old cars. Do what you enjoy.
Stay close to your family. Mentor your children and grandchildren.
Get in touch with your spiritual side. Do whatever it takes to stay calm and peaceful.
SOURCE: Breaking the Rules of Aging by Dr. David Lipschitz
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(c) 2005, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
