Advice from Dr. Milatovic to me as How to pass “FLEX” and “ECFMG”:

1. You have to study 10-12 hours every day.
2. Every morning, when your mind is fresh, study the hardest materials
3. Try to study 2 hours without a break, in order to train yourself for the sessions of the actual exam, that's the only way to pass.
4. Study the best you can, do your best until the exam, that's the only way to pass.
5. Good luck, don't give up and keep going full steam ahead.
6. Practice discipline and patience. Develop concentration powers.
   

Everyday Exercise:

• Deep and regular breathing.
• Don't avoid physical exercise.
• Regular meals and correct nutrition.
• Sleep enough.
• Correct organization of your time.
• Repetition of thoughts which will elevate your spirit.
• Read out loud.
• Don't leave your work for tomorrow, do it today.
• The most important highlights learn by heart.

Running (not aimlessly) into the second 50 years of my life

Yes, on March 2, 2003, I ran my tenth Los Angeles marathon. I look forward to enjoying again that special first Sunday in March of 2004 and, God willingly, the year after year too. The Los Angeles marathon is like my family now, and for the last ten years too.

Did you know that just by belonging to any kind of a group or an organization, your overall health and longevity is much better and much improved than if you do not belong to any group?! So those 20,000 runners are my think-alike friends, the most beautiful human beings I know. We come in all different shapes, ages and colors, and all of us have that determination to cross the finish line and complete 26.2 miles.

Why do we do that?

In my particular case, I just had to do that after my father had his second heart attack. Actually, after my dad had his first heart attack, I was not aware that my own health was in danger. If I did not change my lifestyle and waste it by living to eat, rather than eating to live, my health would drastically deteriorate. But after my dad had the second heart attack, I had like a spiritual renewal and I was like a born-again person. I remember that Thursday, ten years ago, when I heard the bad news that my dad had his second heart attack. I was so deeply distressed and deeply got aware of the truth that could set me free. That truth was that if I do not change my lifestyle, I will get a heart attack myself and that will happen at a much younger age than my dad had.

So that day I ate only soup for lunch. I remember a weird thought going through my mind. That afternoon I had to see many sick patients and I got concerned about if I would have enough energy to see all of those patients. In reality I was full of energy, and I easily saw all of those patients, and as a benefit did not have that sleepiness which we usually have around 3:00 to 4:00 pm after a big lunch.

I subconsciously followed the law:

”In order to get well, I had to be well first spiritually, then mentally, then physically.”

I got well spiritually, I started eating sensibly, healthy, exercising more, and preparing for my first Los Angeles marathon in March of the year 1994.

When I stepped on the starting line the very first time, I was surrounded with thousands of real athletes and I really got scared. Most of them were younger than me, in better physical conditioning, and all of that overwhelmed me that I would get injured or even maybe die during that marathon. I was even more scared when I thought about the reasons why I had to put on my bib the contact person in case of an emergency, and I did put my wife's name and our phone number. Even more scary was putting the name of my doctor in case of an emergency, and I put Dr. Don Lee and Glendale Memorial Hospital.

But when I saw Mohammad Ali and Jackie Joyner-Kirsy cheering us on, and when a river of 20,000 runners started moving forward with incredible energy and enthusiasm, all of my fears were instantly gone. I even did not notice how fast we reached the five-mile mark. The mile-18 was very hard, but I did finish two-thirds of the whole marathon already, and I was still in one piece. I was scanning and carefully monitoring mentally my body and it was telling me that I was doing okay. Taking many difficult medical examinations in the past, I had that point of reference that I'm the kind of person who completes my cycles of activities, and that I'm one who doesn't fail and give up without a big reason. Actually, I put that all in God's hands and I was reciting the Lord's Prayer which gave me that new strength and energy.

Passing the finish line is always a very special experience and can be only vaguely compared with getting my medical diploma or with a childbirth experience. That was a beautiful sweet kind of pain that I felt all over my body. Honestly, that is a weird experience that the whole body hurts, all muscles and bones. In my case, my ribs and even those muscles between the ribs and muscles around the ears were hurting me too. At the same time I was incredibly happy, ecstatic and in a state of bliss. I loved everybody fully and genuinely. I even loved my enemies in a pure and sincere way, just the way our Christ is teaching us to do.

Our bodies are temples of the living God and should be beautiful. Isn't that true? Every time when I cross that finish line, it is an experience for me that I am very close with God and I wish that those moments would last forever. That's why I'm hurrying to enroll again for my eleventh Los Angeles marathon. My sincere wish, my dear reader, is to run a whole marathon with you, to share that pure joy and to make it a double joy because this will be a double joy for you, a double joy for me and double joy for all of us.

In a way, it should be our patriotic duty to be healthy, to be fit, to be physically, mentally, emotionally fit, and in a good conditioning so we would never be a burden to our family, to our community and to our society.

Our Secretary of Health, Mr. Thompson, recommends to every overweight American to lose ten pounds as a patriotic duty. What is a better way than to start exercising for your first Los Angeles marathon, my dear reader.

Let us start a Glendale Memorial Hospital marathon training program and promote healthy living. Believe me, it is never too late to start. Many of you are already fit to complete a marathon. Streets are closed for ten hours and it is very special to walk or run through Beverly Hills or downtown Los Angeles when thousands of volunteers are cheering you on, and big bands are playing, and people are dancing just for you; or maybe, you don't complete the whole marathon now, but you complete a half of the marathon or 5K. Everybody can complete 5K; that is on average distance that ladies make regularly while shopping!

It is such a special feeling to carry that medal around the neck, believe me. I personally celebrate the whole next week after the marathon, and I show my medal to everyone.
Even though I am now fifty years old, I still feel that I belong to a group of younger marathon runners, and I feel that I have not lived yet even half of my life. Actually to be more accurate, I have only lived about one-third of my life in my opinion.

So there is nothing special with being fifty years young or old. Important is to even more refine the ways how e live, to keep doing the right things and to live by faith, or religious people would say: “Let go and let God.” Mostly as a result of my running those ten Los Angeles marathons, I changed my lifestyle and the way of my thinking completely. I lost about twenty pounds. I do not drink coffee. I do not smoke. I am a much better father, husband and physician now, and my life is unfolding just as it should.

Would you like me to give you now my spiritual advice?! Here it is! Live your life by faith, have more faith, hope and love as our apostle Paul says in Corinthians 13. Love is the most important one. Love your God and your neighbor as Jesus teaches us that those are tow of the most important commandments. Love your own body, which is a temple of the living God and should be beautiful, young and healthy. Honor your father and mother and respect and love your children. It is an awesome responsibility and honor raising your own children or grandchildren, or in any way positively influencing any other children or any other human beings. How about your own spouse? There is a big crisis of the American marriage as an institution nowadays. Don't you agree with me? But, people did not invent anything better yet than a woman and a man to live together for the better or for worse, for the sick for the health, for the rich and for the poor, until death sets us apart.

That's how I see things should be, my dear readers. There is a big red heart on the top of the Glendale Memorial Hospital building. That big heart can be seen from very far away during the night. There is something special happening in that one small community hospital, but don't forget this is one of the hundred best hospitals in the nation. We already have many employees, nurses and doctors, who completed at least one marathon and contributed to the collective health of our community.

The time has come to do it on a much bigger scale. Let us start practicing now for the next year's Los Angeles marathon and show our patients our personal example of how we can improve our health and our general conditioning. After we complete that, we can go together to conquer Mt. Whitney with me, the highest point in the continental USA. After that, it will be told to ourselves what to do next. Because we will choose the right direction, we will live by faith and we will achieve more, and we will get more blessings that we can even imagine.

Yes, that is the best kept secret in Southern California, and that secret is Glendale Memorial Hospital and its employees, nurses and doctors, who are vibrant, happy, and actually ordinary people achieving extraordinary successes.

Maybe, my dear friend, I already convinced you to start practicing for your next marathon, or maybe not yet. But I'm sure of one thing; You can start practicing now, because now is the best time to improve your conditioning got get your health back.

Because if we do not get our health back now, we will end up in some scary place one day, like some strange nursing home. We don't want that to happen to us.

Remember that one ounce of prevention is worth one pound of cure, and the immortal Emerson said, “Do that thing which is right to do and it will give you power, and the best reward for a thing done is that you have done it.”

The same applied for my Los Angeles marathon, the best award is that I have done it. I will finish with the words of an old wise man I met recently. He said: “Be good, do good, be wise, do wise, and don't get bitter, get better.” And yes we can always get better!

Sincerely,
SPASOJE M. NESKOVIC, M.D., A.A.F.P.
Medical Director for Prevention Services and Senior Care