Forgetting about diagnosis by TV commercials, we all need to be educated consumers of health care.
Yes, doctors can be wrong. I saw a TV documentary about a woman doctor practicing in a hospital team environment who was having serious health problems that eventually forced her to leave. No one, herself included, could diagnose the problem and her complaints were dismissed. By chance, having read some history and of George III's problems, it was obvious to me that it was porphyria, which it turned out to be. Obscure maladies like tropical and rare diseases get missed. Sometimes you must be your own diagnostician.
Younger generation like my kids, millennials, think something slightly wrong and they go to the doctor. Nothing was fixed. For example, one of mine had severe allergies after she came back from a foodie trip from Florida that she couldn't breath, went to the best doctors, UCLA grads, they look up her nose, the procedure was code as a surgery and was charged $1000 and my kid had to pay $100. Nothing was solved. I told her not to go back, they wanted her to go back. Instead, she went to an acupuncture, get some herbal medicines and sure enough it did help. Now the problem is not 100 % gone but it's manageable. It turns out her friend went to treat allergies with western medicine and it didn't help either. Had my kid stayed the course with the UCLA doctors it would barely helped and cost tons of money through insurance.
I also told my kid to stay away from alcohol, she drank lots of cold alcoholic beverages in Florida, and the alcohol didn't help. So this is what I mean by not expecting miracles, you can't expect to abuse your body, in this case by drinking lots of alcohol and then go to doctors to treat allergies. Nobody would think there's a connection. But her acupuncturist said something about wet spleen and my kid's nose was slightly inflamed.
Some food we consume makes something worse and some better. So my kid is also taking turmeric to help with inflammation. The problem has subsided significantly.
I know my husband would laugh his head off if I told him maybe there is a connection between alcohol and allergies, but I treated his leg with turmeric and his doctor never did, x-rays and all that.
The fact is we own our own bodies, not the doctors. If I need surgery, go to the doctor, if I need antibiotics I go to my doctor, but in general I don't have a blind trust in doctors. Not all doctors are alike. Some are trust worthy, some are not.
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