I'M NOT TOO COMPLEX OF A MACHINE, (DUTCH YOU KNOW) BUT IT WORKS FOR ME (THE PROOFS IN THE PUDDING).
HOWEVER, IT'S TRUE IT MIGHT NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE, SAY MAYBE 'ITALIANS'! HA.
OUTASERVICE
ANSWER!
by Outaservice 23 Replies latest jw friends
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EvilForce
It is always amazing to me that my profession get dismissed at trying to keep people sick to keep them coming in...yet willingly pay $ 200 or $ 300 a month for all sorts of nebulous herbs, vitamins, substances with dubious claims and no oversight as to the actual purity or content of said substances in bottles. Sure there are some helpful herbs here and there but would venture to say that 90% of the stuff out there is worthless hucksterism.
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talesin
Too true, EF. Another thing that I don't get is that people won't take the time/energy to educate themselves about nutrition, and 'don't have the time' to eat properly.... duh! That they eat fast and processed foods, and make themselves sick, then go to the dr and get meds to fix the illness they caused themselves ....
example: the epidemic in diabetes in our country, and prolly in yours,,, DIET, peeps, DIET -- it's not a program, it's what you eat, how you live ,,,, that's it, plain and simple.
What is also amazing (no insult to you intended) is how many of your profession have become pill pushers and whores for the pharmaceutical industry.
Have you heard about the Dr in New England who has started a movement against bribes by pharmaceuticals? He is one of my new heroes.
About 2 years ago, my mom and I sat down and went through her meds. You won't believe the unnecessary crap her doctor had her on. One pill for this, then another pill to counteract the side effects of the initial pills, etc., etc. Well, we got rid of about 2/3 of the meds, and got her a new GP.
Oh, it gets me steamed ... a few years ago, the doc had her on phenphen to lose weight ,,, told her there were no side effects ... yah, my mom has COPD , can you believe the stupidity of giving her diet pills ??? grrrr,,, As soon as I found out, she was OFF them ... and 6 months later, what is all over the news? That the drug causes degenerative lung disease. grrrrrrr
Next thing you know, she has her on Prozac ... so we started having regular talks about depression and why she felt like this, how to handle it. Gee, what a novel idea, figuring out what is wrong instead of popping a pill! (and yes, I know that meds can be necessary for clinical depression, but with rare exception, they are not meant to be taken for the rest of your life!)
Trust me, mom has a new GP, one who doesn't just write a scrip and bill for the visit!
And just to let you know, my GP is one of my best friends, and I have a lot of respect for ethical medical folks. A lot of docs seem to have forgotten the most important line of the Hippocratic Oath,
"First, do no harm ..."
PS,,, what do you think of certified NDs? Do you think they are legit? curious ... there is a big battle here, because the health insurance will only pay for traditional GPs and Rx meds, and not NDs, massage, acupuncture or anything else considered 'alternative'. I don't go to any alternatives myself, just the regular Dr., I'm a bit leery of hocus-pocus myself (she says w/ a grin).
tal
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BrendaCloutier
That's quite interesting. I have inflamation that shows up in my blood tests, and has been showing up for at least 10 years! But my Rheumy cant find the source. I also have FibroMyalgia and Chronic Fatigue. So, I'll check it out!
Thx for the tip, Outa.
Hugs Love Healing Peace
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EvilForce
Talesin..... yes diet and proper excercise are very very important. I cannot stress this enough. Whole unprocessed foods w/ as many fruit, veggies, and natural proteins are key. Excercise is a proven point in healing, stress management, blood sugar regulation, etc....
Now Talesin...you KNOW how long this has been touted right??? Do people follow proper nutrition? No. Do they excercise like they should? No. So if people aren't going to do what REQUIRED of them which is better? Uncontroled hypertension or taking a pill with a few small side effects? Since I'm not a GP I don't face the daily onslaught of the people but you would be SHOCKED to see how many people come in demanding to be put on a certain drug regimen. You can thank big pharma for marketing directly to consumers for that. But before you demonize them....check your stock portfolios. Do you own pharma stocks? Also, alot of patients come in wanting some miracle cure for Little Jonny. A round of antibiotics must be in order!!! Parents demanding antibiotics for viral infections astound me.
Here's a sad example... I was volunteering at a free clinic one weekend. I saw this little boy with a very mild case of ear infection. He didn't have any pain or discomfort with it...but was brought in because of a cold that "just would not go away". He had it for 6 days. So I spend 20 minutes explaining why he did not need anything....nature will take it's course, blah, blah, blah. So I mentally patted myself on the back for 1 less unnecessary antibiotic script out there. The very next day I see the same woman walking out of the clinic. I asked the attending doctor what he saw her for....of course she came back in fuming and angry that I was unsympathtic to her child's plight. That her next door neighbor's kid had been sick too and now was completely better because she got antibiotics and I didn't give her child any.
Also, many GP's need to see 6 to 8 patients an hour. That's about 8 minutes. Explaining why a patient really doesn't need a COX2 inhibitor vs. regular "Motrin" can leave the patient angry and take more time. So I tell people to always make a list of complaints / questions to go over with the doctor before your appointment....that way you cover everything. Also, you are your own best advocate for YOUR medical care.
I say these things, not to justify them, but to give you another side of the story so to speak. Put yourself in their shoes....what would you do? Keep in mind many GP's are now employees of large clinics that dictate patients seen per hour, standardized therepies, etc... They are doing their jobs the best they can in many instances.
Obviously I find ND's to be a bit distastful....however there are some individual therepies which I'm "down with". Ie, acupuncture. I'd rather see someone use this instead of large amounts of opoid pain killers for long term chronic pain....assuming acupuncture works for them. -
talesin
Yeah, Evil, true dat! Here we are, with all the knowledge at our fingertips (internet), and folks are too lazy to educate themselves about their own health care. And yes, I do as you recommend when going to the Dr. I keep a piece of paper on the fridge or whatever, and make little notes as reminders of 'what not to forget when I go to the dr', then when appt. time rolls around, I am prepared.
My doc and I have discussed this ... though it's true that health consumers are demanding more and more drugs, he feels it is still up to the MD to maintain his/her ethics by not prescribing unnecessary meds. The shortage of doctors here is horrendous. They barely have time to see you. I have friends who cannot get a family doctor, and must go to a walk-in clinic when they need attention, because none of the local docs are taking on new patients.
The poor GPs are so overworked, it's insane! Then, there is the required clinic/ER volunteer rotations ... and GPs here start off at only $150 Gs a year (that's Cdn, remember). They can barely afford to pay their education loans, and are working 70-80 hours per week to earn their pittance. So I'm not against MDs, really. I get it.
Bouquets to you for being one of those doctors who educates, and does not write unnecessary scrips. If all MDs did that, then maybe folks would begin to see the light.
Here's a little story,,, a friend of mine just got prescribed Effexor. Yes, he needs it! So, he asked about the side effects - the doc told him it has no side effects. None. (doh) Since I know 3 men who are taking it (and they are all having the same side effects), I suggested that he ask the pharmacist (drug expert, right?) about side effects. HE told my friend "there are NO side effects". WTH??? Now I'm sure that you know as well as I about the sexual dysfunction that affects many men who take Effexor, and loss of appetite is another common side effect. What is wrong with these practitioners? The man was trying to educate himself, and they were not helping,,,, not one bit! GRRRR
Another beef of mine --- did you know that Ativan (lorazepam) is not addictive? bwaaa hahahahaha Many folks have been told this by their docs. It's only one of the most addictive drugs around.
Oh well, education, education, education ....
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talesin
FYI ,,, here's an article about that doc,,, I think he is awesome !!
FIVE CLUMPS OF PENS, robber-banded together, spill from an overstuffed envelope to the floor of Dr. Bob Goodman's office. Each ball point bears the name of a different blockbuster drug-Lipitor, Paxil, Zocor. They have been sent in by a doctor who'd learned about Goodman's one-man organization, No Free Lunch, and its "Pen Amnesty" program: Turn in your collection of industry-supplied freebies, and Goodman will send back a few replacement pens bearing the No Free Lunch insignia. "It's a money loser," Goodman says, "but it's a fun way to spread the word."
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the pharmaceutical industry spends $8,000 to $13,000 per physician each year to promote its wares, which are hawked by a sales force of roughly 80,000 representatives. "If you randomly look at a doctor's white coat, you'll see a stethoscope tag with one drug company's name on it," says Goodman, an internist who also teaches at Columbia University's medical school. "Then there are several pens in their pockets, and calipers, each with a drug company's name. We're walking advertisements."
The ubiquity of perks has bothered Goodman since his med-school days in the late 1980s, when he felt uneasy eating pizzas supplied by drug salesmen. In 1999, Goodman was opening a new clinic for low-income patients in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan. He decided to keep the clinic off-limits to drug sales representatives, but that meant cutting off access to the free drug samples doctors often give to patients who don't have medical coverage. "So I decided I was going to make up some pens and mugs in order to raise money to buy meds for patients," says Goodman. He created a website to sell the items, called it NoFreeLunch.org, and included some salient figures on the industry's marketing excesses. The site now attracts roughly 300 visitors a day, and well over 1,000 pens have been turned in.
Maryann Napoli, associate director of the Center for Medical Consumers, a nonprofit dedicated to drug-marketing reform, says it's crucial for doctors and patients to see that not all health care providers are comfortable with corporate gifts. "I find [No Free Lunch] to be one of the few hopeful things in this area," she says. "So many doctors are now bought and paid for."
Though bad press has forced drug companies to scale back some of their more extravagant gifts, like the Caribbean getaways of yore, Goodman says expensive dinners, and tickets to Broadway shows and big-league games remain commonplace. One popular sales technique involves trailing a doctor to a gas station, then offering to pay for a lube job--during the wait at the shop, the sales representative has ample time to talk up his product. Then there are the more lavish perks, like dinner and complimentary rooms at New York's Plaza Hotel; as the Washington Post reported last year, doctors who attended one such gala were also handed $500 checks from the event's sponsor, Forest Laboratories.
"Doctors take such umbrage when you suggest that [the perks] influence what they prescribe," says Goodman. "But of course they do--otherwise, they wouldn't be given out." Indeed, numerous studies have shown that perks and meals nudge physicians toward prescribing certain drugs, even when better and less expensive options are available. By way of example, Goodman cites the calcium-channel blockers, like Pfizer's Norvasc, which treat high blood pressure and can cost more than $2 per pill. Last December, a study published in JAMA confirmed that those pills don't work nearly as well as thiazide diuretics, or water pills, which cost just pennies per dose; yet the more expensive drugs, which are heavily marketed to doctors, are far more frequently prescribed.
To alert physicians to such troubling data, Goodman has begun setting up informational booths at medical conferences, prowling the hallways in a T-shirt sporting the No Free Lunch logo. He has also started "The Pledge," an online oath that asks doctors to swear off pharmaceutical gifts; so far, more than 200 visitors to his site have signed the pledge.
Goodman's next step is to convince med schools to educate their students about the ethical perils of accepting corporate gifts. Campus chapters of No Free Lunch regularly hold "pen exchange days" to get the message out, and Goodman works the lecture circuit. "But that's going to do very little if med students look around and see their role models doing this," he notes. "I'll give a lecture to first-year students who that afternoon are going to spend their day with a [doctor] in the clinic. And those rounds will start with lunch with a drug rep."
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EvilForce
I'm trying to think of one drug that doesn't have a side effect......can't think of one.
Effexor has LOW risk of sexual side effects....compared to others. SSRI's are sometimes tough for male patients to have and "get excited".
Atavan is a Schedule IV drug which is a rather arbitrary DEA assigned rating for their potential for abuse. Physical depenence is different from addiction however.
While Canada has it's own problems with health care the US has it's own too. MalPract Insurance is astronomical. And billing various insurance companies is a nightmare. Depending on the state and mix of patients "paper shuffling" between the clinic and insurance companies eats up 20% to 30% of total revenue.
But I am not in the front lines like GP's. I specialize so have more luxury (means I charge more) to spend more time with them. -
ozziepost
Here's a sad example... I was volunteering at a free clinic one weekend. I saw this little boy with a very mild case of ear infection. He didn't have any pain or discomfort with it...but was brought in because of a cold that "just would not go away". He had it for 6 days. So I spend 20 minutes explaining why he did not need anything....nature will take it's course, blah, blah, blah. So I mentally patted myself on the back for 1 less unnecessary antibiotic script out there. The very next day I see the same woman walking out of the clinic. I asked the attending doctor what he saw her for....of course she came back in fuming and angry that I was unsympathtic to her child's plight. That her next door neighbor's kid had been sick too and now was completely better because she got antibiotics and I didn't give her child any.
Also, many GP's need to see 6 to 8 patients an hour. That's about 8 minutes. Explaining why a patient really doesn't need a COX2 inhibitor vs. regular "Motrin" can leave the patient angry and take more time. So I tell people to always make a list of complaints / questions to go over with the doctor before your appointment....that way you cover everything. Also, you are your own best advocate for YOUR medical care.G'day EvilForce,
A very real problem this - we were only speaking about this the other day as a family member who lives in Europe has noted the big difference between medical care protocols there with the land Down Under. Here we have a greater reliance (fall back) on antibiotics whereas she has found that her M.D. s speak of what is natural. An interesting topic.
BTW keep up the good work you do!
Cheers, Ozzie
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talesin
Ozzie,
Here we have a greater reliance (fall back) on antibiotics whereas she has found that her M.D. s speak of what is natural.
It's interesting that you would say that. My mom's new doctor is Russian, and has that attitude about using natural methods if at all possible, instead of Rx drugs.
t