Is Your Doctor a Salesman?
February 5th, 2009
Although we’ve been conditioned to trust doctors with our health, many people are beginning to realize that prevention is the key to good health and that their doctors are letting them down.
Many of the health books I’ve read were written by medical doctors with a fully qualified MD degree that chose to practice alternative and natural medicine. One opinion they all tend to have in common is that modern health care is seriously flawed and that the problem originates within medical schools.
Medical School or Drug School?
Many doctors openly admit that while in medical school, they received virtually no education on nutrition or lifestyle and very little on vitamins. Nutrition and lifestyle are two of the most significant aspects of good health and are frequently associated with many of today’s most prominent and deadly diseases. Why is it that medical schools don’t recognize this? Perhaps they do but choose to ignore it.
In contrast to the lack of training in nutrition and lifestyle, medical students spend countless hours studying pharmaceutical drugs. While they can’t tell you how to eat a healthy diet, they can quickly name a drug for just about any symptom you can think of. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, pharmaceutical companies provide significant funding to medical schools.
In short, the majority of today’s doctors have been thoroughly trained to chase symptoms instead of identifying the root cause of disease and promoting optimal health.
Cholesterol and high blood pressure are common examples. With very few exceptions, these conditions are nothing more than symptoms of underlying malfunction. Instead of identifying and addressing the malfunction that’s causing elevated cholesterol or blood pressure, most doctors simply prescribe medication to artificially lower them. This does nothing to address the root problem and allows it to persist and potentially worsen.
The Continued Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry
The influence that the pharmaceutical industry has on doctors doesn’t end with medical school. Most doctors are too busy to read the medical journals that will keep them up to date with the latest health care information. Pharmaceutical companies take full advantage of this opportunity by sending their representatives out to update doctors on the latest health issues and how their wonderful drugs address them.
Sometimes, the pharmaceutical companies even provide doctors with bonuses for prescribing their drugs. Perhaps your monthly prescription refills are helping your doctor earn a free trip to Hawaii! Isn’t that nice?
Even if more doctors made an effort to read medical journals, unless they really went out of their way to look for good research, it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference since most research is influenced by the pharmaceutical industry anyway.
It’s Not the Doctors Who are Evil
Many doctors are genuinely good people that truly want to help others. But despite the honorable intentions they may have, they’re still a product of a broken system. While it’s easy to feel resentful toward a doctor that fails to improve your health and prescribes you dangerous medication that you don’t need, the blame really lies on the shoulders of the pharmaceutical industry and also the FDA for allowing it to happen.
Based on the many stories I’ve read, I firmly believe that most pharmaceutical companies are knowingly putting people’s health in danger in order to make profit. I also believe that the FDA is well aware of it and is even supporting it.
For example, consider the painkiller Vioxx that was manufactured by Merck and estimated to have killed up to 55,000 people through heart attack or stroke. There are allegations that Merck was well aware of the dangers associated with this drug and intentionally tried to hide them. And the FDA even admitted that this drug went through a lax approval process.
Regardless of my sentiment toward the pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical drugs do play an important role in medicine. I’m sure there are also plenty of smaller pharmaceutical companies with good intentions and I bet pharmaceutical drugs save lives every single day. However, this certainly doesn’t justify the power that the pharmaceutical industry has over modern medicine. Nor does it mean that a steady diet of prescription drugs will promote good health.
Finding a Good Doctor
There are plenty of great doctors that have recognized the major flaws of modern medicine and have educated themselves on optimal health and addressing the root causes of disease. These doctors typically embrace the concept of “holistic medicine” which takes into consideration the wide variety of factors that can influence your health. Unlike the typical doctor, these doctors are often knowledgeable about diet, lifestyle, emotional perspective, and a wide variety of other factors that play a significant role in your health. Most importantly, they strive to prevent and reverse disease by promoting optimal health, addressing malfunction at the root level, and supporting the body’s innate ability to heal itself.
Some medical schools have degree programs based on natural and alternative forms of medicine. Doctors that earn this degree are called “naturopaths” and use the acronym of ND instead of MD. These doctors are far more knowledgeable about optimal health than the typical doctor and will emphasize natural treatments over prescription medications whenever possible.
However, finding a naturopathic doctor doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be truly dedicated to the holistic approach of pursuing optimal health. Many doctors that have embraced alternative and natural forms of medicine are still stuck in the symptom chasing mentality. While they may use herbs and supplements instead of prescription drugs, they still fail to identify and address malfunction at the root level.
To find naturopathic doctors in your area, go to the website of The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians and click on the link labeled “Find an ND.”
Doctors Aren’t Always Necessary
Although many people get hung up on the acronyms following the name of a medical professional, you don’t always need a doctor to achieve excellent health. There are a number of organizations that train people with or without medical degrees to become extremely knowledgeable health practitioners.
Because this training tends to be focused more on optimal health than anything else, the help you receive from these practitioners is often more effective and useful than what you’d get from a typical doctor. Furthermore, unless you prefer the impersonal 5 minute doctor visit, you’ll typically get much more attention from these practitioners as well.
Although certified health practitioners are an excellent choice for improving your health, a licensed doctor is still the best and only choice for acute illness and emergencies. In fact, this is the one area where standard health care in America truly shines.
Be Your Own Doctor
Taking responsibility for ourselves is a basic requirement of good health that we all have to abide by. However, if you are in need of assistance and are tired of getting nowhere with the people you’re working with, another option is to take your responsibility a step further and educate yourself to the point of being able to resolve your health concerns on your own. This is exactly what I did.
I went through an entire year of frustration working with a medical doctor, a registered dietitian, an endocrinologist, a highly qualified fatigue and lyme disease specialist, and even a sleep specialist. After following an elaborate treatment protocol for most of this time, I felt only marginally better. I was concerned about how many supplements and prescription medications I was taking and was determined to find a better way.
Through extensive reading and several training programs, I gained the knowledge I needed to significantly improve my health. It was a lot of work, but I accomplished more than all the doctors and specialists combined! And now that I have the health and knowledge to show for it, I wouldn’t have it any other way!
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I am in no way offended. It kills me to see every child with a runny nose be put on an antibiotic or an elderly patient fill 15 rx’s when I know the second 10 are a direct result of the first 5. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job but your right. I think you give doctors credit for having more knowledge than they actually do. They tend to have their favorite drugs which they prescribe or are familiar with due to the drug reps and when they need to go beyond that, they open the PDR on their palm pilot and prescribe the first thing that fits the diagnosis.
As a pharmacist, I had no training in vitamins or herbal supplements. Shocking ,yes,but they are not considered drugs and are not studied by the FDA. I have taken continuing education classes on these topics, but that is limited.I have a hard time recommending these products which are located directly in front of my counter so I get questions all day long!! I usually refer them to their doctor or get out my supplement book and do the best I can.
Hi Stacey, thanks for sharing your experience! I think it’s great that you’re making an effort to expand your knowledge to help your customers be less dependent their prescriptions!
I agree with you Vin!!!!.
I am absolutely responable for my health. I would like to study Nutrition and Lifestyle. Do you sugest some place I can do it on line?. I live in Argentina.
Great site.
Hi Miguel,
I think it’s great that you’ve developed an interest in healthy eating and lifestyle habits. To learn more, I suggest that you go to my getting started page to find other articles that might interest you and check out my recommended reading list for some great books. In my articles, you’ll also find references to other helpful websites and resources.
Good luck with your learning, I hope you enjoy the process!
Hi Vin,
It’s interesting that I have already written a post along these lines. ( I have not yet published my blog as I am a newbie A-lister). Some years ago I was at a dinner part where a doctor announced that if he prescribed a given amount of a particular drug he would be given a holiday to America. I was shocked.
Then a few months ago I was talking about this at another dinner party. One woman at the table said that this was simply not true, whereupon her husband interjected and said yes it was, and that through hsi job he had witnessed first-hand the wooing of doctors by the drug companies. As far as I can see , the FDA has much to answer for.
Right now we are ploughing through the Internet in the search for help for our daughter who is a victim of a particular drug usage. She was 20 years old when she took this drug (against our advice and pleading) and she has paid highly for doing so. There is a possibility of a class action being conducted against the company, and believe me we will be part of that action because they knew many years ago that the drug was lethal. The trouble is that by the time childen turn 18 they are regarded as adult and parental intervention is impossible.
The only hope any of us has is to become our own doctors. To that end we have become organic gardeners. We don’t eat meat now, and we buy precious little processed food. It’s a different style of living. It takes planning and time, but hey, the reults are worth it.
As a teacher I have watched the spiralling decline in children’s behaviour and health, but, take a look into their lunch boxes and the evidence is there – but this is the subject of yet another of my posts!
Hi Maria, thanks for your comment!
I’m sorry to hear about your daughter and hope that everything will work out as well as it can. I understand that drugs are sometimes necessary and that the companies making them need to make money, but that certainly doesn’t justify the current situation.
I agree that it takes more effort to live the type of lifestyle that will minimize the need for drugs, but it doesn’t require as much effort as most people fear, especially after the changes become habit. It’s certainly worth the effort, and I’m sure that anyone who’s been through it would fully agree. Besides, it’s more about improving quality of life in general than just avoiding potentially harmful drugs.
School lunches are a great subject to talk about. If you aren’t already familiar with the school lunch program at the Central Alternative High School in Appleton, Wisconsin, you might want to check it out. The results are very impressive.
Thanks Vin. I have actually read that report. I have no doubt that diet is the key to good behaviour and sound learning. But why aren’t others following the example? Bad behaviour is rife in schools.
A friend and I intend to use that, as well as one of my posts, for incoming kinder parents at the start of the academic year. I may also use some of yours Vin, because if we can change the habits of a few, well you never know what a ripple effect that may have.
You might also like to check out: http://www.doctorsaredangerous.com Some very interesting reading there.
Hi Maria,
Good question. There’s no excuse for more schools to not be implementing such a program. It probably comes down to money, politics, and lack of awareness.
Thanks for sharing that site. There’s a lot of truth to the suggestion that doctors are dangerous. According to a commentary by Barbara Starfied, MD in the well respected Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), problems such as unnecessary surgeries, inappropriately prescribed drugs, and adverse effects of properly prescribed drugs make our medical system the third leading cause of death!