Re: What Happened To The Art Of Medicine?

Really what happened to the "art of medicine"?  Where I live it is not practical to fantasize about such things.

I went to the doctor because my back was hurting, coincidently at the same time I tried moving a heavy object.

My visit was no more than a few minutes.

She (Dr.) says "Does it hurt here? What about here? And here?"  She touches a few different places on my back.

"I think you just pulled a muscle."

Then she writes me out a scriipt for a narcotic.  Of a whole bottle - like 35 pills with refills!

I told her my pain was a 5 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the worst.

Seriously?

I did not fill the prescription.  I wasn't going to take them and I did not want them in the house because I have two boys at home 15 and 11 yrs old.

I went home and took magnesium malate, chanca piedra and licorice root and felt better until the next day when it came back.  Then it began to occur to me that it might be my gallbladder causing me problems again.  I'm still not sure exactly, but little by little it has been getting better and I've mostly been taking supplements that help with gallbladder function and bile production.

If I hadn't known better I could have easily been just another person addicted to prescription meds.  This is not a rare event where I live.  I believe there are masses of people in the situation where the Doctors have become drug pushers and the patients have turned into mindless, but loyal returning customers.  They trust the doctors and many of these prescriptions are addictive, even the antidepressants!  I know, I was stuck on them myself for 13 yrs!

Unless I am in some kind of accident and need to be put back together with stitches, I pretty much feel doctors are of no use to me.  They're not even good at diagnosing anymore.

At least if I come here and ask James for some supplement recommendations, I can count on them having very few side effects and most of them time I end up feeling better because mostly everything he recommends has a way of building up the body and strengthening it and or cleaning it out or lowering inflammation. 

Since I've been coming here, I feel my body has improved in stages.  But I have to take on the work and document what I take and how I feel.  If I don't do a good job with it, then I might miss something.  It is extremely difficult diagnosing oneself without lab tests and an objective perspective, but it is by far safer, in my opinion than going to the doctor!  And the difference is, I actually feel better - not worse!