Post #2 Electric Boogaloo or Why I Trust My Doctor
I’m not pregnant yet and my husband and I have been trying for a while, which is pretty fun, but we recently went to a doctor to help things along a bit. (That’s a subject for another post.) When I mentioned to a friend of mine that that we are going to need a little help from the doctor, my friend looked concerned and said, “I prefer Eastern medicine to Western Medicine in general. Western medicine waits until you’re sick to do anything, but Eastern medicine is about overall health and preventive care.” He then went on to say that Western doctors want you sick because that’s how they make their money.
I immediately pictured my doctor standing outside the exam room with dollar signs in her eyes chanting to herself, “Let her be sick! Oh, please let her be sick.” and greedily rubbing her hands while I sat on the other side of the door freezing my toes off in that inadequate cotton smock. This image is particularly funny if you’ve ever met my doctor, a lovely, smart, compassionate, funny woman who reminds me of Dr. Bailey on Grey’s Anatomy, but I digress…
My friend’s comments didn’t sit right with me and got me thinking. I’m pretty sure that just about all Western doctors would advise you to eat a balanced diet, exercise, stay rested and if you smoke, to stop. This is free preventative medicine.
Doctors do not get any kick backs from the grocery store when you buy fruit and vegetables, from the sweat suit company when you go for a jog, or from the mattress manufacturer when you get to bed at a reasonable hour.
A purveyor of eastern medicine may or may not give you the same advice, but they will also have you take herbs or receive acupuncture, which they provide at a price.
Hm.
Western doctor: ” You’re healthy, that’s great. Continue to do what you’re doing (eating right, exercising and getting enough rest) and don’t come back (or pay me) until you’re sick. “
Eastern Practitioner: ” You’re healthy…for now, but you need my help to keep you that way. You need to visit me regularly. Oh, and you need these things that I just so happen to be able to sell you.”
I get the appeal of Eastern Medicine. Regular “treatments” and taking herbs make you feel like you are doing something actively healthy, which might be more satisfying then having your doctor tell you to go away and come back when you’re sick. There is something so obvious and mundane about eating well, exercising and getting enough rest. Those things just aren’t sexy. But in this case the obvious and mundane is also cheap and effective.
Personally, the fact that my doctor doles out free, if somewhat predictable advice, makes me trust my doctor more.
chanson Said,
October 1, 2008 @ 6:14 am
Just last week I took my sons to the pediatrician to have their regular yearly check-up and booster shots. They were healthy, and I took them to a regular western-medicine doctor to help keep them that way. Similarly, I go to the doctor for check-ups periodically myself, as preventative medicine.
Regarding your friend’s theory that western medicine doesn’t kick in until you’re sick: I don’t think he’s thinking of “western medicine” so much as he’s thinking of modern American “you don’t have [enough] insurance, so scram unless it’s such an emergency that we’re required to treat you” medicine…
Squillo Said,
October 5, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
” There is something so obvious and mundane about eating well, exercising and getting enough rest. Those things just aren’t sexy.”
Indeed. Moreover, there is nothing exclusive about them, either–almost anyone can do them, although there are certainly more barriers for some.
Part of the appeal of “alternative” medicine and wellness practitioners is the fact that only a relatively few folks can afford them. As you point out, organic foods, regular treatments from the shaman of the day, yoga classes, etc. all cost money, and (with the possible exception of organic food) a lot of it. Adherents like to dress it up as a lifestyle choice born of more “education” or “awareness,” but it is largely another form of classism.
Rob A Said,
October 10, 2008 @ 2:16 am
“Eastern medicine is about overall health and preventive care.” – surely the emphasis is there because it can’t actually DO anything (beyond the wonders of placebo) when you are sick and in need of a cure?
Great to find you, rationalmums! Directed here via parentingbeyondbelief.com
perceval Said,
October 13, 2008 @ 7:41 am
I used Eastern med and cam in my desperate attempts to get pregnant, after being dissatisfied with the cold impersonal way our hospital dealt with us.
the reason i kept going back to cam was the support – people who listened and cared. if you ever feel you need additional support, i’d recommend a counsellor / talking therapist – boils cam down to the source of the placebo effect
Michelle Said,
January 15, 2009 @ 2:52 pm
You show such a trust in all the AMA and the FDA has to say
or do.
Just a quick story for you- my brother is a doctor. He gets
flown all over the place – last summer to Hawaii- with his whole
family. To play golf and eat well. He doesn’t pay for it, Merck
does, among others. They want him to use this or that drug, new on the market, not yet tested beyond 5 years, etc etc etc. He says it
happens all the time, and they get ‘perks’ if they cooperate with the
drug companies.
I like my doctor, but do I trust him?
Ethan Said,
January 24, 2009 @ 5:11 pm
Is it entirely appropriate that pharmaceutical companies can give doctors perks [or even outright cash payments] like that? No, in fact, businesses and governments generally have rules against it, calling it thing like ‘bribery’ or ‘corruption’, and it out to be against the law here too, but the truth is that these same pharmaceutical companies spend millions upon millions of dollars in Very strictly controlled trials [trials which can be terminated at any point, with no refunds, if they aren't showing results] on each and every new drug before it gets even close to the market, and while they’ve got bills to pay like anyone else, our doctors are still human, and surely realize that perscribing unnecessary drugs is generally a betrayal of their patients trust; alternative medicine, on the other hand, is almost always either without the backing of science [I'm talking controlled and randomized trials, not back-of-the-napkin reckoning based extrapolationg ideas that sound reasonable enough] or, in extreme cases like homeopathy, has been conclusively DISproven by all proper scientific study directed its way.
In a society where everything, you and me being no exception, is driven by profit, I only trust anyone’s motives so much, but I do take comfort in the knowledge that medical doctors are trained exhaustively in their craft, and that people smart enough to become doctors could probably have chosen an easier, better paying, and less expensive-to-enter profession than theirs had they not been concerned with helping sick people get better.