Starting to distrust doctors and find most to be smug

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well most people go to the doctor when they are already feeling bad and therefore most work apart from pediatrics is not prevention it’s addressing already existing problems. Everyone knows by now that you should not smoke or drink, you should exercise, maintain a normal BMI, cut out transfats, and eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grain and lean protein and sparing in refined sugar. And yet, most people do not do all those things so primary care doctors spend most of their time treating the consequences: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and consequences of smoking. I’m not sure why you think doctors, especially primary care doctors, have no interest in prevention. It’s literally their greatest hope that people would listen to them and take better care of their health. Instead doctors wind up working very downstream when problems have already developed and then people complain that things are so entrenched they have to take drugs—that they often can’t afford or don’t take.

Even if the doctor is working downstream when the issues have aLready developed, those issues can often still be reversed thru dietary changes. But doctors don’t prescribe that. They prescribe drugs instead.

You clearly have an axe to grind here. It’s not either/or. They do both. Unfortunately most of the time people don’t listen or follow through. Doctors would be happier if they did.

You can try to make it personal if you choose. The fact is that if more people had my “axe to grind”’ we would likely have fewer diet-driven health issues in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My main issue with doctors is not the arrogance, though that does exist. My issue is that many of them are quick to prescribe drugs, despite that many health issues could be combated with dietary changes. I would like for doctors to focus more on diet and less on drugs.

A question for the medical types on this board - I have heard that medical school includes a laughably small amount of instruction on diet. Is this true?

Yes, it’s true. American medicine is big business, and just like any other business the #1 priority has to be profits. No one here can dispute that. So why would they prioritize healthy lifestyle changes?

I love how you guys who have no idea how medicine works or how doctors actually make a living (spoiler: it’s not from prescriptions) are so confident in your wrong ideas.

What do you love about it? That your ego gets to feel “better, bigger and smarter” for knowing things you sense others don’t? Why not just share your knowledge then?

I always presumed it was largely procedure based. For example I heard a doctor/hospital gets paid out from insurance about $9000 more for a c section than a vaginal delivery. I’m not assuming the worst of doctors. I do believe they strive to provide best care but I also think as a whole the direction of our health care system is also driven by profit.

There are multiple reasons for why the US’s c section rate at 32%+ is the highest for any developed first world country. This is despite the fact that the WHO acknowledges that c section rates above 10% do not reflect an increase in maternal or fetal health. Our health care system is very very pro surgery/pro procedures. It is not proactive health or wellness based, and as other posters have commented, this is not what is taught in medical school. What is taught is symptom management focused. At that point the patients problems are just that - problematic.

This conversation is broader than just about doctors. Doctors absolutely help and save lives with their care and procedures, and as a country we do not emphasize enough the value of proactive integrative care that is largely outside the realm of a conventional doctors practice. As patients we also need to stop relying on doctors to be these God-like healers. There is more responsibility to be had on all fronts for the demise of our nations health.

Yes that c-section rate reason isn’t doctors. It’s lawyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like some run a mill. Come in, take test X, be sure to hydrate, rest, eat well, goodbye that's it. Others it's an ideological thing. No matter what you have, hydrate, rest, eat well see ya. Try a doctor trained overseas from a different culture. Experience might be different.

Exactly! take this medicine and come back in 3 months for a follow up you do and again come back in 3 months again it's a total farce, a racket to keep you coming back, if you feel well why do you have to come back so soon? $$$$? To keep the machine running?

Okay, don’t take the medicine and don’t come back. See how that goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never cease to be amazed by the doctor hatred on this board. You’d rather entrust your health to someone who never went to medical school or trained in a residency. Just astonishing.

+1. I think Dr Google has encouraged patients to diagnose themselves. When the doctor (who went to medical school) doesn’t agree, he deemed incompetent. Another concern of mine: Med Express is not a PCP. It is imperative to find a doctor that YOU trust. If you only have annual appointments, this process will take awhile.

Dr. Google is often right. My MD missed a blocked LAD, advised to lose weight and change my diet to make the chest pain stop after the heart burn meds didn't work. Lucky to be alive. The ER docs agreed with Dr. Google.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like some run a mill. Come in, take test X, be sure to hydrate, rest, eat well, goodbye that's it. Others it's an ideological thing. No matter what you have, hydrate, rest, eat well see ya. Try a doctor trained overseas from a different culture. Experience might be different.

Exactly! take this medicine and come back in 3 months for a follow up you do and again come back in 3 months again it's a total farce, a racket to keep you coming back, if you feel well why do you have to come back so soon? $$$$? To keep the machine running?

Totally agree. Monitoring a potential problem for thousands and thousands of dollars. It's a common scam and the whole system is broken. I hate going to any doctor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like some run a mill. Come in, take test X, be sure to hydrate, rest, eat well, goodbye that's it. Others it's an ideological thing. No matter what you have, hydrate, rest, eat well see ya. Try a doctor trained overseas from a different culture. Experience might be different.

Exactly! take this medicine and come back in 3 months for a follow up you do and again come back in 3 months again it's a total farce, a racket to keep you coming back, if you feel well why do you have to come back so soon? $$$$? To keep the machine running?

Totally agree. Monitoring a potential problem for thousands and thousands of dollars. It's a common scam and the whole system is broken. I hate going to any doctor.

No one if forcing you to go. You sound like someone who is very committed to engaging in a hostile antagonistic way.

[Anonymous]

NP. Yes, and I moved to concierge medicine, which is better and more expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well most people go to the doctor when they are already feeling bad and therefore most work apart from pediatrics is not prevention it’s addressing already existing problems. Everyone knows by now that you should not smoke or drink, you should exercise, maintain a normal BMI, cut out transfats, and eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grain and lean protein and sparing in refined sugar. And yet, most people do not do all those things so primary care doctors spend most of their time treating the consequences: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and consequences of smoking. I’m not sure why you think doctors, especially primary care doctors, have no interest in prevention. It’s literally their greatest hope that people would listen to them and take better care of their health. Instead doctors wind up working very downstream when problems have already developed and then people complain that things are so entrenched they have to take drugs—that they often can’t afford or don’t take.

Even if the doctor is working downstream when the issues have aLready developed, those issues can often still be reversed thru dietary changes. But doctors don’t prescribe that. They prescribe drugs instead.

You clearly have an axe to grind here. It’s not either/or. They do both. Unfortunately most of the time people don’t listen or follow through. Doctors would be happier if they did.

You can try to make it personal if you choose. The fact is that if more people had my “axe to grind”’ we would likely have fewer diet-driven health issues in this country.

There are trainers, dieticians, and nutritionists that are available. The vast majority of people don’t follow advice to lose weight, but the resources are there if they want to. It would not be a good use of drs time to do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well most people go to the doctor when they are already feeling bad and therefore most work apart from pediatrics is not prevention it’s addressing already existing problems. Everyone knows by now that you should not smoke or drink, you should exercise, maintain a normal BMI, cut out transfats, and eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grain and lean protein and sparing in refined sugar. And yet, most people do not do all those things so primary care doctors spend most of their time treating the consequences: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and consequences of smoking. I’m not sure why you think doctors, especially primary care doctors, have no interest in prevention. It’s literally their greatest hope that people would listen to them and take better care of their health. Instead doctors wind up working very downstream when problems have already developed and then people complain that things are so entrenched they have to take drugs—that they often can’t afford or don’t take.

Even if the doctor is working downstream when the issues have aLready developed, those issues can often still be reversed thru dietary changes. But doctors don’t prescribe that. They prescribe drugs instead.

You clearly have an axe to grind here. It’s not either/or. They do both. Unfortunately most of the time people don’t listen or follow through. Doctors would be happier if they did.

You can try to make it personal if you choose. The fact is that if more people had my “axe to grind”’ we would likely have fewer diet-driven health issues in this country.

There are trainers, dieticians, and nutritionists that are available. The vast majority of people don’t follow advice to lose weight, but the resources are there if they want to. It would not be a good use of drs time to do this.

Help me understand why it’s a better use of a doctor’s time to prescribe a less healthy way to get “healthy.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like some run a mill. Come in, take test X, be sure to hydrate, rest, eat well, goodbye that's it. Others it's an ideological thing. No matter what you have, hydrate, rest, eat well see ya. Try a doctor trained overseas from a different culture. Experience might be different.

Exactly! take this medicine and come back in 3 months for a follow up you do and again come back in 3 months again it's a total farce, a racket to keep you coming back, if you feel well why do you have to come back so soon? $$$$? To keep the machine running?

Totally agree. Monitoring a potential problem for thousands and thousands of dollars. It's a common scam and the whole system is broken. I hate going to any doctor.

Modern science should be able to fix all your problems in one visit right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well most people go to the doctor when they are already feeling bad and therefore most work apart from pediatrics is not prevention it’s addressing already existing problems. Everyone knows by now that you should not smoke or drink, you should exercise, maintain a normal BMI, cut out transfats, and eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grain and lean protein and sparing in refined sugar. And yet, most people do not do all those things so primary care doctors spend most of their time treating the consequences: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and consequences of smoking. I’m not sure why you think doctors, especially primary care doctors, have no interest in prevention. It’s literally their greatest hope that people would listen to them and take better care of their health. Instead doctors wind up working very downstream when problems have already developed and then people complain that things are so entrenched they have to take drugs—that they often can’t afford or don’t take.

Even if the doctor is working downstream when the issues have aLready developed, those issues can often still be reversed thru dietary changes. But doctors don’t prescribe that. They prescribe drugs instead.

You clearly have an axe to grind here. It’s not either/or. They do both. Unfortunately most of the time people don’t listen or follow through. Doctors would be happier if they did.

You can try to make it personal if you choose. The fact is that if more people had my “axe to grind”’ we would likely have fewer diet-driven health issues in this country.

There are trainers, dieticians, and nutritionists that are available. The vast majority of people don’t follow advice to lose weight, but the resources are there if they want to. It would not be a good use of drs time to do this.

Help me understand why it’s a better use of a doctor’s time to prescribe a less healthy way to get “healthy.”

Someone with a different type of training is a more economical way to do it. They’re not a one stop shop for all your health needs. I mean do you just want them to right a prescription for weight loss and think that will take care of if? No one wants to take any personal responsibility regarding their own food choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well most people go to the doctor when they are already feeling bad and therefore most work apart from pediatrics is not prevention it’s addressing already existing problems. Everyone knows by now that you should not smoke or drink, you should exercise, maintain a normal BMI, cut out transfats, and eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grain and lean protein and sparing in refined sugar. And yet, most people do not do all those things so primary care doctors spend most of their time treating the consequences: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and consequences of smoking. I’m not sure why you think doctors, especially primary care doctors, have no interest in prevention. It’s literally their greatest hope that people would listen to them and take better care of their health. Instead doctors wind up working very downstream when problems have already developed and then people complain that things are so entrenched they have to take drugs—that they often can’t afford or don’t take.

Even if the doctor is working downstream when the issues have aLready developed, those issues can often still be reversed thru dietary changes. But doctors don’t prescribe that. They prescribe drugs instead.

You clearly have an axe to grind here. It’s not either/or. They do both. Unfortunately most of the time people don’t listen or follow through. Doctors would be happier if they did.

You can try to make it personal if you choose. The fact is that if more people had my “axe to grind”’ we would likely have fewer diet-driven health issues in this country.

There are trainers, dieticians, and nutritionists that are available. The vast majority of people don’t follow advice to lose weight, but the resources are there if they want to. It would not be a good use of drs time to do this.

Help me understand why it’s a better use of a doctor’s time to prescribe a less healthy way to get “healthy.”

Someone with a different type of training is a more economical way to do it. They’re not a one stop shop for all your health needs. I mean do you just want them to right a prescription for weight loss and think that will take care of if? No one wants to take any personal responsibility regarding their own food choices.

That is the soft bigotry of low expectations. Sort of plays into the OP’s view of doctors as arrogant and smug.

“My patient won’t improve their diet, so f it I’ll just prescribe some drugs.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well most people go to the doctor when they are already feeling bad and therefore most work apart from pediatrics is not prevention it’s addressing already existing problems. Everyone knows by now that you should not smoke or drink, you should exercise, maintain a normal BMI, cut out transfats, and eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grain and lean protein and sparing in refined sugar. And yet, most people do not do all those things so primary care doctors spend most of their time treating the consequences: hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and consequences of smoking. I’m not sure why you think doctors, especially primary care doctors, have no interest in prevention. It’s literally their greatest hope that people would listen to them and take better care of their health. Instead doctors wind up working very downstream when problems have already developed and then people complain that things are so entrenched they have to take drugs—that they often can’t afford or don’t take.

Even if the doctor is working downstream when the issues have aLready developed, those issues can often still be reversed thru dietary changes. But doctors don’t prescribe that. They prescribe drugs instead.

You clearly have an axe to grind here. It’s not either/or. They do both. Unfortunately most of the time people don’t listen or follow through. Doctors would be happier if they did.

You can try to make it personal if you choose. The fact is that if more people had my “axe to grind”’ we would likely have fewer diet-driven health issues in this country.

There are trainers, dieticians, and nutritionists that are available. The vast majority of people don’t follow advice to lose weight, but the resources are there if they want to. It would not be a good use of drs time to do this.

Help me understand why it’s a better use of a doctor’s time to prescribe a less healthy way to get “healthy.”

Someone with a different type of training is a more economical way to do it. They’re not a one stop shop for all your health needs. I mean do you just want them to right a prescription for weight loss and think that will take care of if? No one wants to take any personal responsibility regarding their own food choices.

That is the soft bigotry of low expectations. Sort of plays into the OP’s view of doctors as arrogant and smug.

“My patient won’t improve their diet, so f it I’ll just prescribe some drugs.”

And what do you think should happen?
Do you think drs telling people they need to lose weight works? The patients know they are fat. Refuse them medication until they lose weight? Yeah right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never cease to be amazed by the doctor hatred on this board. You’d rather entrust your health to someone who never went to medical school or trained in a residency. Just astonishing.

Based on many patient experiences, that training obviously doesn't help them to develop patient interaction and listening skills. Most patients just want someone to listen to them and take them seriously. Doctors seem to be trained in finding the quickest solution possible to get the patient out of the office.

Well be sure to call a paralegal next time you need a lawyer. I’ve heard they are great listeners.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

I guess because we are not saving lives, lawyers are comfortable telling clients: "Let's walk through our options. We recommend option A, but we can revisit option x." Lawyers hardly ever use the word " impossible " . We appear less sure of ourselves than doctors are.

Plus, when you bill per hour, you are more comfortable taking a bit longer to walk through and make sure your client understands the possible solutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never cease to be amazed by the doctor hatred on this board. You’d rather entrust your health to someone who never went to medical school or trained in a residency. Just astonishing.

Based on many patient experiences, that training obviously doesn't help them to develop patient interaction and listening skills. Most patients just want someone to listen to them and take them seriously. Doctors seem to be trained in finding the quickest solution possible to get the patient out of the office.

Well be sure to call a paralegal next time you need a lawyer. I’ve heard they are great listeners.

You are comparing apples to oranges.

I guess because we are not saving lives, lawyers are comfortable telling clients: "Let's walk through our options. We recommend option A, but we can revisit option x." Lawyers hardly ever use the word " impossible " . We appear less sure of ourselves than doctors are.

Plus, when you bill per hour, you are more comfortable taking a bit longer to walk through and make sure your client understands the possible solutions.

Wow. This response is so incredibly out of touch and frankly, enraging.

You have got to be kidding me. Lawyers are the most arrogant, smug, self-impressed people I know. And billing by the hour makes them less ethical not more. Yeah billing by the hour makes them happy to endlessly waste your time and money and rack up charges. Doctors *wish* they could bill by the hour because of all the work they are asked to do for free, researching problems, answering phone calls. And being harassed by people who hound them for petty garbage, need emotional support, and take out their unresolved emotional issues on their doctors.