This afternoon my 55 year old GP gave me a passionate little lecture about the disservice medicine has done promoting low fat, high grain diets, as well as supporting getting corn into everything until we have a diabetes epidemic.
(my total cholesterol was shockingly high and I had gone armed and ready to fight and started off by saying that i don;t want her to tell me to eat less fat...)

She told me keep doing my diet (which I characterized as meat, above ground veggies and berries, olive oil, butter and coconut oil) and losing weight at this rate -- add exercise for other health benefits and don't worry about the total cholesterol numbers: my ratio is excellent, fasting glucose great and blood pressure right where it should be.

This is not to brag. My point is that the Docs are human and a good doctor reads research and listens to patients and continues to grow in his/her practice the same as every other field. We can bash whole professions: teachers, psychologists, addictions workers, professors, accountants, marriage counselors, pastors and priests... anyone who we turn to in crisis and fear about our most personal issues. We are so vulnerable at those moments.

In medicine in particular the research and the complexities are phenomenally huge and, yes, ever-changing. Not to mention poorly reported on by media.

I do think there is a responsibility on us to be as well-informed as we can be and to do our part in prevention and wellness, as people here have said. And to find the right person (be it doctor or teacher for our kids) to be on our wellness-team.

And I know I am very lucky to have this Doctor, and maybe to be in the health-oriented, alternative-medicine focused city i live in.

The point is that there is change, albeit slowly. Two years ago I was explaining my daughter's illness (PANS) to every single health care provider we met...and 6 months ago I met a pediatric dermatology resident at my daughter's last appointment who had actually just answered a question on an exam on her illness...last month a dentist who immediately recognized what treatment she should be on for the teeth-cleaning not to inflame her immune system...an OT who said, wait...remind me what that is, I read an article last year...?

change happens and I believe most medical professionals go into the field because they do care about people and are fascinated by biology and the human body...

call me a softy