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...counsel you on lifestyle? Lifestyle such as your diet/nutrition, exercise, stress management, drinking/smoking habits? Or does your doctor just write scripts for pharmaceutical drugs?
Personally, I used to have great doctors in California who talked to me about my smoking (and enrolled me in a smoking cessation class where I successfully quit. Feel great gratitude toward that doctor.) Others docs have suggested meditation, more exercise, less sugar, etc. in my diet. All helpful.
Lately, though, in a new state, now on Medicare, there is little to none of this lifestyle medicine counseling. Everything's about pills, pills, pills. For example, I just decided not to fill a prescription for a medication with a major side effect of increasing the incidence of stroke and heart attacks. Looked up the med in a book called Good Pills. Bad Pills. Very helpful.
Seems we sometimes must be our own good doctors. The internet helps with this. As do these forums and the sharing of information.
What's been your experience with doctors in your area?
...counsel you on lifestyle? Lifestyle such as your diet/nutrition, exercise, stress management, drinking/smoking habits? Or does your doctor just write scripts for pharmaceutical drugs?
I see several doctors and they all push for healthy lifestyle,The main theme is they are only half the solution as its also up to the patient as well to follow their advice on curbing unhealthy lifestyles.
As far as taking the pills they prescribe? you could be putting yourself in danger by not taking them.
I used to not take taking pills seriously particularly the statin drugs for high cholesterol,then last summer i had a stroke cause was high cholesterol,high blood pressure and uncontrolled blood sugar levels,i now follow doctors advice and take the pills to keep everything under control,i also keep a comprehensive journal of drugs and amounts i take,blood pressure ,foods i eat,blood sugar readings before and 2 hours after meals along with weight .,its a pain in the butt but it helps all the medical professionals i frequently see to know where i'm at lifestyle wise.
...counsel you on lifestyle? Lifestyle such as your diet/nutrition, exercise, stress management, drinking/smoking habits? Or does your doctor just write scripts for pharmaceutical drugs?
Personally, I used to have great doctors in California who talked to me about my smoking (and enrolled me in a smoking cessation class where I successfully quit. Feel great gratitude toward that doctor.) Others docs have suggested meditation, more exercise, less sugar, etc. in my diet. All helpful.
Lately, though, in a new state, now on Medicare, there is little to none of this lifestyle medicine counseling. Everything's about pills, pills, pills. For example, I just decided not to fill a prescription for a medication with a major side effect of increasing the incidence of stroke and heart attacks. Looked up the med in a book called Good Pills. Bad Pills. Very helpful.
Seems we sometimes must be our own good doctors. The internet helps with this. As do these forums and the sharing of information.
What's been your experience with doctors in your area?
My doctor does, and she even referred me to a nutritionist covered by my plan. We check in about my diet and exercise during my visits.
My sister is at Kaiser, and she is recovering from serious life-altering surgery. As part of her treatment plan, they prescribed her yoga classes, meditation classes and some counseling to deal with all the change and trauma. She also has had several nutrition sessions as part of her treatment - the surgery caused her to become a Type 1 diabetic. She has gone to about 10 nutrition sessions so far.
Kaiser has great resources. And these extra resources were either free or had a small out of pocket price - like a regular doctors appointment.
She can also re-enroll in the yoga and meditation classes as needed.
On the other hand, as a patient, do you ever ask the doctor about lifestyle recommendations instead of prescriptions?
We do, our docs know we want to stay off prescription meds as long as possible. Last time I saw my gynecologist, we talked about where we liked to hike in the mountains.
On the other hand, as a patient, do you ever ask the doctor about lifestyle recommendations instead of prescriptions?
We do, our docs know we want to stay off prescription meds as long as possible. Last time I saw my gynecologist, we talked about where we liked to hike in the mountains.
I do try to talk with her about holistic/integrative medicine! And mostly what I get is a fishy-eyed stare and another prescription...which I mostly don't fill. Except for the high BP meds that I think are important as lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, meditation) don't seem to tame my BP consistently.
Recently told my doctor about how Linden tea was working to calm me and help me sleep, but she was not interested at all. Thought she'd want to share with other patients with high BP, but apparently not...
Last week, as I was leaving her office at lunch time, in came two suited individuals carrying a mountain of take-out food boxes.. I suspect pharmaceutical reps...any connection between her lack of interest in holistic medicine?
I don't like the doctors in my area so I don't go unless I'm deathly ill and I also take herbs and supplements so that I don't get deathly ill often. But I really don't care for the medical profession because half of them are hacks anyways and if they cant find out what you have then what good are they anyways ? yes holistic medicine is the way to go .
So you hear that the FDA just busted GNC, Walmart, and Walgreens for not actually having any of the herbs in their herbal supplements, right?
That makes it harder for anyone to have this conversation. Because it's not a tightly regulated business. You could literally put horse manure in a pill, put a label on it that says anything you want, and sell it on a shelf. Nobody is regulating this properly.
So hard for a physician to say, "Go take this supplement" when no one's sure which supplement actually has the supplement in it and at what dose.
And we've known since 1996 that there is no way to really know what is in the pill and how much of it.
So you can make useless snide comments about how a doctor would rather write a prescription, but the doctor knows that the FDA is extremely exacting about what is in that prescription pill, how much, the quality of the medication, etc.
The things I recommend to patients are based around weight loss, food and whole ingredients, as well as meditative, stretching, and other physical activity. The only pill I routinely recommend is fish/krill oil. It's better studied and there are more reliable sources of the pills.
Otherwise for things like cayenne or tumeric or cinnamon, I tell them to eat it whole/include it in their diets.
There are times I wish she would just write a damned prescription. She used to nag me about my weight so one time I asked her if I'd gained any in the 30 years I've been her patient. The answer was.............10 pounds, to 185 (5'11")
I don't drink but she does rightfully bug me about smoking.
Then exercise. Turns out that the couple miles a day and physical labor type stuff I do almost daily is just "normal exercise" and doesn't "count".
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