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For myself and family, I avoid medicines as much as possible. I am a total minimalist, I feel food and exercise fix many, many things. Certain supplements and herbs live in my medicine cabinet.
Why the dichotomy?
Patients get angry if you suggest they b part of the solution instead of give them their quick fix prescription they really came for. They think it is all hippy woo woo.
Using food, stretching, and exercise as therapy is far too labor intensive for most Americans. I have tried over and over to counsel on better diet, etc, but people won't give up their crap.
A warm compress is not the latest tech. People want the latest tech. And my whole job and being allowed to exist and work is directly tied to customer service numbers. I still try over and over to suggest alternative and adjunct treatment. 50,000 patients later, it mostly falls on deaf ears.
Please don't give up. Put together some flyers, brochures, articles, blogs, whatever . . . just because people WANT drugs doesn't mean you should cave in when you know better.
You must be feeling pressure from either the organization you work for or drug companies or something - otherwise, why wouldn't your knowledge, expertise and experience be your main guide?
Please don't give up. Put together some flyers, brochures, articles, blogs, whatever . . . just because people WANT drugs doesn't mean you should cave in when you know better.
You must be feeling pressure from either the organization you work for or drug companies or something - otherwise, why wouldn't your knowledge, expertise and experience be your main guide?
Not drug companies. The idea that they wield direct power over docs is made up b.s.
Press Ganey is who we all have to bow down to if we work in a hospital environment.
I will never give up. I just want you to understand the pressure people are under.
For myself and family, I avoid medicines as much as possible. I am a total minimalist, I feel food and exercise fix many, many things. Certain supplements and herbs live in my medicine cabinet.
Why the dichotomy?
Patients get angry if you suggest they b part of the solution instead of give them their quick fix prescription they really came for. They think it is all hippy woo woo.
Using food, stretching, and exercise as therapy is far too labor intensive for most Americans. I have tried over and over to counsel on better diet, etc, but people won't give up their crap.
A warm compress is not the latest tech. People want the latest tech. And my whole job and being allowed to exist and work is directly tied to customer service numbers. I still try over and over to suggest alternative and adjunct treatment. 50,000 patients later, it mostly falls on deaf ears.
You must be an unusual doctor and I wish I had one like you. I have, in the past. My current doctor is a nice man but mostly he just asks if I need anything and I tell him. I wish he'd be more proactive. I like it when they cut down on the prescriptions as much as possible and give you real advice. I want to know things that I can do that will help in the long run and get to the root of the problem, not just throw some prescription pill at it. It must be hard being a doctor when the people just want a quick fix.
I think it a combo. I go to the Dr when I feel something is wrong and they usually diagnose and treat. I do get regular screenings that are recommended since apparently some things that can go wrong won't be felt by me until they get really bad.
I've had a rough streak the last couple of years after a lifetime of mostly minor issues. Several difficult and serious things have cropped up and most were brought to my Dr's attention by me. One was discovered during a routine screening, at a very early stage. I don't just run to the Dr right away either, I try many things to make my problems go away and if they don't they usually require medical intervention. Whether it's an antibiotic for an infection or surgery to remove a diseased organ or cancerous growth ("slicing and dicing"? umm....yes please). I've never actually met anyone who demanded treatments and medicine for things when they don't need it, although I hear stories. In my experience most people prefer to avoid Dr's and medicines unless they are suffering.
Do you think/feel you have a better understanding of your body and its heath than a doctor?
That's not possible since Drs learn things about the human body we don't even know exist. Few non Drs have a full understanding of human physiology or how the body works. The biggest problem is in finding a Dr who CARES and takes the time to listen to what people say. Most are so busy they run people through like an assembly line. Drs are like anyone else in any other profession... some are good and some are bad.
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Do you turn to alternative, herbs, diet, nutrition or supplements before seeking out a doctor's visit? If you doctor yourself, how has that worked out?
Unless the symptoms are serious, I try to diagnose the problem myself. But without blood tests etc, mistakes can too easily be made.
Doctors don't "heal" you. Your body regenerates and heals as a natural process (when conditions are right and the immune system has not been compromised).
This would depend on what the body's issues are. Your body isn't going to "heal" an invasive cancer or serious rapidly spreading infection.
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In a best case scenario, a doctor might put together pieces of the puzzle and advise you, but in Western medicine, only symptoms are treated, not underlying causes.
Since when? If that were true, no one would get well. Everyone who became ill would die.
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And burning, slicing and dicing is not "medicine." It's corporate butchery (often) enriching third parties . . . not so much concerned with "you" and YOUR physical, emotional and spiritual health.
If that's true, then give us the CURE for hypo and hyperthyroidism, Lupus, invasive cancers including brain cancer, infected and/or ruptured appendix, endometriosis etc.... where are the alt cures? Tell me how I can cure my hypothyroidism since I already take supplements and have an excellent immune system according to blood tests, not guessing.
My doctor is a nice guy but I would not trust his judgement when it comes to things that are really serious...I know my body- I know how to harm it and I know how to heal it.....doctors make mistakes - they are not gods.
How would you go about diagnosing and healing an invasive cancer? High blood pressure? A horribly painful fibroid tumor (if you're a woman), or something like colitis?
. He's a nice man and we are friends but he is quite stupid.
If he's so stupid I assume you reported him to your state's medical board before he kills someone. Did you?
You are aware that plenty of stupid uneducated non-Drs out there are killing people with worthless alt cures aren't you? Remember the "magic zapper" that kills all cancers as an example? You do realize the fake alt Dr who invented this silly machine and sold it to thousands of cancer sufferers was responsible for the deaths of numerous people. Did you know she herself died of cancer.
For myself and family, I avoid medicines as much as possible. I am a total minimalist, I feel food and exercise fix many, many things. Certain supplements and herbs live in my medicine cabinet.
Why the dichotomy?
Patients get angry if you suggest they b part of the solution instead of give them their quick fix prescription they really came for. They think it is all hippy woo woo.
Using food, stretching, and exercise as therapy is far too labor intensive for most Americans. I have tried over and over to counsel on better diet, etc, but people won't give up their crap.
A warm compress is not the latest tech. People want the latest tech. And my whole job and being allowed to exist and work is directly tied to customer service numbers. I still try over and over to suggest alternative and adjunct treatment. 50,000 patients later, it mostly falls on deaf ears.
Stan4, I imagine that's painful to have your core values and beliefs about the practice of medicine not in alignment with what your patients demand (often from the latest commercial or ad from a pharmaceutical company telling the viewer/reader to "ask your doctor if..."
From discussions here on CD, from discussions with friends, media articles, and from my own reading of many books about alternative and naturopathic medicine, it's clear that there is an audience for more gentle, healing modalities than what's come to be called "Western Medicine." I wonder if there's any way you can carve a niche in this modality and therefore self-select patients who want--and demand--alternative methods of healing their bodies?
In the past, I've had some great, consultative and dedicated healers who combined allopathic and alternative healing...but today, my health insurance limits my choice of doctors and it's become much more factory assembly line medicine...in and out in 5 minutes...and "here, take this prescription." How I wish, as a "consumer" of health insurance, I had more of a choice so I could work with an alternative and naturopathic healer. I still can, of course, but I must pay out of pocket.
In response, I have become self-taught as much as I can through books, articles and questioning. Personally, I've found that 90% of my ailments are self-healing, given time and rest and sometimes correcting my body's balance with supplementation and/or diet/exercise/meditation.
For example, I do take a BP med (lisinopril/HCTZ), taken only after I exhausted lifestyle changes to bring it down to okay levels. When I became suddenly unable to sleep with sleep onset insomnia, I knew something was out of whack. My body/mind seemed restless, excited--all for no mental/physical reason I could determine as I has no unusual stress and hadn't changed my diet or intake of caffeine. Figured it must be a bio-chemical imbalance. I could have gone to my doctor and gotten a sleeping pill script, but I didn't want to go that route.
Research revealed that my BP med leaches potassium, magnesium and zinc from the body--all needed for calm nerves...so I started supplementing with the lowest possible dosage.
The result? Sleep returned. No sleeping pills needed.
Anyhow, there are many patients like me who would love to have a physician who is a healer and not a prescriber of meds---perhaps you can specialize and seek us out? And you're right, all too many patients want the quick fix and refuse any commitment or responsibility on their part in their own well-being. For them a pill is the answer.
Stan4, I imagine that's painful to have your core values and beliefs about the practice of medicine not in alignment with what your patients demand (often from the latest commercial or ad from a pharmaceutical company telling the viewer/reader to "ask your doctor if..."
<snip> for brevity
Anyhow, there are many patients like me who would love to have a physician who is a healer and not a prescriber of meds---perhaps you can specialize and seek us out? And you're right, all too many patients want the quick fix and refuse any commitment or responsibility on their part in their own well-being. For them a pill is the answer.
That's my way of thinking too. I used to say that I wanted a doctor who could THINK. Maybe I meant a doctor who would take the time to think things though and to figure it out. I had a great doctor once (his father was a rather famous doctor, his brother was a doctor--it was a doctoring family) and the way he treated me was above and beyond the way I was normally treated. If something showed up on a test he would not just give me a pill, he would sit and think out loud as to what caused this and what I could change to fix it. Sometimes it's because of something you're eating or another vitamin or prescription pill you are low in that affects it-- it could be a lot of things. He would take the time to get to the root cause and I really considered him a first rate healer.
I also have great respect for the doctors who can admit that they do not know the answer. That's so much better than trying to make the patient think it's all in their mind and just sending them away. No one can know everything so I respect that doctor who doesn't pretend to be a God. One of the main complaints I hear is about the doctors who cannot be questioned and think they are infallible.
People complain about assembly line medicine and cookbook medicine--what they want is a caring doctor who will listen and will treat them as an individual, someone who will help them work things through.
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If that were true, no one would get well. 
Everyone who became ill would die. 
