Your Doctors Work for You!

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-doctor-talking-the-patient-7579831/

I recently had a patient come in who I hadn’t seen for several years. She was frustrated with how she had been feeling for the past few years and, I think, even more frustrated with her medical doctor. He had essentially told her that her problems were because she was overweight and that she absolutely needed to lose 90 pounds over the next six months – yet offered no advice on how exactly to do that.

Now, let me be clear, being overweight does usually have adverse effects on your health and how you feel, but with the possible rare exceptions of extreme cases of obesity, it is rarely the sole cause of poor health and, in fact, it is often necessary to improve one’s health BEFORE it is even possible to achieve significant sustainable weight loss!

In this particular case, I feel like the doctor’s statements to this patient were beyond ridiculous! Most credible recommendations suggest a maximum safe rate of weight loss at about 1 to 2 pounds per week. The “must” weight loss recommended by this doctor (90 pounds in six months) works out to approximately double that amount!

Not only would this generally be considered risky (especially for a patient in her 60’s as this one is), it’s pretty much impossible.

So, to sum up the good doctor’s recommendations, he’s telling this patient to do something risky, probably impossible anyway, AND despite framing it as an absolute necessity for her health, he gave her absolutely NO guidance on weight loss whatsoever! He basically just told her to get it done – or else!

This poor patient was quite upset by this supposed expert’s assessment and “orders” for her that, as she put it, seemed “pretty aggressive.”

She seemed relieved that not only was I not in agreement with her medical doctor’s approach, I was also not going to browbeat her for being overweight and blame all of her ailments on it. I told her that if and when she was ready to make some changes in her eating habits, I’d work with her to figure out the simplest changes she could make first to start seeing results rather than trying to completely alter her lifestyle overnight.

In the meantime, I would do what I could to get her feeling better – which I thought was quite possible regardless of whether or not she lost weight.

I told her that I work for her, not the other way around!

It’s always amazed me at how many health care providers get that backwards – and how many patients let them get away with it!

Yes, health care professionals have training, knowledge, and expertise that most health care consumers do not. That doesn’t mean they’re always right – or even when they may be right that their recommendations are useful and practical for a given person!

I once had a patient who was an avid runner. She had been doing long distance running for over 30 years, and it took a bit of a toll on her body, but I would work on her periodically and it kept her in good enough condition that she was able to continue to run. She then met a practitioner of a relatively obscure body work technique who claimed that he could bring about permanent corrections in her musculoskeletal issues. So, she thanked me for my past care but told me that she was going to switch to this other practitioner. I wished her well.

A few months passed and one day, she showed up in my office once again. She told me that the other practitioner had indeed done some different things and that she had seen some good results with him, but as with me, her symptoms would return after a few long runs. When she asked the practitioner about this, he reportedly went into an angry tirade that running was unacceptable – that her conditions could never be corrected if she continued to run and that she must cease running immediately!

Well, unlike many people, that patient had no hesitation about firing that practitioner (just as she had fired me when she thought he could offer her something better). She wanted to run and she wanted care that allowed her to keep running – not some guy on an ego trip who was going to try to dictate how she lived her life!

All too often though, the doctor (or other health care provider) – patient relationship kind of gets twisted and people begin to seek the approval of their health care providers rather than simply their treatment and advice.

So let’s get this straight…

You, either directly, or indirectly through your insurance company, are the one paying the bill. That makes you the boss!

Yes, if you’ve chosen a health care provider to help you, it’s reasonable to listen to and consider his or her advice and recommendations, but ultimately, you have the choice to follow them or not, whatever your reasons may be.

If your doctor can’t handle that, you have every right to fire him or her and get a new one!

Until next time…

George Best, D.C.