Question Your Doctor
Over the past two years many Americans found themselves in this situation: diagnosed with COVID-19, they were not feeling horribly ill, yet not feeling great either. Turning to their doctors for advice, what most heard was the equivalent of, “Stay home, and if you turn blue, call 911.” If they inquired about “unapproved” therapies to prevent themselves from getting sicker, doctors often reacted with dismissiveness and even scorn. Beyond rebuffing their patients’ honest questions, many doctors also failed to recommend basic antiviral remedies such as vitamin C, zinc, quercetin, and vitamin D.
We will never know how many lives were lost because of doctors’ refusal to think independently, to consider each patient as a human being deserving of individualized assessment, and to make their patients aware of the risks and benefits of the full range of early preventative therapies.
But moving forward from that tragedy, at least we can draw a vital understanding: far too many doctors, cocooned within medical societies and hospital bureaucracies (which in turn act at the behest of big pharma, insurance giants, and the federal government), share a hive mentality that can do real harm to the patients in their care. Indeed, this has been the case for decades – the COVID-19 pandemic only brought it to light with blazing clarity. Some of us on the front lines have long seen it in everything from the over-prescription of harmful statins, to the use of estrogen replacement therapy in women that increased their risk of cancer. In those and numerous other examples, doctors have eschewed independent thought (and independent review of the original research) in favor of unquestioning obedience to algorithms passed down from on high.
Now what? In light of everything we’ve learned during the pandemic, a patient who continues to heedlessly trust this system with their health is akin to a battered wife returning to an abusive husband. People must begin questioning their doctors. And if they get the wrong answers (or the questions are batted away), they need to walk away and find another doctor.
Of course, the first thing each of us should do is optimize our own health outcomes, via exercise, proper nutrition, and reading up on topics salient to ourselves and our families. Still, most of us will need to have contact with the healthcare system at one point or another. Daunting as it can be to question a doctor, imbued with the supposed authority of a white coat and stethoscope, we must remember that each of us is our own best advocate.
Based on my personal and professional experience, here are a handful of litmus test questions to quickly gauge whether your doctor is independent and open to evidence and evolving data or part of the rotting, self-serving medical establishment:
- Does the doctor practice what he/she preaches?
This one is easy and does not even have to be asked aloud. Does the doctor sitting before you have a gut hanging halfway to the floor? Your doctor doesn’t have to be an athlete, but he or she needs to be healthy. It’s frankly shocking that many doctors cannot button up their white coats because of their bulging waistline. If you want to probe further, you might ask what the doctor recommends by way of exercise and nutrition? If that draws a perfunctory reply, or something along the lines of “Well, personally I get all the exercise I need all day seeing patients and I grab a couple of energy bars during my break,” nod politely and move on to someone else.
- What is the doctor’s opinion on medical society guidelines?
Medical societies usually update guidelines every five years or so. For example, the guideline for what is considered high cholesterol has been revised downward over the years, and as a result we have more people diagnosed with ‘high cholesterol’ and taking statins. An honest and independent doctor will acknowledge that the American Heart Association receives millions of dollars in donations from big pharma, and therefore their guidelines and so-called ‘cardiovascular risk calculator’ are literally programmed to put everyone on a statin. Yet the incidence of heart disease continues to skyrocket. Ask your doctor for their opinion on why this and other guidelines have changed, and if following those changes made patients healthier.
- Does the doctor use a ‘one size fits all’ approach?
Individual patients have different forms of disease and react differently to medications. For example, many patients with autoimmune thyroid disease who need thyroid replacement medication swear that natural desiccated thyroid hormone works much better than synthetic thyroid hormone. A good doctor will listen to a patient who knows his own body, a bad doctor will recite the medical establishment’s line that synthetic thyroid hormone works best for everyone.
- How does your doctor approach mental health issues?
In the wake of the pandemic, we now face a mental health epidemic. Does your doctor address depression and anxiety by quickly writing a SSRI or benzodiazepine prescription and wishing you good luck? Mental health issues are never solved by pills alone, and a good doctor will realize that a holistic approach (which may or may not require medication) is the way tackle mental health problems.
- Is ‘let’s wait and see’ an option?
If you only have time for one question, this is it. The financial incentives of our failing healthcare system will always push some sort of action – be it pills, a procedure, a surgery, or a hospital admission. The wait and see approach doesn’t make money for anyone, but it is often the wisest option for the patient. This philosophy also aligns with Hippocrates’ original principle of “First, do no harm.”
Above all else, trust your gut. If you feel like you are being rushed, pressured to take pills, or that the focus is more on the number of some test result than on you, don’t hesitate to push back. If enough people do that, maybe one day we can witness the birth of a new system that truly cares for health.
Paracelsus is an American physician and author of the newly released book "First Do No Harm" (Calamo Press).
