Be-Well Information

Most pharmaceuticals and medical procedures have been evaluated by clinical studies and peer reviews. This is a starting point for choosing your own health care in discussions with your medical professionals.

However, do not neglect the fact that you have your own chemical, physical, biological laboratory that can yield valuable information to the careful observer [you]. Think about yourself, what helps you, what hurts you.

Here’s a practical example. I know from reading that massive doses of some vitamins can poison, and that Linus Pauling was wrong to claim huge doses of Vitamin C could cure nearly everything from colds to cancers. But I do take daily multi-vitamin and multi-mineral tablets. From repeated experiments, I learned that the health of my gums and skin benefit from extra C and Zinc.

Understand that medical dosages are based on statistical studies of many subjects. Your symptoms and response can lie anywhere within that statistical population. That is why I was taking two medications well below the makers’ recommended therapeutic dose. That is why I observed my wife respond to a new medicine in a matter of hours that was supposed to take a few days to a week.

Her physician could not understand this, which made me wonder at his training.

My physician readily agreed with me, but declined to co-author a paper which could bring him unwanted publicity. Seems it is unwise to anger big pharmaceutical companies which swing multi-billion dollar bats.

So, here is what I recommend, because it has worked for me.

1. Be an informed patient. Contrary to what some of them still seem to believe, physicians are NOT gods. Other than those involved with research in some fashion, they are merely very highly paid dispensing technicians. Often their skills are made possible by engineers and scientists who can barely afford some of those medical services. Because our public education system does a rather poor job on science and health instruction (as well as history, economics, sociology, languages, mathematics, et cetera), learn how to use internet search engines and libraries. And learn how to separate the gems from the quackery.

2. If your primary care provider will not answer reasonable questions about routine care or extra procedures, go elsewhere immediately. Whether or not you have health insurance, you are responsible for some of his/her income. Your employer or Medicare might try to influence your choice of practitioner and/or fee structure, but this is still a relatively free country.

3. When deciding you need help, analyze and write down your complaints, your symptoms, and any possible outside influences. Don’t neglect time, weather, social stress situations, lack of sleep, food reactions, or anything else. Sometimes this is enough for you to solve the problem all by yourself. Certainly a good physician will welcome this information for diagnosis.

Example, I now avoid prepared foods with MSG or hydrolyzed protein, as I really did not need the induced headaches and irritated tongue.

4. After you and your health care provider jointly decide upon a treatment procedure, keep notes. Challenge your physician on the use of, for example, antibiotics. Used too freely, they can mess up your digestive system, skin, sleep, and more. I’ve been there and done that.

5. After a treatment has been declared successful, do keep occasional notes for follow up.

By the way, this does not mean that you should go around second guessing every little decision, or making yourself sick with worry. Worry alone can shorten your lifespan. But a truly aware and informed patient is less likely than most to have that condition most care providers dread, namely hypochondria.

A number of good resources on the internet will help you understand hypochondria, and whether you are subject to it. Look up such web sites as wikipedia.org, mayoclinic.com, medicalnewstoday.com, or nlm.nih.gov.
     If you are a victim, you might well benefit from the user forum at thehypochondriac.com, which helps people cope with both real and imaginary diseases.