by Matt Weik
If you talk to people in the community, they will tell you how many are upset with their doctor. But is it really the fault of the doctor? I used to be on the fence of who was to blame for Big Pharma getting everyone’s money and the reason why so many doctors push their patients off to the pharmacy to grab a prescription.
My attitude has changed slightly. It’s not really the fault of the doctor, but the system in general. The doctor has about 10 minutes to spend with you. They don’t have time to uncover underlying issues or fix your problems. The quickest and easiest way is to get out the pad of paper, write a script, and send you on your way.
While I would love to see this change and have doctors spend more time with patients, I understand the workload put on them by so many appointments each day where they want to help as many people as possible.
So, I came up with some solutions. After all, if people want to bitch and complain without an idea of how to fix it, all we have are a bunch of people bitching and moaning. Let’s see if what I have laid out below can ever go into effect and force some change. And I want to hear your thoughts on if this is a pipedream or if we can actually make this happen.
Work with Nutritionists/Dieticians in the County
If you think about all of the illnesses and diseases today, many are preventable or at least can lower your risk. Nutrition plays a HUGE role in our overall health and those who are obese generally end up being the ones with the highest probability of getting sick or a disease. Why? Because nutritionally they’re consuming junk. High sugar and high fat food. Not to mention the plethora of processed junk they are putting in their bodies.
To fix this, rather than a doctor prescribing pills to treat their horrible blood profile issues, solve the problem through educating the consumer. If they don’t want the help, so be it. At that point, they made their bed. You can’t help someone who doesn’t want help. But fixing the underlying issue should be the first step.
How do we do this? Have doctors hook up with nutritionists and dieticians in their area. Refer patients to these professionals and allow them to do what they do best – find a nutrition plan that helps the patient lose weight and provide their body with all the nutrients it needs to get and stay healthy.
Work with Professional and Certified Personal Trainers
The second solution on the list (similar to working with a nutritionist or dietician) would be to have doctors work with professional and certified personal trainers. Nutrition and exercise go hand in hand and together can provide amazing results for your overall health and fitness – not to mention weight loss.
Again, one of the things that is causing Americans to fall ill and succumb to various diseases is a lack of movement. Sure, technology can be blamed for part of our sedentary lifestyles, but at the end of the day, no one is telling you to sit on your butt all day long.
Getting up and moving throughout the day, joining a gym, working out at home, going for a walk after dinner, the list goes on and on of all the ways you can help lower your risk factors for becoming sick.
Through the help of certified personal trainers, patients of the doctor can meet with the trainer(s) they choose to work with and recommend their patients go to them for the next step in their health and wellness program.
It could be just me and the way I see and think about things, but nutrition and exercise are incredibly important to improving everyone’s life. You feel better, you have more energy, you can prevent many illnesses and diseases, you can maintain your independence or become more independent, and could have fewer medical bills due to fewer illnesses and trips to the doctor. It just makes sense, right? Ok, let’s keep this train moving.
Educate Patients on Proper Supplementation
All Americans should be taking a multivitamin supplement. Yet, many of them don’t. While it’s not impossible to get in all of your daily recommended micronutrients, I will say it’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of food. For most, it’s just not feasible. So, why not let a multivitamin fill in the nutritional gaps for you?
The problem with many doctors is that they aren’t educated on supplements. I can’t fault them for it – they’d have to go above and beyond to learn all about them on their own. I can’t expect doctors to take time out of their day to do research and for that reason, something should be put in place from a well-recognized organization that can oversee supplements and the research behind them. From there, the information should be supplied to all doctors across the US.
Simply starting with recommending a multivitamin supplement to patients would go a long way. From there, specific vitamin or mineral supplements can be implemented into a patient’s routine to help precise ailments someone may be suffering from. There’s a lot of information and research already out there and has been for years. Why aren’t we effectively utilizing it? Yes, Big Pharma comes into play as one of the reasons why. But that needs to change.
Fix the Problem – Not Treat with Medication
Here’s the bottom line I’m trying to get across with all of this… Medicating American’s isn’t the answer. Take a good hard look at the side effect list of the medications you may be taking. The side effects are worse than the actual disease or illness you may have. It’s insanity. You’d almost be better off NOT taking the medication.
While I fully understand some medications are 100% necessary, if it’s not absolutely necessary then I’m not a proponent of their use if you can fix the condition through other means. Again, I circle back to the same stance I’ve had this entire article and that’s you need to fix the problem. I love the saying, “You can’t fix a bullet hole with a Band-Aid.” Unfortunately, that’s what a lot of people are doing, and it needs to change sooner rather than later.
