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I wouldn't go that far but I did think like that at your age also and come from a medical skeptic oriented background. Mainly because of errors in medical treatment or care. It is the third leading cause of death. https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/04/...health-threat/
1) Emergency care is the best care to receive at a hospital
2) Diagnostic type care is best at an independent diagnostic clinic / lab
3) If you choose to or are required to take any drugs, look up for yourself in Physicians Desk Reference the side effects and talk with a Pharm D who is knowledgeable on the drugs.
I am big believer in the body (if you live right : nutrition, exercise, rest etc) - if you are tuned into your well being and monitor your "inputs" and "output" will enable you to, in most instances, let you know something is not quite right and then seek out help from *multiple* views points on medical care/treatment.
Much of modern healthcare is like whack a mole with treatments. Looking forward to Star Trek 'Scanner' that can tell the "practitioners" what "is" versus much educated guessing.
A great cartoon my parents had hanging by telephone was a Doctor admonishing the nurses: "Don't keep patients in the waiting room to long, because, you know, nature heals too".
The other issue is finding a medical care giver with a philosophy in line with your thinking. Doing the least necessary. I say this because the "System" is inherently set up to benefit:
1) the hospital
2) the insurance companies
3) Pharma corps
4) Plan providers and
You are just a unit in the healthcare treatment industry.
Much of “The Medical Industry” works as a racket:
1) "Overpricing" by medical institution to write off what they don't collect to maintain ‘not for profit’ status
2) Shift the loss to the 'Uncompensated Care program" so Washington increases their Medicare Medicaid payments
3) Insurance companies engage in "claims repricing", whereby the insurance company back charges the employer group health plans of the claimant by a percent of the 'discounted savings' payments.
Transcript from a Doctor explaining how it works:
"..there are a lot of players in the mix that benefit from the high hospital billing. The hospitals create giant bills, not because they hope to collect it all, but because they write off the portion they are not paid. They then claim that as a loss to maintain the fiction that they are not for profit status, because most of these places are tax exempt. As not for profit they need losses to justify their tax-exempt status and that makes them perversely inclined to charge someone with no ability to pay them the highest amounts because that’s where the greatest losses come from.
They are also able to shift that loss through what’s called the uncompensated care program back to Washington where they then receive a rebate to the extent that they were not paid on those claims. Medicare and Medicaid payments for the next year are bolstered by these rebates disproportionate share of hospital payments. The hospitals are incentivized to create these gigantic bills because they get paid by the insurance companies.
The insurance companies want the patients to go to the highest price hospitals because they make money on claims repricing. The insurance company discounts the high hospital bills and then back charges the employers group plan a percent of the false savings (many times 35% of savings) and a lot of money is made from this process. The insurance company is billing for the discount it just gave."
The only reason I ever visit a doctors office is because I have to remain up to date with my annual checkup for the VA and If that wasnt required, I probably wouldnt go at all. I am rarely, if ever sick and in the last 8 or so years there has maybe 3 or 4 times that I wasnt feeling well and it lasted no more than 24 hours.
I have the utmost respect and gratitude for great physicians and surgeons, like the ones who did 5 bypasses and 3 stents for my mom 8 years ago, she's doing great at 85, the ones who rebuilt my arms after a terrible fall and the doctor who recognized Guillain-Barre Syndrome in my son.
And no disrespect for the rest. I tell them upfront that I don't want meds unless absolutely necessary. If they find something wrong then give me lifestyle changes first. I recognize their standard practices are typically to diagnose and write a prescription.
I recently was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis even though I am extremely active and healed quickly after the above injury. Couldn't get any details besides one T-Score. Doctor couldn't get any other details, she simply wrote a prescription for Fosamax and sent me on my way. I'm taking a different route, paying cash to work with a surgeon who specializes in bone health.
I'm happy we're able to research so much online ourselves so we can make choices and manage our own care.
she simply wrote a prescription for Fosamax and sent me on my way. I'm taking a different route, paying cash to work with a surgeon who specializes in bone health.
Fosamax is a bad rx, maybe you knew this (as you opted not to take it) but just in case you didn't, read this:
I was told once by an HR Director at a healthcare seminar that the #1 type of person who dies or has serious consequences from a medical issue is not who you think. It's not "Verna" down the hall, who is always complaining about this or that health issue. It's "Bob" down the hall who has always had excellent health, so rarely if ever goes to the doctor. Therefore, when some issue comes up (maybe one that Bob doesn't even know exists), Bob doesn't catch it early.
I'm in my 60s and am lucky to have had excellent health all my life. In fact, my lab work is better now than when I was 30...and it was normal when I was 30. I've had regular annual exams most years, skipping just a few.
There is value in knowing your numbers, what is normal for you, just as it's valuable to know your parents' medical history. Is your cholesterol running higher than mid-normal when you're 60? Is that a creeping problem? Or has it always been at that level? (some have numbers that routinely run above or below the mid-level of a lab test.)
Keep copies of your lab reports on your pc, and you'll have them to refer to in the future.
Things can happen that are beyond your control. You can do everything right and still get cancer or lose bone density because you've been low in Vitamin D for years but didn't know it. It's not a big deal to me. Just one annual exam a year to ensure your body isn't out of whack. It's good to know. And that is the only way to catch something early, before symptoms.
But if you're like me, you'll continue to be healthy for decades. Still, I don't regard the annuals I had as a waste of time.
But if you don't want to, don't do it. It's a free country.
I have the utmost respect and gratitude for great physicians and surgeons, like the ones who did 5 bypasses and 3 stents for my mom 8 years ago, she's doing great at 85, the ones who rebuilt my arms after a terrible fall and the doctor who recognized Guillain-Barre Syndrome in my son.
And no disrespect for the rest. I tell them upfront that I don't want meds unless absolutely necessary. If they find something wrong then give me lifestyle changes first. I recognize their standard practices are typically to diagnose and write a prescription.
I recently was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis even though I am extremely active and healed quickly after the above injury. Couldn't get any details besides one T-Score. Doctor couldn't get any other details, she simply wrote a prescription for Fosamax and sent me on my way. I'm taking a different route, paying cash to work with a surgeon who specializes in bone health.
I'm happy we're able to research so much online ourselves so we can make choices and manage our own care.
You can request a copy of your bone scan. I get mine. Most things are electronic, now, so it's online somewhere. If not, you can ask them to send you an electronic copy.
I've read some bad things about fosamax. Something about it will help build bone density, but it's weak bone mass and may not be worth the side effects.
I've been reading up on whether weight bearing exercises really will make a difference. There's also a difference of opinion of what constitutes "weight bearing." I'd think it includes working out with weights, but my dr. said it means only standing up and walking or jogging, and the like. That doesn't make sense to me. I need to do more research on that.
One woman in a health Facebook group I belong to said she turned around her bone density issue with accelerated weight workouts, with a definite regimen and schedule. It took her a while, but she did it. Of course, I don't know her, so don't know if she's even telling the truth.
If they'd let us take HRT for longer, this wouldn't be a big issue. Doctors on Youtube say that the results showing breast cancers for some who took HRT longer were misinterpreted, that the ones who got cancer had other issues that played key roles (like obesity, sedentary lifestyles, other health issues, etc.). So for some/many women, there's no evidence indicating that HRT for years would add to risk of breast cancer. I hate that doctors seem to baby women, deciding for them whether or not they should take this or that. My internal medicine dr said his wife (in her 30s) planned on taking HRT until about age 65. He said there's no evidence that that would be a medical problem. Still, try to find a dr to prescribe it, and you're out of luck. Someone has decided that it's better for women to lose bone mass and start breaking hips, rather than having a lump removed. The avg life span after breaking a hip is 10 yrs.
You can request a copy of your bone scan. I get mine. Most things are electronic, now, so it's online somewhere. If not, you can ask them to send you an electronic copy.
I've read some bad things about fosamax. Something about it will help build bone density, but it's weak bone mass and may not be worth the side effects.
I've been reading up on whether weight bearing exercises really will make a difference. There's also a difference of opinion of what constitutes "weight bearing." I'd think it includes working out with weights, but my dr. said it means only standing up and walking or jogging, and the like. That doesn't make sense to me. I need to do more research on that.
One woman in a health Facebook group I belong to said she turned around her bone density issue with accelerated weight workouts, with a definite regimen and schedule. It took her a while, but she did it. Of course, I don't know her, so don't know if she's even telling the truth.
If they'd let us take HRT for longer, this wouldn't be a big issue. Doctors on Youtube say that the results showing breast cancers for some who took HRT longer were misinterpreted, that the ones who got cancer had other issues that played key roles (like obesity, sedentary lifestyles, other health issues, etc.). So for some/many women, there's no evidence indicating that HRT for years would add to risk of breast cancer. I hate that doctors seem to baby women, deciding for them whether or not they should take this or that. My internal medicine dr said his wife (in her 30s) planned on taking HRT until about age 65. He said there's no evidence that that would be a medical problem. Still, try to find a dr to prescribe it, and you're out of luck. Someone has decided that it's better for women to lose bone mass and start breaking hips, rather than having a lump removed. The avg life span after breaking a hip is 10 yrs.
Any high impact exercises (jumping, jogging, running) will increase BMD and decrease in physical activity will also decrease it. Resistance training may help as well. However, most people who have osteoporosis may not find such workouts to be feasible due to joint pain.
In general, it seems like the US healthcare system is a trainwreck with hoards of uninsured horribly unhealthy people, where healthy people are treated like cash cows to fund the system for those that don't pay when they go in.
You can thank your federal and State governments and the American Hospital Association for that.
Question is, what are you gonna do about it? Nothing, except whine.
As a healthy 29 year old, I'm increasingly coming to the resolution that there's no reason to interact with doctors or the health system (with the exception of the dentist) unless something goes drastically wrong like an injury. For preventative care, minor issues, checkups, improvements to everyday health, the allopathic system seems to be fairly useless.
I can see the benefit of having a track record of blood work for health history, and for that I can schedule a virtual physical via MD Live and get the blood work from the local lab. The virtual physical was the best I ever had because the doctor actually explained what the line items on the bloodwork meant. Why would someone have a primary doctor, especially if you haven't stayed put in a location for 20 years?
I had elevated heart rate and tingling in 2021 and got 0 answers from doctors visits. It's since went away, I'm pretty sure it was long Covid symptoms, but I would have never got that answer from the health system in 2021 anyways, they didn't know. Even for cosmetic things like the dermatologist, half the time they don't offer the treatment and it's a hefty bill just to have them tell you what you found online. If at all possible, telehealth seems to be the better experience for things like a potential prescription or whatever.
It seems like expect the worst and multiple visits of hundreds of dollars and potential insurance headaches is the safe assumption to make. And for that, I'll just focus my my time and energy on living a healthy lifestyle and being knowledgeable about herbal remedies for minor issues (like say upset stomach or acne), which have been fairly successful in my experience.
In general, it seems like the US healthcare system is a trainwreck with hoards of uninsured horribly unhealthy people, where healthy people are treated like cash cows to fund the system for those that don't pay when they go in.
I went over 30 years without seeing doc.
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