What if doctors starting prescribing nutrition and exercise? What if, instead of pills or surgery, they demanded that their patients try the natural method first? What if, when patients come in for colds and sinus infections, they prescribe going home and resting until it goes away?
These are just random thoughts I’m throwing around, but what if our doctors did a little more to put off responsibility on the patients themselves instead of aiding the pharmaceutical companies that give them free lunch once a week and tickets to the Lakers game?
Obviously, I have been fat a long time. In all those years, although I did have doctors tell me I needed to lose weight, it was more of a fleeting thought – no one ever sat me down and spoke with me about nutrition and exercise. When I began this journey of mine, I had to do the research. I still spend countless hours researching what I can do better.
What if we just start telling people no? Is that violating their Hippocratic oath, or is that just the prescription patients need?
My extremely smug former primary care physician bluntly told me, in 2003, that I needed to lose 50 pounds and bluntly told me that I needed to stop eating processed carbs and sugar because they wreak extra hell with my metabolic syndrom and bluntly told me that I needed to start exercising and that caring for two kids under 2 yrs old was no excuse for any of this. I ignored that (and got all indignant about it) for the next four years until whatever it was 'clicked' for me. For some people, the click just never happens. I think many physicians have made this valiant attempt to many patients for too many years and have finally realized that they would get better results telling the wall in their office to change its paint color. It's honestly not the doctors' fault that people don't listen or care and just want the latest quick fix for everything. If the MD handed you a script and wrote "clean, non-processed foods, five small meals per day, total 1500 calories" on a sheet, and "30 minutes meaningful cardiovascular activity and 30 minutes meaningful strength training" on another and handed them to you, you'd throw them in the trash on your way out. If she wrote you an Rx for fen-phen, Alli, Meridia, or whatever the pharmaceutical industry has cooked up these days, you'd run to the nearest CVS and pay whatever you had to to get the pills, then sit back and wait to be skinny. I have had to stop myself from reading and commenting on blogs of some bloggers whom I really think are good people and who I care about in that way you care about people on the internet you've never really met but get to know through their writing .. because I honestly am so frustrated with their pouting and snacking and scale fails and justifications and they're not quite trainwrecks yet but they are veering close to it. I can't put the time and energy into supporting them with positive reinforcement... or even negative reinforcement. It becomes apparent at some point that many people are hell-bent on talking the talk, but refuse to put any of their plans or promises into play. I assume my doctor felt the same way about me. When I went back 65 pounds later in 2008, she had no comment about that, either. She happened to be a bitch of the highest order but that aside, she was right to criticize me and probably right not to compliment me. I did what I should have done all along. I corrected a problem I never should have let happen, but it wasn't done because she told me to. :)
ReplyDeleteI can't even describe how much I agree with you, sometimes the click never happens. And sometimes people who are "trying" to lose weight still never have the click, they are just pretending. It just becomes so frustrating when you realize that what you eat and what you do is how your body's health responds directly - eating healthy can ward off so many afflictions, and I believe had my relative not continued drinking Mountain Dew after a cancer diagnosis, they might have had a better chance. Cancer feeds off sugar. Where did I learn that? Through Google. It's just frustrating all around.
ReplyDeleteAll insurance companies should start covering dietitians and covering gym memberships or refunding exercise equipment charges... that would be awesome... however, it STILL wouldn't help some people to do what they need to do... You can lead a horse to water, ya know...
ReplyDeleteI am from NY. I agree with you 100% Doctors are so quick to write prescriptions for people in pain but they don't offer any kind of assistance with nutrition guidance. I think that as a doctor who says "oh and you need to lose weight" to a patient should be obligated to offer some kind of assistance other than pill and/or surgery.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the noter above that insurance companies should pay for dietitians, gym memberships and even weight watchers. Or at least cover some of the cost of these. I do think that there are some insurance companies who do though, but I am sure they are pretty expensive.
I feel that its not right for the government to take control of these things whether you are over weight or not. We have a right to eat/drink and do what we want to ourselves. We are the ones who pay for it in the long run. They need to offer more help to those who seriously want it without taking away our rights and privileges.
More boobie pictures
ReplyDeleteI absolutely do not believe insurance companies should fund gym memberships and things like Weight Watchers or dietitians. Are they going to monitor if people go and exercise or attend WW meetings? I have to get a physical at an urgent care clinic every year in order to be able to drive a company car. It's very quick and the basic things like weight, blood pressure, vision, etc., are evaluated. They could base their premiums on BMI to some extent or reward people for losing weight perhaps. It is not the insurance company's responsibility that I lose weight. It is not the insurance company's responsibility to make me eat right or exercise or drink the water. It's MY responsibility.
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