[lucas_membrane]

If you live in the USA, pick a good health insurance plan. Don't trade Medicare for a managed care plan if you can avoid it.

Find a good MD to be your primary care provider.

If you lose confidence in your MD, find another one. Until that happens, don't try to be smarter than your doctors (you will probably have several before too long), and do what your doctors say. Let all your doctors know that you trust them, follow their advice, and respect and rely on them.

Find a good dentist and give them the same treatment that you give your MD.

Do balancing exercises -- broken bones reduce your mobility and vitality; they are often the cause of a downward spiral in health. Don't shun using a cane, walking stick, or walker when there is any chance you might fall, but scrupulously avoid riding around on one of those damned electric carts if you are lucky enough to be able to walk, however slowly.

Have friends and enjoy life.

Exercise as much as you can; eat as little health-damaging food as you can; get 8 hours good sleep every night if you can.

[giardini]

says >"Don't trade Medicare for a managed care plan if you can avoid it."<

Most of my older friends have Medicare "advantage" plans which I assume are what you're speaking of by "managed care plan". They seem to prefer those plans to plain Medicare.

Why do you suggest Medicare instead of a managed care plan?

[lucas_membrane]

I'm not an insider to the medical care industry, but I have plenty of friends and family who have worked there, and that is what I've heard from them over many years. Certainly, there is a lot of variation in quality within every segment of that industry. Perhaps the idea I have picked up is that managed care implies managed costs which implies fewer options and opportunities to obtain better than common-denominator results. Just the process of maintaining good relationships over many years with good physicians, together with knowing that they are not operating under onerous productivity constraints, and that they care about me and will act accordingly, has helped me maintain a positive attitude, a physically active lifestyle, and willingness to persist in doing my part of the process of staying alive.