I work for CW doctors and sometimes their advice makes me cringe page 3

[RobinNM]

Does anyone know anything about Dr Mercola? I've heard good things about him as well but haven't read much on his website...I'll be honest his selling products puts me off. Thanks for the rec. PP1.

I've seen his name mentioned here on the site, but haven't really paid any attention, so don't know anything about him.

[RobinNM]

That's some scary stuff, Quies. It makes you wonder why you even bother documenting things in your medical record if they are going to ignore it so completely.

[Paleobird]

When I was in high school, I was diagnosed with epilepsy (Up until that point it had been a "seizure disorder") and the neurologist I was seeing put me on ever increasing doses of medication that weren't working. At one point, right after he had upped the dose again, I started falling asleep in classes I liked when I had never fallen asleep in any class before. I told him and he said that it would go away when I got used to the medication. It never did. I weaned myself off when I started college and while it got marginally better over time, the drowsiness has never gone away.

Just before I started college I had to get a TB test and a tetanus shot on the same day. The nurse was giving me the shots and the family doctor and my mom were in the room as well. After the first shot I started feeling an aura so I asked the nurse to wait a few minutes because I wasn't feeling well. She said I would be fine, stuck me the second time, and I was out. Found out from my mom later that the doctor and nurse had panicked and she had had to put her arm over me to make sure I stayed on the table and calmed down the doctor and nurse. When they were calm they actually asked her "You've been through this before, haven't you?" Of course, the fact that it said I was epileptic on the chart the doctor was looking at didn't mean anything...

More recently, I had to have blood drawn for a physical. My dad had brought me and he stayed in the waiting room. On the way to the chair I explained to the nurse that I was epileptic and have had seizures when I have been stuck with needles in the past and if I did just to leave me, I'd be fine. She stuck me, I was out. I woke up in the usual fog but started panicking because I could not breathe and it really didn't help that I had a half dozen nurses standing over me telling me I needed to calm down and control my breathing. It turns out that they had treated me for fainting (I collapse when I have a grand mal, I don't flail or shake) and when the ammonia didn't wake me up, they kept using it until I did. They did not tell my dad, who was literally on the other side of the door, or the doctor who had sent me down for the test.

These were three different practices, in three different cities, in two different states and does not include the numerous smaller incidents with doctors/nurses not paying attention to what I have to say. :/

Holy Crap! As someone else who is epileptic, I know what you mean about some MDs not listening. I have had to work my way through several neurologists. I have a thread about My Epilepsy Experiment you might find interesting about trying to control seizures with a ketogenic diet.http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread64225.html

Dr. Gundry is one doc who is on board with proper and clean nutrition. I follow his directions which are similar to Marks. See Diet Evolution or google Dr. Gundry.

I love Dr. G. I came to Primal by way of Diet Evolution. I think his writings are spot on up through the first phase of the diet (which is basically the same as PB). But then he starts evolving the diet back even further into huge amounts of green stuff with only a tiny protein garnish and then starts re-introducing grains. That's where it stopped working for me. We aren't meant to be eating like gorillas.

Does anyone know anything about Dr Mercola? I've heard good things about him as well but haven't read much on his website...I'll be honest his selling products puts me off. Thanks for the rec. PP1.

Um, there have been accusations that Mercola gets paid to endorse "the miracle supplement of the month" so those things I would take with many grains of salt. But I think he does have some basic good advice on nutrition such as sounding the alarm that soy is not the health panacea it was marketed as and saying that iodine is good in small amount preferably from natural sources but that mega doses are not needed and can be downright dangerous.

[jribb]

It's amazing that they don't know about bone broth. Oh yah...I forgot...it's not marketed by a pharmaceutical company.

You have to consider that you're talking to a cancer patient who may not have the energy or follow-through to be cooking exotic food items. It's not like you can buy bone broth in an average store. Medical advice sometimes requires you to weigh the ideal against the practical.

[RitaRose]

Frankly, I'm not too upset that they're not focusing on nutrition in med school. It's not like they'd be teaching them to eat saturated fat and whole foods.

[Moll]

Frankly, I'm not too upset that they're not focusing on nutrition in med school. It's not like they'd be teaching them to eat saturated fat and whole foods.

Fair point - but if they DID have more emphasis on nutrition, it might get students to actually think about it. This could potentially lead them to draw new conclusions that deviate from CW. If you don't know something is important, you're not going to pay much attention to it.

[Quies]

Holy Crap! As someone else who is epileptic, I know what you mean about some MDs not listening. I have had to work my way through several neurologists. I have a thread about My Epilepsy Experiment you might find interesting about trying to control seizures with a ketogenic diet.http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread64225.html

I gave up on seeing doctors unless it is absolutely necessary. I never seem to find one willing to work with and listen to me and right now I have them down to 1-2 per year without medication. The possibility of eliminating them with a ketogenic diet is one of the things that drew me to the primal blueprint though.

[Neckhammer]

You have to consider that you're talking to a cancer patient who may not have the energy or follow-through to be cooking exotic food items. It's not like you can buy bone broth in an average store. Medical advice sometimes requires you to weigh the ideal against the practical.

Bullshit...what are u a med student? Take it as a lesson then. Each patient deserves better than a "just cover my ass history" and diagnosis. Become more than whats expected of you and DONT count your patient out until they do so themselves. By that I mean suggest THE BEST care schedule and recommendations IN YOUR estimation. Leave it up to the patient to decide if it is worth their time and money. It's their health and as a "Health Professional" it's up to you to give them the best option.....even if they end up opting for the worse.

[jojohaligo]

You have to consider that you're talking to a cancer patient who may not have the energy or follow-through to be cooking exotic food items. It's not like you can buy bone broth in an average store. Medical advice sometimes requires you to weigh the ideal against the practical.

Bone broth is hardly exotic. My grandmother and my mother used to make it regularly (every couple of weeks) - in North America.

Bone broth is also a metaphor in my example for healthy, nutritious eating, which a doctor - you would think - would be interested in recommending to her/his cancer patients, rather than be lazy and slog Ensure.

[nixxy]

There are so many things to consider with healthcare though, and it's not going to change overnight. I work at a medical centre and live with med students.

I mean, for example, people talking about being accused of being alcoholics or drug users because of certain ailments etc... The nurses and doctors are human. You too would be frustrated at constantly seeing people coming in ill because they're abusing themselves with alcohol and drugs. We have so many drug abusers coming into the clinic every day with various problems. It's not good for the doctors and nurses to become bitter and start projecting onto other patients that they must be abusing drugs or alcohol but you must understand how it can happen. It's all about perspective.

I don't think it's wise for us to think we have all the answers. Doctors are definitely not as well versed in nutrition as they should be but their sheer bulk of experience with dealing with human bodies can't be put aside, and we can't believe we know better than them because we have spent a few years reading internet research for a few hours a week. There will always be horror stories about misdiagnoses... mistakes happen and it's so unfortunate but it is reality. I think we should treat ourselves with diet and exercise but when that fails, which it also unfortunately does sometimes (no matter how amazing you eat you are not invincible), we should turn to doctors.

I just really think it is dangerous for people to feel like they know 100% and to start advising other people based on studies and reading from the internet. The biochemistry and physiology and all of the other information just isn't there in a non-medically trained person, whether they're advising with CW or not.

The legal bullshit with healthcare makes me so angry. No wonder doctors don't want to take risks and try alternatives... they'll get sued to within an inch of their life! The expectations on doctors are insane. Since when is someone else more responsible for your health than you are?? We get these patients coming back the next day after seeing the doc for a virus demanding to be seen again for free and to be prescribed an antibiotic. People have this attitude that they pay a doctor to fix them. It's YOUR body. It's not like a car where you pay someone to replace a tyre or whatever, it doesn't work like that with a human body. And don't even get me started on people demanding antibiotics when they only have a cold/flu and don't understand how they fucking work whatsoever.

We're all ultimately responsible for our own health at the end of the day.