Re: The "What if my doctor thinks I'm crazy?" question
I have a childhood friend who is now an endocrinologist at UVA. I ran into her recently and we were talking about our lives, kids, etc. (I explained that I'm basically run ragged by my toddlers, have a wreck of a house, get precious little sleep, etc.) She said, "You look great!" And asked what I have been doing. I proceded to tell her about
Iodine and oil pulling (which is pretty much all I "do" -- I don't exercise on a regular basis -- i.e. I go on a few walks per week, sleep an uneven 6 hours per night for the past 2+ years, etc.). Her eyes literally started to gloss over when I discussed iodining and OP.
Now, this is a woman whom I have known nearly 40 years, who has seen me at my worst (which was pretty scary and bad -- think Dead Woman Walking...), who received her MPH and MD at top medical schools, and who now runs a diabetes outpatient clinic at UVA. You'd think between those facts she might trust my opinion and experience and want to learn a little about what it is that could make someone look "well" despite a lifetime of self-abuse and a current high-stress situation! Instead, I got a lecture on the dangers of
Iodine -- I mean, when I said I am often taking 50 mg/day, she looked like I could or should be dead -- and she ended up the conversation by asking me who my doctor was (as if he is responsible for my health...last time I saw him, which was the LAST time, if you get my drift, he wanted me to get a gallbladder removed...).
They are zombies. Blinders on in medical school, worse in residency, etc. They don't go out into the world as people in other professions might...their worlds get more and more limited and funneled into newer technologies and medicines -- as someone has pointed out, which are really just developed to generate money for stockholders.
The only thing that keeps me from blaming the current state of the average person's health entirely on doctors is the average healthcare consumer's complete laziness when it comes to learning about illness and healing, and complete lack of motivation to make simple changes to effect health.
The thing that really sucks is that we are all paying for this multi-zillion-dollar racket of patients visiting doctors to get useless medications.