What Your Doctors Won't Tell You
Once while visiting my doctor, after getting my prescription, I asked him whether there are any helpful behavioral remedies for the condition I was visiting him for. He said, "I am a medical doctor, not a behavioral expert." I think what he meant was that common sense had no place in modern medicine. Many doctors, I believe, are ill-equipped in treating their patients as a whole person and not as an unfinished product on a conveyor belt! They don't spend enough time with each patient because many more, who are supposedly sick and need to be seen by doctor, are in the waiting room. Most doctors these days are overworked due to economic reasons, and the way healthcare is managed and delivered. The corporatization of private practices has both created and exacerbated this situation.
I just finished reading "What Your Doctor Won't Tell You: The Real Reasons You Don't Feel Good and What YOU Can Do About It", by Dr. David Sherer, a retired medical doctor with a few decades of experience. He is now an avid researcher and writer on healthcare. This book covers a great variety of issues critical to consumers of healthcare. Healthcare is the most complex industry in the US, comprised of doctors, service providers, insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, government, and patients, and not to mention that it is also the most expensive sector of the US economy. It is highly advanced in terms of sophisticated diagnostic and treatment technology. Paradoxically though, despite the fact that the US spends the highest dollar amount on healthcare in terms of both total and per capita, the outcome of its healthcare system is suboptimal. As pointed out by Dr. Sherer, America does not have a healthcare crisis, but rather, a health crisis. The root causes of this crisis include an abysmal diet system, physical inactivity, overreliance on prescription drugs, resentful attitudes, engaging in health risky behaviors and activities, and most regretfully, obesity. According to Dr. Sherer, these are man-made sources of the health crisis in the US.
Understandably, when it comes to healthcare, everyone wants to voice their opinion. Opinions are abundant and are mostly critical of the high cost, availability of services, payment systems, and the delivery system. However, when a knowledgeable medical doctor talks about healthcare system in the US, we better listen. He believes we cannot improve the overall healthcare outcome unless we incorporate some of the important recommendations he makes throughout the book: "keep your weight in normal range, limit your intake of processed foods and saturated fats, vary your diet, especially with foods of deep and rich natural colors, do not smoke, drink alcohol moderately, and laugh a lot." In addition, and most beneficially, say goodbye to a sedentary lifestyle. Although we rely on our doctors when it comes to our health, our health is our responsibility, just as are the choices we make.
[MV1]Highest in relation to WHAT?
[MV2]This Dr sounds like a rich white man with a lot of privileges.
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