September Healthcare Report
Read The Daily Sun September healthcare report to see how TVH is working with community partners to keep our hometown healthy.
9-2-2025
9-9-2025
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9-16-2025
9/23/2025
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The Truth About Grief: Q & A with Psychologist Brooke Leever
Grief flows from many heartaches: the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the end of a friendship or onset of a health setback. National Grief Awareness Day, observed annually on August 30th, provides a crucial opportunity to recognize the prevalence and impact of grief. In this conversation with Brooke Leever, psychologist with The Villages Health, we explore the multifaceted nature of grief and find practical ways to support ourselves and others as we journey through difficult experiences.
Q.
What are some common ways grief might manifest in our lives?
A.
Grief is a universal and deeply personal experience, and there are many ways it can manifest in us. Grief can appear as heightened stress responses, disturbances in sleep or appetite, irritability, tendencies to isolate, feeling more tearful, or even more easily angered.
Q.
What are some common misconceptions about grief you’ve encountered?
A.
The belief that grief happens on a timetable. Early grief (the phase that occurs after a loss) can be the first 1 or 2 years (at least a full cycle of seasons). Time does not necessarily heal; healing depends on how we use our time and what we allow for supporting our grief process.
Q.
How do we encourage someone who is grieving? Are the phrases, “Be strong” or “You’ll get over this,” appropriate?
A.
Too often we place the expectation on ourselves and others to “get over it” or “move on” — if only we had a magic wand to do so. This expectation can further complicate grief and wellbeing. It is reasonable to err of the side of assuming the person in grief has heard many variations of those messages. A more compassionate approach is to allow space for a person to feel heard, no matter what they are feeling, and to offer support.
Q.
How can we recognize grief in others and provide support without overstepping?
A.
Often many well-meaning people who want to help will say, let me know if you need anything. Trouble with this is that the person may not know what they need, and what they need may change from one time to the next. People tend to offer more support immediately following a death or tragic event, and that consideration tends to dwindle over time. It is not uncommon for individuals who are grieving to have need for support and a kind ear months after a loss. Having compassionate openness toward a person goes a long way.
Find additional resources here, or talk with your primary care provider about how behavioral health services may benefit you.
Brooke Leever, Ph.D., is Behavioral Health Tandem Care Clinician Credentialed.
August Healthcare Report
Read The Daily Sun August healthcare report to see how TVH is working with community partners to keep our hometown healthy.
8/5/2025
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8/12/2025
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8/19/2025
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8/26/2025
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A Call for Action
Although we don’t think of them often, we rely on our lungs for every inhale and exhale. But these essential organs are not just vital to breathing; they also enable other body systems to function. Your lungs support physical activity, speech, cognition, laughter, and energy production. They help your immune system by filtering out harmful substances and removing carbon dioxide. When lung health is compromised, it impacts your lifestyle and wellbeing.
World Lung Cancer Day, observed annually on August 1st, brings awareness of the disease that affects individuals worldwide. It’s a call to educate ourselves and take action to protect and preserve our respiratory system.
Give Your Lungs Some Love
The leading risk factor for lung cancer is smoking, which accounts for 80 % of lung cancer deaths. Quitting smoking and avoiding second-hand smoke are big moves you can make to support lung health. Of course, the more important step is avoiding damage to your lungs in the first place by not smoking, and that includes vaping. With either habit, you inhale toxic agents directly into the lung tissue, which damages the respiratory system and increases cancer risk over time. Diseases like chronic bronchitis and emphysema are also more common among smokers, and when these have advanced enough, they become irreversible.
Healthy Habits
As for good habits, we can add exercise to our repertoire for respiratory health. Exercise can increase your lung capacity and strengthen the muscles that help you breathe. In addition, vaccinations for flu, pneumonia, RSV, COVID-19, and the common cold can protect against infectious lung diseases.
Are You Eligible for Lung Cancer Screening?
According to the American Cancer Society, around 226,650 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year (2025). The disease kills three times as many men as prostate cancer and three times as many women as breast cancer. However, mortality rates are declining due to advanced lung imaging and early detection and treatment. Catching the disease early requires ongoing screening for people who meet the criteria for imaging. People who smoke actively or have smoked within the past several years are likely eligible candidates for low-resolution chest cat scans, the primary modality used in screening for lung cancer. If you fall into this category, be sure you ask your doctor about your eligibility for screening.
Healthy lungs make a great game of pickle ball possible, but they also make everyday life easier. So, take good care of your them—you’ll need them for the long haul!
Robert Reilly, MD, FACP is Medical Director of Clinical Operations for The Villages Health
July Healthcare Report
Read The Daily Sun July healthcare report to see how TVH is working with community partners to keep our hometown healthy.
7/1/2025
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7/8/2025
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7/15/2025
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7/22/2025
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7/28/2025
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Don and Sue Share How The Villages Health Complements Their Lifestyle
Comfort is a characteristic of quality care. It’s also the word Sue Schreifels used to describe her experience with The Villages Health. A retired health educator, Sue and her husband Don had been living in Minnesota when they began hunting for their retirement home.
“We looked at other places, in Arizona and that kind of thing,” she said. The couple had also vacationed in The Villages several times.
“We heard lots of good things about it,” Don said. While here, they met Villagers and talked about retirement life in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown. “We asked everyone we saw how they liked it here and they said, ‘I wish I’d have moved here sooner.’”
After sampling the community offerings and soaking up the Florida sun, Don and Sue decided to make a permanent move from Minnesota.
“We saw that everyone was here to meet people and have fun, and so were we,” Don said.
As for Sue, the features that sealed the deal were lifestyle, weather, and medical care. Initially, the couple had been seeing another local provider, but they found it difficult to communicate with the office, had trouble getting appointments, and disliked the long wait times.
Where Comfort Meets Care
Now patients of The Villages Health, Sue and Don are thrilled they made the switch.
“Service was a big deal for us, and the coordination of care,” Don said. “It’s very nice to know they’re keeping on top of things for us, and it just feels so much more convenient because everything is in one location. That’s the beauty of it. Having all the records in one place is very important.”
Sue wholeheartedly agrees: “Here, we can get in, people care, and it’s a tremendous comfort to know that you’re not just floundering out there.”
Trading Minnesota snow and ice for sunshine all year long, the Schreifels have found their ideal home, and a healthcare team that feels like family.
Click to see more testimonials from real patients!
What Men Should Know About Prostate Cancer
Aside from skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. As a urologist for The Villages Health, Dr. Michael Daugherty deals with the disease every day.
“It’s one of the main conditions we see,” he said. “In general, urologists are the ones that wind up taking care of prostate cancer, and we also work with oncologists and radiation oncologists.”
While cancer is an ominous word, prostate cancer is a highly treatable type.
“The five-year life expectancy across the board is around 99%,” said Daugherty. “Very few people die from it right away, if ever.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that from 2018 to 2022, 70% of cases were diagnosed at a localized stage, meaning the cancer had not spread outside of the prostate. Finding the cancer early can improve the outcome and affect a patient’s rate of survival. However, since the majority of men diagnosed don’t experience symptoms, the disease can go undetected without regular screenings.
“If a patient comes in and is already symptomatic, then usually it’s further down the road; it’s more advanced,” said Daugherty.
Who’s At Risk for Prostate Cancer?
Prostate cancer can strike at any age, but the risks are greater among older men and those with a family history.
“If you have a brother or father with prostate cancer, it doubles your risk of having it, so family history is important,” Daugherty said. In addition, “If you’re African American, you typically get worse, more aggressive prostate cancer at the beginning. So those two groups of people—African Americans and family history members—are at much higher risk of getting the aggressive form of prostate cancer.”
Prostate Cancer Screening: Tools & Types
“Typically, the way we find prostate cancer is through a blood test called the PSA, (prostate-specific antigen),” Daugherty said. The test is often done by a primary care physician, who measures the amount of a specific protein in the blood that could signal prostate cancer.
“If the PSA is elevated, (the patient) will get a referral to the urologist, and then we do an examination,” Daugherty said. “And if we feel that it’s warranted, we order an MRI of the prostate. If the MRI shows anything suspicious, the next step would be a biopsy.”
Elevated PSA is not always a result of cancer, however. Certain medications, procedures, conditions, or even vigorous activity can raise PSA levels. It’s important to discuss these factors with your health care provider to support a proper diagnosis.
To Screen or Not to Screen: Addressing the Controversy
The American Cancer Society says about 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed in their lifetime, and the average age is about 67. Daugherty recommends men 50 and older get screened annually. However, this advice wasn’t always universally accepted and may still be met with resistance.
“About 10 years ago, (the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force) recommended that men not be screened for prostate cancer, that they stop PSAs,” Daughety said. “The reason was that many men who had an elevated PSA and didn’t have prostate cancer were going through biopsies when they weren’t needed. So the biopsy was the problem, not the PSA test. (The committee) didn’t want people to have unnecessary invasive procedures.”
This fear of overdiagnosis and overtreatment then led to a surge of cancer deaths in the years that followed. A 2014 study published by experts at Hutchinson Cancer Research Center predicted a 13 to 20 percent increase in prostate cancer mortality from 2013 to 2025 due to discontinued screenings. That’s an additional 36,000 to 57,000 deaths among U.S. men.
Prostate Cancer Treatment
Daugherty notes that once a man is diagnosed, doctors use various imaging tools to assess the cancer growth.
“We usually do a staging scan, which is like a PET scan for prostate cancer,” he said. “It shows if there’s any spread in the body, outside of the prostate.”
If the cancer is confined to the prostate, Daugherty says there are three ways it’s typically treated:
- Surveillance, which is to monitor the cancer through PSA tests, an option recommended for men with low-grade, slow-growing cancer. “We do the blood tests every four months, and we’re doing that now more than ever because around half of the guys we treat don’t need anything further,” Daugherty said.
- Surgery, which is an option for men with more aggressive prostate cancer. “We remove the prostate robotically,” he said. “It’s a simple procedure, just five little incisions and then you go home the next morning.”
- Radiation therapy, done by a specialized oncologist. “The radiation is very effective, and it’s probably the most common treatment for men between the ages of 70 and 80,” Daugherty said.
As for future treatments, cancer research has yielded some great developments. “One of the big things in the works is a vaccine,” says Daugherty. Researchers have found that the same genes involved in breast cancer (BRCA1 and BRCA2) also play a role in prostate cancer risk. Men with these gene mutations may benefit from advanced treatments and targeted therapies.
Protecting Against Prostate Cancer: Lifestyle Changes
Overweight men are more likely to develop advanced prostate cancer, and to die from the disease.
“The better shape you’re in, the lower your risk,” Daugherty said. “And diet makes a huge difference too. Most of the prostate cancers in the world come from countries that have a Western diet that is high in fat.” Excessive alcohol consumption, as well as red and processed meats, are also shown to negatively impact cancer risks.
If age or family history aren’t on your side, let positive lifestyle habits put the odds in your favor. Talk to your doctor about additional, individualized steps as well as PSA screenings.
June Healthcare Report
Read The Daily Sun June healthcare report to see how TVH is working with community partners to keep our hometown healthy.
6-3-2025
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6-10-2025
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6-17-2025
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6-24-2025
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Rob & Sarah Leahy Talk About The Villages Health
Sarah Leahy says life is a bowl of cherries, but her husband Rob disagrees.
“It’s a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get,” he said.
When the Boston natives were shopping for new healthcare in Florida, Rob maintained this skepticism.
“When we first came down, I was kind of snickering when I heard about The Villages Health,” he said. “Sarah’s sister was raving about it and I just thought she was (exaggerating).”
It didn’t take long to convince Rob, however.
“It’s everything she said and more. The Villages Health has been truly fantastic so far. Everybody has been great,” he said.
Rob and Sarah were most impressed with the on-site labs, in-house specialty care, and overall ease and accessibility of The Villages Health’s services.
“You can’t beat the convenience,” Rob said. “If you have to go to a specialist back home, you’re fighting Boston traffic and it takes hours and hours out of your day. But here, everything has just been great.”
The couple are patients of the Mulberry Grove Care Center, which they say is just a 10-minute drive from their home. As avid golfers, they appreciate the quick appointments that allow them to spend more time swinging clubs on the course than sitting in waiting rooms at their doctor’s office.
“We’re not saying our Boston physicians were poor. It was just difficult,” Sarah said. She notes that patients were typically double booked so wait times were long and visits were less than relaxed. At The Villages Health, patients are free to chat with their care teams, ask questions and build relationships. Communication is the cornerstone of excellent care.
“I had bloodwork done on a Friday afternoon, and I got a call with the results on Monday morning,” Sarah said. “You feel so special.”
New Adventures Await
Now on their lanai, the couple enjoy wine at the rustic bar Sarah crafted from salvaged wood pallets. A sign reads: May your glass always be half full. From Massachusetts to the Sunshine State, they’ve traversed many paths in their 50-plus years together. They look forward to finding new ones.
“To be able to just get in the golf cart and go to dinner—it’s everything I had hoped for and more,” Rob said. “And top it off with The Villages Health is even better.”
Click to see more testimonials from real patients!
There’s A Lot to Know Before Jumping on the GLP-1 Bandwagon
In the world of weight loss and diet trends, GLP-1s are all the buzz. While the majority are only FDA approved for Type 2 diabetes, they’ve become the go-to drug for many frustrated calorie-counters and individuals battling the bulge. But are they safe and worth the high cost and potential risks? That depends…
There are lots of these drugs in the pipeline, and those available include tirzepatide and semaglutide. According to a 2024 poll, about 1 in 8 American adults have used them. As demand increases, so do the number of pop-up clinics and online suppliers peddling their compounded versions. But are they safe and worth the high cost and potential risks? That depends…
A lot of evidence suggests GLP-1s are good medications, but outside of the diabetic realm, there’s a big black box unknown. As for their long-term safety, we simply don’t have enough data to know the effects of using them for weight loss alone.
The ABCs of GLP-1s
GLP-1s work by accelerating and enhancing the production of incretin, a hormone your body releases naturally. They help insulin work more effectively, increase metabolic activity, and activate areas in the brain that signal fullness. We call this early satiety. In some cases, I’ve seen patients achieve significant weight loss, but some people tolerate them better than others. Then there are those who lose weight and gain it all back once they come off the drug. However, the hope is that those who use the medicine appropriately will have the opportunity to kickstart some healthy habits. Because obesity is a chronic condition, short-term fixes aren’t long-term solutions. Therefore, to enjoy meaningful, sustained changes, patients must change their behavior.
Who Are Good Candidates for These Drugs?
If weight is a major morbidity, and it affects a person’s quality of life, movement, sleep, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, disease risks, and more, GLP-1s might be a good fit. But for patients whose body mass index puts them just overweight, these drugs probably aren’t the right approach.
Cost Can Be a Significant Barrier
For some patients, compounded GLP-1s are the only accessible option, as the cost of the brand name, doctor prescribed drugs can exceed $1,000 per month. In contrast, compounded versions are a fraction of the price, which is often the appeal for patients. Some compounding pharmacies dispense their drugs safely, but others are unlicensed, selling substandard products and offering little to no patient support—and that’s where the danger lies.
Clinical oversight is crucial when using GLP-1s, and some patients should absolutely avoid these drugs. For example, if they have a condition called multiple endocrine neoplasia, a family history of thyroid cancer, pancreatic problems, or severe gastrointestinal conditions. If a pharmacy does not properly vet their patients, they could be putting them at risk. I suggest patients first consult their health care providers before pursuing these medications. If the patient is a good candidate, their doctor can guide them to a reputable pharmacy that is monitored by a licensed practitioner.
When GLP-1 treatment begins, it can take some time to find a patient’s sweet spot, which is the dosage that yields the benefits with minimal side effects. It takes time for the body to adjust, so the dosages should escalate slowly, and they may vary from patient to patient. A health care professional should be managing this process, and monitoring the patient’s side effects, which often include gastrointestinal issues, such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and changes in bowel habits. When a patient is ready to discontinue the drug, clinical oversight may also help ensure a smooth transition and reduce the risk of weight regain.
For certain patients seeking weight loss support, GLP-1s may be the way forward. As for shortcuts and quick fixes, false promises are all that exist.
Dr Reilly is the Medical Director for Risk-Based Care at The Villages Health’s Creekside Care Center.
A version of this article appeared in the Daily Sun.