Stephen L. Kopecky - Live Younger Longer

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Published by Mayo Clinic Press

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ISBN 978-1-893005-67-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021937321

To my wonderful wife of the past 35 years, Linda.

You are the oxygen that I breathe.

On my 40th birthday, having just gone through extensive cancer treatment, my oncologist told me that the CT scan looking for residual cancer showed a lump in my abdomen requiring further surgery. That was the second cancer in my life and, unlike the first cancer which occurred when I was in medical school and for which I underwent surgery and radiation therapy, this cancer had been treated with surgery and months of chemotherapy.

Fighting this cancer had been the focus of my existence. I had come to appreciate the proverb, A healthy person has a thousand wishes, a sick person only one. At that point I decided that if I was fortunate enough to recover and survive, I needed to do all I could to make sure I never had cancer again. This led me to try to learn things I could do to prevent future cancer and major illness.

At the time I was an invasive cardiologist treating heart attacks and doing coronary angioplasties, which meant that my daily work was on the treating side, not the prevention side, of medicine. Learning how to prevent disease was somewhat new to me. What I learned surprised me. I found out that although I had two prior cancers, heart disease was the most likely future cause of me passing from this earth. I also discovered that six key lifestyle habits lead to heart disease and are also the major causes of other plagues in our current world: cancer, Alzheimers disease, diabetes and likely many more.

Finally, I had to come to grips with a subject most 40-year-olds dont want to face, which was my eventual and inevitable death. Looking into this further, I found that there are basically four patterns of health, or lack thereof, toward the end of life: sudden death within an hour, rapid death over a few months, long-term frailty before death and organ failure. The latter two usually mean years, if not decades, of illness.

So, six daily habits lead to multiple chronic diseases that result in four patterns of illness during a lifetime. Getting back to the proverb, I realized that if I was fortunate enough to fully recover from this second cancer, I wanted to have the best health that I could, for as long as I could, for the rest of my life. In other words, I wanted to live younger longer. This ultimately led me to the prevention side of medicine, which is what I do now every day. I wrote this book to help others. It summarizes what I have learned about what we can all do to Live Younger Longer.

Stephen Kopecky, M.D.

I am indebted to Mayo Clinic for allowing me to write this book and for their deep support throughout the process. I also want to extend my sincere gratitude to the many people who helped this book become a reality:

To the Mayo Clinic Press team including Dan Harke, Karen Wallevand, Amanda Knapp, Jennifer Koski, Heather LaBruna, Allison Vandenberg-Daves, Laura Waxman and Jodi Wentz for their talented help. To Rachel Haring Bartony, my editor, who spent countless hours teaching me the essentials of writing and organizing a book, and for her many excellent ideas and insights.

To my colleagues doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, dietitians and exercise physiologists who work in the Cardiovascular Health Clinic of Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. for continuing to teach me about the best way to prevent disease.

To Dr. Bruce Johnson, Dr. Ray Squires and Dr. Tom Allison for educating me from their vast wisdom about the exercise physiology of the human body.

To Dr. Amit Sood and Dr. Edward Creagan, two past colleagues from Mayo Clinic who have given me valuable advice on the mindset necessary to write a book and on how to communicate with patients and readers.

To my mentors, Dr. Robert Frye, Dr. Gerald Gau and Dr. George Gura, all wonderful humanitarians who showed me how to communicate with patients.

To Tom Root and Dr. Ming-Kai Chin of The Foundation for Global Community Health for showing me that reaching the worlds children is the best way to prevent future disease.

To my father, Dr. Leon Kopecky, and my mother, Dr. Ina Moodie Calhoun Kopecky, from whom I learned that physicians are required to not only cure an illness, but also heal a patient.

To my wife, Linda, whos always given me unconditional love and support, and my children and children-in-law, Emily and Tim Miller and Dr. Katy Kopecky and Dr. Ben Kopecky, who have helped me tremendously with this book by giving me insights from the millennial generation about whats important in life.

Finally, to all my patients who I have been fortunate enough to know they have taught me so much about their illnesses and the causes through their honest discussions.