To ‘gram’ your ‘mam’ or not…being your own advocate

It’s been said time and again but now it is more important than ever. You need to be your own health advocate in every single situation relating to your health & wellness. We are deep in the ongoing debate about whether to vaccinate against the flu & H1N1 or not & just recently, new guidelines came out regarding when women should begin regular mammograms.

There is hot debate about both of these topics & thankfully, there is growing dialogue about much of Western medicine today. Not to say that Western medicine is bad, it’s just a really good thing to have open dialogue about other care methods – naturopathic, homeopathic, eastern medicine, chiropractors, massage, meditation, etc. because not every treatment is right for every person & not every medicine does exactly what it should without doing something harmful to another part of the body.

Every person should have the choice of how they are going to manage their health. Health & wellness is so varied from person to person, and sometimes Western medicine is single-focused, so allowing for a person to have the option to seek multiple & alternative methods, is a good thing. What would be even better (and is a growing, although still small, segment of the medical community) would be to have every doctor work as an integrative physician, who incorporates Western, Eastern, homeopathic & alternative medicine methods.

What you must do is research, research, research. Know that you need to look beyond basic news coverage & what your doctor tells you in the 4 mins they are with you in the room. Example: I was getting a physical & the doctor was inspecting my skin. I had a slight rash under my arm from running with my iPod arm band on. I told her I knew that it was a rash & where it came from & that it would go away, but she thrust in my hand samples for a prescription cream & said, “If you like these, I can get you a script for them.” A prescription recommendation for something that runners have used Vaseline for since runners started running wearing garments that chafe your skin…seems odd.

And know that ‘research’ does not just mean going on WebMD and trying to self-diagnose. Not only is this potentially dangerous since you are not a doctor, this is also often misleading. Example: A family member (under 25 yrs old) was having pain in her knees. She got an MRI at which the tech told her they thought they saw lesions on her femur. 1. Techs are not supposed to tell you anything because they are not licensed or as well-trained as a doctor to read the MRI results. 2. If you WebMD ”lesions on the femur”, you’ll come up with multiple articles indicating serious cancer. What a fantastic way to scare the hell out of yourself!! Turns out, the family member was fine and just needed some physical therapy to get her knees & stabilizer muscles stronger. No cancer, thank you very much WebMD.

Research means getting connected with a physician or or chiropractor who practices naturopathic care, or more well-rounded/integrated care, & who can begin educating you about the root of what may be your issue, rather than only looking at the symptoms, which is what typical medical doctors do. From there, you can begin searching for articles & sites on the web that are in the same vein of the direction what you’re finding with your doc. Example: My godsend, Dr. Turner who has been my chiro/naturopathic doctor for 2 years now has transformed my life (I will get so far off tangent if I talk about how he’s changed my life, it’s best saved for another post) by teaching me to look deeper, at my nutrition, my nutritional supplementation, my lifestyle, my past 26 years of life & how that impacted my insides today. He got me to start searching for things like “Candida”, “ph balance”, “Gluten free”, “organic”, on the Web so I could do my own educating outside of my appts. with him. Granted, you will always stumble across total quacks on the internet but you will also find groups of really in-the-know experienced-exactly-the-same-thing-themselves people who can help you gain speed on your overall health & life changes. 

Medical drugs, tests, & treatments have their place. Just know that often the side effects of some drugs can be just as harmful or dangerous as the symptoms they are treating. And know that not every doctor is looking at the complete picture when they meet with you. Some doctors really have it together, but there are a great many more who are working under tight deadlines, needing to meet prescription quotas, and who are not well-educated beyond their basic medical knowledge. No matter what you choose to do with the care of your health – the fact is – you, and everyone else, should have the choice to decide what doctors they want to see & what treatments they want to have.

Your health is too important to just let someone else tell you what you need. Another example: I met a man who had taken a slip & fall. Before the fall he had no issues. Due to having a slip & fall over the age of 60, a CT Scan was done on him. From that scan, the doctors decided that his gall bladder had stones & they should remove it. I asked this man if he’d had any pain or problems with digestion, warranting the removal surgery. He said no, he felt fine but they saw stones so they wanted them out. Now, whether the surgery was really necessary or not, will never be known, but it is safe to say that he got a $85,000 bill from that surgery alone & THAT is an expensive choice that you should be allowed to make yourself without doctors making that decision for you.

Whether you get the H1 N1 shot or get your mammogram at 40 or 50 – please make certain that you are as educated as you can be before going forward with any medical decisions. It’s not fair to bash one method of care or another without knowing what you’re talking about so 1. ask lots of questions of your doctor, yourself, your friends who are taking treatments that are new or different to you, 2. read & educate yourself about the ROOT of your symptoms, not just the symptoms, 3. decide if the side effects of Rx & OTC drugs are worth it to you…an aspirin does not just go to the spot where you’re sore. It goes through the whole body & over time, does have a cumulative effect in the liver – you need to think about more than just the immediate answer for your problem. How can this help or hurt you long-term? How will this affect other areas of your body/health? Is this the absolute only way for you to receive treatment for your issue? If not, what else is out there? Research it!, and them make an informed decision.

I have my own beliefs about medical care & while they may not be right for everyone else, I know that I really value the fact that I get to choose to bypass western medicine as much as possible. Having the opportunity to choose is vital & I urge you to be an active consumer in the care of your health!