Doctors, Dictators, and the Medical Autocracy
Jean Wendrick acknowledges that she’s been mostly unhealthy her whole life—suffering from diabetes since she was in her 20s and overcoming breast cancer more recently.
At a doctor’s appointment last year, Ms. Wendrick learned she has osteopenia, a condition in which her body isn’t making new bone cells quickly enough, which often leads to osteoporosis. Her doctor suggested medication—the same type her mother has been taking.
“It was devastating to me,” she said. “My mom is hunched over with osteoporosis and can only look at the floor. She’s in so much pain, and she took all the meds. It was all for nothing.”
While Ms. Wendrick can see her potential future when looking at her 86-year-old mother, she also finds reasons, when thinking of her 18-year-old daughter, Victoria, whom she had at age 47, to make the changes that can restore her health.
The Doctor’s Dilemma
Ms. Wendrick’s experience is common. Facing devastating illness, patients are offered drugs that have little effect and create problems that patients may never be told about.
While some doctors will do little beyond suggesting surgery or a new prescription, many others do recommend their patients make lifestyle changes to fundamentally resolve the cause of chronic conditions.
However, all too often, these recommendations come as brief commands to “lose weight,” “exercise more,” or “eat better” and are often served with a sprinkle of judgment.
Health care providers may then blame patients for their inability to follow such orders.
“A majority [of both physicians and nurses] agreed that a major barrier to the treatment of lifestyle-related conditions is patients’ unwillingness to change their habits,” the study states.
“Everybody basically wants to lead a healthy life,” Dr. Lindsay told Scope, “but there are different beliefs and obstacles that contribute to ambivalence.”
Helping patients overcome those beliefs and navigate those obstacles simply isn’t in the job description for many health care practitioners.
Ms. Wendrick is on a mission to get her diabetes under control, lose weight, and strengthen her bones. She hired a new doctor to help her succeed, Dr. Scott Doughty, a family doctor at U.P. Holistic Medicine in Michigan. Ms. Wendrick calls him “the boss.” She’s lost 30 pounds so far and said she feels like she’s in her 20s.
For the first time in her health care experience, Ms. Wendrick felt listened to and that she had suitable options and a support system that would allow her to avoid the poor prognosis she was facing. It became easier for her to comply because she felt in control and supported by Dr. Doughty, she said.
Ms. Wendrick isn’t an exception. Patient engagement, motivation, and support are vital ingredients for healing disease from the standpoint of functional medicine and research studies.
The AMA also raises the need for an engaging coach, someone capable of getting patients to participate in lifestyle programs.
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