Doctors Watch Out For Our Health Right?

The Health Jerk – Part Five

Welcome back, this is part five of the Health Jerk series. So far we have listed the many contributors to your good health. Parts 2, 3 and 4 were dedicated to the FDA and trying to understand exactly how the government is keeping us safe. On my scorecard, they come up a little short.

Let move our focus over to medical doctors. These poor souls spend half their lives in school trying to master the ever-increasing body of knowledge known as Medicine. All sarcasm aside, this has become a truly impossible task in recent decades. The body of knowledge is expanding exponentially and even with the help of high speed computers, no one can stay current.
There is one disturbing thing about all doctors older than say 30. That being, 10 years ago and earlier very little or no attention was given to nutrition at med school. This has changed and is changing more. What I mean by that is actual class time and courses are now dedicated to the advantages and effects of good nutrition. Also you may have noticed that the government recently modified the recommended food chart.

I can not talk about doctors without talking about health insurance and HMO's. Today health insurance is so important to the earnings of a doctor that almost all doctor offices have a person totally dedicated to completing the forms and interfacing with the health insurance companies. Have you gone to the doctors recently? You cannot get by the receptionist until you provide your valid health insurance card and make your co-payment.

Today's discussion is from my personal health history.
15 years ago, I started to lose the feeling in my right hand all the way down from the right shoulder. Not my left hand...angina, my right hand. I went to my family doctor and he decided it was joint damage in my shoulder from my misspent youth on a pitcher's mound. Whatever. The orthopedic specialist saw me and confirmed that it was shoulder damage and got out the big needle with cortisone and shot me up. Hurt like Hell. After a week it was probably worse and certainly not better.

My wife stepped in and insisted that I go to a chiropractor. I dragged myself into the quack's office and sat down. He insisted on an X-ray of my back and neck. I argued that the doctors, people with MD after their name, had said it was an injured shoulder. He ignored me. The next day he called me asked me to come in. I did. He said he had good news and bad news. But first he wanted to ask me a question. He asked me if I had had a collision to my back about a year before in a car wreck or while playing a sport. I answered that I had collisions all the time, I play ice hockey in the local amateur league and about a year ago some one had crashed me into the boards from the back in our nice no contact league. Moving on. He said that made sense and the good news was he could fix me. The bad news was I had a broken neck. Well that's an exaggeration. I had a hairline fracture in my third vertebrae which had calcified up and was impeding the nerve transmissions to my right arm. The third vertebrae is where the nerves to the right arm start. I guess they don't teach that at med school. Three weeks later I was good as gold and have never had that problem since. So much for the wisdom of traditional medicine and specialists.

This example is not meant to condemn medical doctors. It simply points out that paradigms distort everyone's judgment, even the judgment of the 'gods who walk the earth', uh, medical doctors. Well that's how they expect to be treated. Ever asked someone to try a homemade remedy for an ache and pain. You almost always hear back later, my doctor said that it wouldn't work and might even hinder my treatment.

Closed minds. Sheep, being led to the slaughter by the Traditional Health Establishment.

Later sheep.