Doctors have diagnosed me with dozens of conditions and then written an even larger number of prescriptions to match. Muscle relaxers, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds, several forms of pain medication, sleeping pills, dozens of inhalers, asthma pills, antihistamines, various creams, and the list goes on and on and on. If I was taking all of the medicine they suggested, I’d be walking around like a zombie.
The ironic thing about me saying this is that I’m known for how often I go to the doctor. At least 10 times a year most years. Every time an ailment came up, call the doctor! Every infection, get a prescription! It wasn’t until I started taking responsibility for my own health that I realized that I don’t need them as much as I thought I did.
Here’s an example: I was getting recurring bacterial vaginosis which is an embarrassing infection that happens when there’s a bacterial overgrowth. I was getting these infections constantly. Like once a month constantly. Each time, I’d go to the doctor and they’d write me the prescription and I’d go home and take the medicine and it would go away. Repeat that every. single. month.
It wasn’t until I was unable to get to the doctor right away that I realized something: it went away on its own. These types of imbalances show up but often times your body will correct it. I also found out some other things to prevent these types of infections and I haven’t been back since.
Why weren’t the doctors telling me the information that I ended up finding out on my own? Why couldn’t they tell me “just wait a couple of days and see if it goes away” or “try these methods to prevent future instances.” They just wrote the prescription and sent me home.
Here’s another example: at the age of 21, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The doctors immediately prescribed me muscle relaxers, pain medication and sleeping pills. One small issue with that: I was a single mom of a baby and couldn’t be doped up all the time. I had to be alert and able to take care of her. No time to experiment with medicine that would numb me.
I researched the condition and found out that keeping a regular routine, eating well, avoiding daytime naps, not drinking caffeine and many other things made a huge difference. (And most importantly, I learned that the support groups around it were full of enablers. People who gather around one negative thing only serve to perpetuate the condition.) Why hadn’t the doctors mentioned these options to me?
I could give so many examples of this happening to me with asthma and allergies and depression and child labor medication options that weren’t explained. I’ve come up with many of my own fixes including using a Neti pot for seasonal allergies (if you balk at it, you deserve to suffer with the effects. Seriously. It’s a practically free treatment and so effective. See Karol’s post for more info.), learned that exercise can often help curb anxiety and depression and discovered that many back problems are due to mental issues (read info by Dr. John Sarno for more on that topic).
I’m happy when doctors like Dr. Oz embrace eastern medicinal philosophies because that helps to avoid unnecessary medication in many cases. Unfortunately, in the U.S. doctors are looked at as the experts on all things medical and I would suggest that they are experts on writing prescriptions. The expert on fixing your medical issues should be you.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for bringing more light to this important topic Shannon. It’s unfortunate that most doctors won’t discuss alternative options with patients. It probably boils down to money and ignorance. Doctors have their place (in emergencies, for example), but their real job is to treat symptoms, not deal with causes. The more I think about it, the more I’m OK with that. I know if I need to numb a pain a doctor will be happy to write me a prescription for whatever I want. I know if I want to cure the cause of the pain I will usually have to rely on my own research and other people who write about their treatments publicly.
☛ Karol Gajda´s last blog post: Tick Tock Tick Tock (or What If You’re Running Out Of Time?)
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Shannon Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
I think I’m OK w/it too as long as everybody’s clear on the role of doctors. I spent too many years not getting that concept.
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Great points.
We went through a similar routine of visits/meds, etc with the little ones. They kept getting impitgo……an strep-like infection on their booties…..that required an antibiotic, which side effects included more diaper rash. I went back several times to treat it. It reoccurred more times than I can count while Blake was living in KC and me in Denver with the children alone.
It wasn’t until we moved to KC and saw a pediatrician here that the cycle stopped. She prescribed an antibotic cream to treat the spots as soon as they appeared. Done. No oral meds. No additional rash. No uncomfortable toddlers in a constant rotation of meds and symptoms.
She also suggested bleach baths and other options to keep infections down…..preventive measures…..to stop it before it happened again. I was so grateful. Not only were the multiple doctor visits costly (had to pay for each appt twice for two kids), the meds were expensive, the time was stressful and the symptoms of the oral antibiotics were difficult on the children.
Happy someone finally clued me in to thinking of prevention rather than treatment.
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Shannon Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Maybe the lesson there is just not to settle for a doctor who’s content to just write prescriptions. I’ve spent many years just being happy to get the meds without caring about any preventative or alternative methods. Thankfully, some doctors are better at it.
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Amazing world we live in and how people we know and care about, even for brief periods of are lives are always connected somehow. Anyway gr8 post this was one of 2 resolutions i made this NY. I have been going to doctors for 2-3 yrs who can’t give any answers but offer more and more pills but the only ones that work are narcotics. Which are neither good for me or a long term solution. Since i am addicted now and building a big tolerance fast i must find ways to deal with this on my on. Barely took aspirin till I was 30 now my counter is full medicine bottles. Side effects are worse than the symptoms. I just want to say to all who read this there is a lot to be learned and everyone needs to take responsibility for their own needs, we rely on others way to much in our society from doctors to politicians and even believe everything we see on the news. We as people need to pay more attention or we may no longer be FREE.
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Shannon Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
I hope you get better, Cory.
Having the Internet sure helps. Not sure how researching would have been possible 20 years ago.
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I couldn’t agree more. My doctor would dope me up on anything I want if I asked. When I was first treated from ADD, I was prescribed a way-too-high dosage of the medication. Instead of going back to the doctor, I experimented by myself. I cut the pills into smaller pieces and spread out how often I took them. I then told my doctor I needed to take 2 small doses of the extended release version. Done. It could have taken months of me feeling cracked out, irritable, and dealing with a racing heartbeat. Instead I solved my own problem and told her what I wanted. I don’t trust what they give you, instead I have The Sass Pharmacy. She decides what I take and how much. Great system I have here.
Also, LOVE the neti pot.
Great post, Shanny.
☛ Sass´s last blog post: 2010 Has Already Been Broughten.
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Shannon Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
I would have assumed the Pharmacy de Sass would have included more meds, not less.
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Shannon,
I agree with you, most of the medicines that doctors prescribe cause more harm than good. However, I promise you that next time I will disagree with you on something… I am tired of people agreeing always on anythiing a blogger says…
All the best!
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Shannon Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 12:23 am
Yes, please disagree! We don’t need a bunch of sycophants hanging out on this blog.
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I like this. I agree, there are many things that can be cured with health and exercise. There are things that are not…like my depression. I have tried, really tried, but I need my pills for that. I love my doctor because he combines holistic medicne along with regular medicine. He encouragers his patients to try things first before he goes the medicine route. Sometimes he prescribes both. I had a viral infection in my throat one time and he prescibed me medicine, but also told me to eat a thing of yogurt once every 3 hours for a day or two (aside from sleeping obv) and the active cultures would carry the germs down to my stomach where they would die in the bile. Gross, I know. But I got better a lot quicker.
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Shannon Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 12:24 am
But in that case, the doctor’s expertise at prescription-writing is needed. It is important to figure out other stuff on your own though, as you have, because the pill alone isn’t usually enough.
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