Blaming the doctors

It's easy to blame the doctors for what's wrong with us. There's no shortage of of statements like 'my doctors didn't know what the heck they were doing', 'doctor's don't know everything', 'my doctor is an idiot' and 'my doctor was wrong'. But when we are in a health crisis and someone tries to give us advice, what do we say to them, 'what are you, a doctor'? So doctors are under some intense pressure to always get it right. Especially when it is US they are working on!

But slow your roll just a minute here. Let's play a game. And pretend you are the doctor. Your patient comes in with high blood pressure and high cholesterol, something many Americans have. What do you do? You HAVE to get those risk factors down fast before something really bad happens to your patient. So you prescribe the medications that will lower them fast (complete with all those wonderful side effects of the drugs). Your patient complains as the months go by about these side effects and ask you if they can ever get off of them? You tell them its possible, but they have to make some better health choices by staying away from certain foods.

Fast forward to the next visit with your patient. Their numbers are even higher and now they are in the danger zone of possible stroke or heart attack. And there you have it. What do you do, as their doctor, if the patient won't do what you have recommended? Of course you have to deal with whatever state of health they are in. I recently heard a doctor state exactly this, but he soft soaped it by saying 'sometimes patients don't always do what they need to do to get healthy'. Hmmm. Maybe it's time we point the finger at that person in the mirror. Health starts with personal responsibility.

Ranman lunch picture of the day: corn tortillas, kalamata olives, avocado, tomatoes, lettuce and brown rice. All organic.