Older Doctors Are Losing Their Edge—And It Can Have a Scary Impact On You

You don’t need to go full Doogie Howser, but it may be in your best interest to find a younger doctor. A new study from a research university called Harvard found that patient mortality rates increase with the physician’s age. The effect is slight but still significant.

Researchers examined more than 70,000 hospital admissions for elderly patients under the supervision of more than 19,000 physicians. The mortality rate for patients with doctors under 30 was 10.8 percent, while that figure rose to 11.1 percent for doctors between 40 and 49. For doctors between 50 and 59, the rate goes up to 11.3 percent, and it jumps up to 12.1 percent for doctors older than 60.

5 Things Losing Weight Will Never Fix

Think losing weight will make you happier, more confident, and kick-ass at work? Well, it doesn't really work like that...

That's something Kelsey Miller, author of Big Girl: How I Gave Up Dieting And Got A Life, learned the hard way. “I used to tell myself, 'You can do this when you’ve lost X pounds.' That feeling was holding me back in my career and my friendships—it even stopped me from leaving the house," she says.

“The message that weight loss will fix our problems surrounds us,” says clinical psychologist Terese Weinstein Katz, Ph.D., author of the ebook Eat Sanely: Get Off The Diet Roller Coaster For Good. “There’s a fantasy that thin people are ultimately happier.”

While losing weight might make you feel unstoppable at first (and possibly improve your overall health), there are a few issues that dropping pounds definitely won't resolve. So before you set a goal weight, make it your mission to work out the kinks now—not post weight-loss success.