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As a healthy 29 year old, I'm increasingly coming to the resolution that there's no reason to interact with doctors or the health system (with the exception of the dentist) unless something goes drastically wrong like an injury. For preventative care, minor issues, checkups, improvements to everyday health, the allopathic system seems to be fairly useless.
I can see the benefit of having a track record of blood work for health history, and for that I can schedule a virtual physical via MD Live and get the blood work from the local lab. The virtual physical was the best I ever had because the doctor actually explained what the line items on the bloodwork meant. Why would someone have a primary doctor, especially if you haven't stayed put in a location for 20 years?
I had elevated heart rate and tingling in 2021 and got 0 answers from doctors visits. It's since went away, I'm pretty sure it was long Covid symptoms, but I would have never got that answer from the health system in 2021 anyways, they didn't know. Even for cosmetic things like the dermatologist, half the time they don't offer the treatment and it's a hefty bill just to have them tell you what you found online. If at all possible, telehealth seems to be the better experience for things like a potential prescription or whatever.
It seems like expect the worst and multiple visits of hundreds of dollars and potential insurance headaches is the safe assumption to make. And for that, I'll just focus my my time and energy on living a healthy lifestyle and being knowledgeable about herbal remedies for minor issues (like say upset stomach or acne), which have been fairly successful in my experience.
In general, it seems like the US healthcare system is a trainwreck with hoards of uninsured horribly unhealthy people, where healthy people are treated like cash cows to fund the system for those that don't pay when they go in.
As a healthy 29 year old, I'm increasingly coming to the resolution that there's no reason to interact with doctors or the health system (with the exception of the dentist) unless something goes drastically wrong like an injury. For preventative care, minor issues, checkups, improvements to everyday health, the allopathic system seems to be fairly useless.
I can see the benefit of having a track record of blood work for health history, and for that I can schedule a virtual physical via MD Live and get the blood work from the local lab. The virtual physical was the best I ever had because the doctor actually explained what the line items on the bloodwork meant. Why would someone have a primary doctor, especially if you haven't stayed put in a location for 20 years?
I had elevated heart rate and tingling in 2021 and got 0 answers from doctors visits. It's since went away, I'm pretty sure it was long Covid symptoms, but I would have never got that answer from the health system in 2021 anyways, they didn't know. Even for cosmetic things like the dermatologist, half the time they don't offer the treatment and it's a hefty bill just to have them tell you what you found online. If at all possible, telehealth seems to be the better experience for things like a potential prescription or whatever.
It seems like expect the worst and multiple visits of hundreds of dollars and potential insurance headaches is the safe assumption to make. And for that, I'll just focus my my time and energy on living a healthy lifestyle and being knowledgeable about herbal remedies for minor issues (like say upset stomach or acne), which have been fairly successful in my experience.
In general, it seems like the US healthcare system is a trainwreck with hoards of uninsured horribly unhealthy people, where healthy people are treated like cash cows to fund the system for those that don't pay when they go in.
I'll start by saying at age 29, you're in what I will call a "honeymoon period" when it comes to physical health. From about age 20 through age 32, I could number on one hand the number of medical appointments I had (I think one of them was a life insurance physical). Its easy in that age group to believe you are nearly indestructible. The problem is that it doesn't last.
My breaking point came when my kids came along. If you have kids, you'll learn quickly that they get sick and bring illness home and you'll get it. No amount of vitamins or health food is going to cure a strep infection and I probably had them as many as ten times before my kids sort of grew out of them. I'll also add its dangerous to put off treating such an infection. The bacteria can cause you to develop severe complications if untreated.
I think there are many problems with our health care system myself. The costs involved are my major complaint. However, there are many many excellent practitioners delivering a wide assortment of medical services everyday. Its a really a shame to not understand that and not take advantage of it.
I'll give a couple of examples. My wife and I travel internationally a great deal. My old doctor retired and the one I am with now is new and younger. She saw we liked to travel and after making sure our hepatitis shots were up to date also got us a typhoid immunization (given in pill form). Another one is more personal, but let's say at age 63 I need a little help with some intimate issues. The same physician found a way to get me a medication that helped at extremely low cost.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking this system can't benefit you. Even if you seem healthy now, I'm telling you things will change.
I feel the same way, but I have also been very healthy. Anytime a health issue does pop up I just research it on google and find the issue myself and either know whats wrong before I go to the doctor or figure out it's not worth the trip.
The young always feel invincible if not youthfully ignorant by attributing their good health to vitamins and homeopathic, since you used the allopathic term.
The young want to know why they get sniffles and then get mad that a doctor can't tell them why they have snots.
As you get older that youthful ignorance will go away. You also won't be using terms like allopathic medicine. There are real doctors out there simply called doctors, not allopathic doctors. There's no homeopathic nor naturopathic hospitals.
"Healthy people are treated like cash cows"? You are referring to the alternative healthcare industry.
As a healthy 29 year old, I'm increasingly coming to the resolution that there's no reason to interact with doctors or the health system (with the exception of the dentist) unless something goes drastically wrong like an injury. For preventative care, minor issues, checkups, improvements to everyday health, the allopathic system seems to be fairly useless.
I can see the benefit of having a track record of blood work for health history, and for that I can schedule a virtual physical via MD Live and get the blood work from the local lab. The virtual physical was the best I ever had because the doctor actually explained what the line items on the bloodwork meant. Why would someone have a primary doctor, especially if you haven't stayed put in a location for 20 years?
I had elevated heart rate and tingling in 2021 and got 0 answers from doctors visits. It's since went away, I'm pretty sure it was long Covid symptoms, but I would have never got that answer from the health system in 2021 anyways, they didn't know. Even for cosmetic things like the dermatologist, half the time they don't offer the treatment and it's a hefty bill just to have them tell you what you found online. If at all possible, telehealth seems to be the better experience for things like a potential prescription or whatever.
It seems like expect the worst and multiple visits of hundreds of dollars and potential insurance headaches is the safe assumption to make. And for that, I'll just focus my my time and energy on living a healthy lifestyle and being knowledgeable about herbal remedies for minor issues (like say upset stomach or acne), which have been fairly successful in my experience.
In general, it seems like the US healthcare system is a trainwreck with hoards of uninsured horribly unhealthy people, where healthy people are treated like cash cows to fund the system for those that don't pay when they go in.
Ok, it's your decision, and your health. Personally, I have done more or less the same thing for decades. Unless you develop a chronic illness, there is very little docs can do for you. Someone mentioned strep throat but that goes away on its own whether you take antibiotics or not. Antibiotics may shorten the duration, but I'm not aware of any studies that conclusively show that, I'm aware of this meta-analysis that showed a shorter course of antibiotics vs longer course had no impact: https://journals.lww.com/ebp/Citatio...enting.16.aspx
Anyways, as you embark on this, you will need blood work. You can get that at any lab, and you can see a doc to help you analyze it, or if you wish to do it yourself (like I do), I recommend Lab Values by Mastenbjork. If you cannot understand this simple book, then you will need a doc to analyze your blood work.
Like everything in life, there is always a happy balance. Likewise, some people see their docs too much and others too little, try to find a nice balance.
Also, the key to health and longevity is not seeing your doc X times a year, but what you do everyday. Your diet, your exercise, your sleep. There is no medicine one can take to make them live long, healthy lives if they're not already doing these 3 things right.
With regard to laboratory work, I post on several sites with one being medical reddit. People way over emphasize the lab work and look at every little outlier as somehow being of massive significance and they just aren't with the ones that I have seen posted. Most of those people have symptoms.
In general one interprets laboratory work within a clinical context and if that clinical context is one where the person is asymptomatic then one is screwed when values are outside the reference range. Most of the time those tests are false positives which one would expect. One looks for other tests within the general panel or elsewhere to confirm the abnormality. Most of the time they are not implying a high probability of a false positive.
Even if an abnormality is confirmed then one looks at outcome and actions taken. One will often wait until the values are clinically significant or are generating symptoms before treating. One can detect chronic lymphocytic leukemia early on but one won't do anything until the count gets really high or is generating symptoms.
The general probability of detecting a significant clinical disorder with random blind testing is extremely low in the asymptomatic person. It is not cost effective and of questionable use.
The other main consideration is the quality of life one takes on when detecting laboratory abnormalities in the asymptomatic that causes the person to eventually become a hypochondriac. One become hyper vigilant and over anxious in being labeled as having a disease in waiting.
They did a study by blind testing people with a TSH and detecting a small fraction of people with subclinical hypothyroidism. Before the testing they did health survey questions about health. Half of the people were then told they had subclinical hypothyroidism while the other half with subclinical hypothyroidism were not told they had it. They followed both and then addressed questions again about how they felt. Those not told said they felt fine while the ones who were told their TSH was elevated took on a sick patient personality and felt miserable with a long list of complaints.
Medicine is symptom based in order to evaluate laboratory tests and if one is trying to do the reverse then it can fall apart.
I have to admit I felt the same way at age 29. In fact I recall being in my early 50's, thinking about my upcoming senior years, and wondering if there was any way to get through those years without ever seeing a doctor.
I've since changed my mind about this. I'm now in the throes of my old age, and found that regular medical visits, monitoring, and medical interventions have enabled quite a good quality of life for this old gal.
As a healthy 29 year old, I'm increasingly coming to the resolution that there's no reason to interact with doctors or the health system (with the exception of the dentist) unless something goes drastically wrong like an injury. For preventative care, minor issues, checkups, improvements to everyday health, the allopathic system seems to be fairly useless.
I can see the benefit of having a track record of blood work for health history, and for that I can schedule a virtual physical via MD Live and get the blood work from the local lab. The virtual physical was the best I ever had because the doctor actually explained what the line items on the bloodwork meant. Why would someone have a primary doctor, especially if you haven't stayed put in a location for 20 years?
I had elevated heart rate and tingling in 2021 and got 0 answers from doctors visits. It's since went away, I'm pretty sure it was long Covid symptoms, but I would have never got that answer from the health system in 2021 anyways, they didn't know. Even for cosmetic things like the dermatologist, half the time they don't offer the treatment and it's a hefty bill just to have them tell you what you found online. If at all possible, telehealth seems to be the better experience for things like a potential prescription or whatever.
It seems like expect the worst and multiple visits of hundreds of dollars and potential insurance headaches is the safe assumption to make. And for that, I'll just focus my my time and energy on living a healthy lifestyle and being knowledgeable about herbal remedies for minor issues (like say upset stomach or acne), which have been fairly successful in my experience.
In general, it seems like the US healthcare system is a trainwreck with hoards of uninsured horribly unhealthy people, where healthy people are treated like cash cows to fund the system for those that don't pay when they go in.
Yes but ... the allopathic system can be good if you ever need emergency surgery, or antibiotics for a deadly infection. The medical industry now has better technology than ever before. It's all about the technology. MDs have, in general, a very poor understanding of health. We are on our own when it comes to how to be as healthy as possible. Fortunately, the internet gives us better resources than ever before. I remember searching paper books in libraries, in the 1980s. Much better now.
I'll start by saying at age 29, you're in what I will call a "honeymoon period" when it comes to physical health. From about age 20 through age 32, I could number on one hand the number of medical appointments I had (I think one of them was a life insurance physical). Its easy in that age group to believe you are nearly indestructible. The problem is that it doesn't last.
My breaking point came when my kids came along. If you have kids, you'll learn quickly that they get sick and bring illness home and you'll get it. No amount of vitamins or health food is going to cure a strep infection and I probably had them as many as ten times before my kids sort of grew out of them. I'll also add its dangerous to put off treating such an infection. The bacteria can cause you to develop severe complications if untreated.
I think there are many problems with our health care system myself. The costs involved are my major complaint. However, there are many many excellent practitioners delivering a wide assortment of medical services everyday. Its a really a shame to not understand that and not take advantage of it.
I'll give a couple of examples. My wife and I travel internationally a great deal. My old doctor retired and the one I am with now is new and younger. She saw we liked to travel and after making sure our hepatitis shots were up to date also got us a typhoid immunization (given in pill form). Another one is more personal, but let's say at age 63 I need a little help with some intimate issues. The same physician found a way to get me a medication that helped at extremely low cost.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking this system can't benefit you. Even if you seem healthy now, I'm telling you things will change.
Sometimes some of the drugs are needed. Most of the time, most of them are not.
I can understand wanting to have a primary MD that you can communicate well with. How hard that is to find, I do not know, never tried to find one. I know how to search online, and how to sort out sense from nonsense. Even if I were going to see a doctor, I would do my own research first.
I feel the same way, but I have also been very healthy. Anytime a health issue does pop up I just research it on google and find the issue myself and either know whats wrong before I go to the doctor or figure out it's not worth the trip.
Yes yes yes.
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