Reasons Why Physicians Can’t Fight Time

For a lot of us, the idea of an early retirement isn’t just escaping the grind. It’s to stop working at a period where we are still able to ‘enjoy’ everything life has to offer.

Things like fitness and traveling goals can only be worked towards if you’re not disabled enough to do so. After all, you can’t visit gorgeous remote beaches if you don’t have the energy to hike or walk towards them. Most people know and understand this fact. But not all of us remember it.

You can’t bet against biology, but you’d be surprised at how many doctors undervalue this idea.

As physicians, we tend to be the worst at taking a leaf out of our own books when it comes to health. We go hard and fast in the years we should be conserving our energy, and then retirement catches up to us. Today, let’s discuss that grind mindset and why time waits for no one. We’re talking:

• The Complexity Of Aging Amongst Physicians
• Burnout And Other Stressors Impeding Physician Health
• Sorting Physician Well-Being Before It’s Too Late

Accelerated Aging And How It Impacts Us

Because biological age isn’t the same as chronological age, we don’t consider the ramifications of just how aging affects us until it’s too late.

One moment, we think we can continue the same rigorous schedule we’ve set for ourselves; the next, a mobility issue pops up that can even hinder our practice. We see our bodies break down suddenly, but the reality is that’s simply how humans age.

Physicians and pharmacists, Register with Incrowd for the opportunity to earn easy money with quick "microsurveys" tailored to your specialty.

Research shows that the average human ages in bursts. Two major biomolecular shifts occur in our bodies when we hit our 40s and our 60s, respectively. These shifts affect our molecules and microbiome simultaneously, leading to dramatic changes in the way our bodies continue to function. These changes can include anything from cardiovascular issues to the heightened risk of age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

And while some scientists believed the mid-40s burst changes might’ve just been a result of perimenopause for women, classification by sex proved men were undergoing it as well.

However, that’s not all. Studies have proven the case for accelerated aging, a phenomenon that is occurring increasingly among young adults and is characterized by the following markers:

• Increased physical morbidity and mortality
• Cognitive decline
• Higher levels of aging biomarkers

Accelerated aging is caused by a combination of risk factors, both lifestyle and environment-based. However, not only does this mean that we are reaching those age bursts quicker, but also that we are constantly at risk for more severe complications such as early-onset cancer.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a physician or not because these heightened aging risks are coming for us all. However, their effect on physicians impacts the bigger picture.

More Than Burnout: The Case Of Physical Distress

We’ve talked about burnout among physicians numerous times before. It is the cause of many issues plaguing the American healthcare system right now, including a physician shortage, and it’s costly. Physician burnout costs America around $4.6 billion annually.

The problem is widespread, with 81% of doctors agreeing they are overworked. 86% of them are also worried about how the U.S. will cater to the health needs of a large aging population, which includes some of them. By 2034, the U.S. will face a shortfall of anywhere from 37,000 to 124,000 physicians nationwide, most of them simply aging into retirement.

This strain on the healthcare system reflects on the healthcare providers in it, who will be facing the brunt of it. A growing aging population requires more care, and we are ill-equipped to deliver it. And so, the doctors present in the system are overworked to the point of burnout.

But labeling this as burnout feels like downplaying the issue at hand.

Physicians set high standards for themselves. Since we start our careers later than others, we have high expectations of ourselves. This is usually the start of our unhealthy perfectionism as well, with expectations of catering to every case with the same amount of energy and dedication and an unrealistic standard for success that can quickly become exhausting.

It’s why perfectionism is usually a precursor for burnout. You might even call it a co-morbidity, where it combines with job stress and other mental health issues to negatively impact a physician’s well-being. This leads to three main symptoms manifesting:

• Exhaustion: Doctors are low in energy, both physical and mental, no matter how much rest they get.
• Detachment: Also known as ‘compassion fatigue,’ this is when physicians are depersonalized to the point of cynicism and cannot be emotionally available to patients.
• Decreasing Productivity: Physicians feel like their work no longer matters. They start to doubt their capabilities as doctors and lose their drive to help the patients who come to their practices.

Oftentimes, this leads to doctors quitting medicine. In worse cases, it leads to physician suicide. And so the term ‘physician distress’ is more applicable here.

The thing is, it is older physicians, or physicians nearing the end of their careers, who take a step towards physician suicide. Age itself is a risk factor in physician distress as well. It’s why most physicians are reconsidering retirement as a whole, choosing to practice past the mandated age.

But that has its own set of issues, with older physicians simply not having the same skillset they had 30 to 40 years ago. Motor skills in surgeons tend to slow down, as do cognitive decision-making skills among general doctors, which can lead to medical errors. This is an issue when medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S.

Doctors can’t stay young forever, and the pressure is leading them to age quicker. Where do we go from here?

Getting A Headstart On Physician Well-Being

First things first: You can’t outwit aging. As doctors, we know this best. Age catches up to the healthiest individual; that is a fact of life.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t curb some of the factors that speed up our aging. Cutting physician distress and burnout is the biggest way to ensure physician health improves.

For example, training younger doctors to recognize the balance between perfectionism and performance would help them better process working in a high-stress environment. Making those impossibly high standards an occupational hazard would be beneficial in the long run.

We should also emphasize personal health goals. Around 50% of doctors have admitted to having unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as a bad diet and poor workout schedules. And when 44% of physicians are overweight, you know there is an issue to sort through here.

Putting our health first would help us stay more active in the field and less susceptible to health risks such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes.

But the biggest change we must make regarding aging is our mindset. I know the trend is to work even past retirement, but it is perfectly okay (and even recommended!) to retire when we need to.

In the next decade, two out of five active physicians in the U.S. will be over 65. During that time, they will have experienced stressors like the COVID-19 pandemic, the physician shortage, an unpredictable economic climate, and more. The physician’s distress from those events is something we can’t and shouldn’t downplay.

Life expectancy has increased. But that doesn’t make us immortal. Instead of flailing to practice well into our old age to prove some arbitrary standard of perfectionism right, we can take it slow.

Physicians deserve to age with grace and integrity instead of working themselves to the bone under the misguided notion that they are immune to life. We can’t win against time, and that is okay.