My blood pressure was 206/98 in April of 2005. The doctor freaked and wanted me to start BP meds right away. I didn't take them. I started LC instead and lost over 60 lbs. My BP started going down right away. I have a BP monitor at home, and these days, it always reads in the 120s/60s.

Forgive my ignorance Nancy but what does the above mean? Is that a symbol for a troll?

If they make us well, we don't need them. If we don't need them, they have to get a real job like me.

Symbol for male...

I think our medical system needs revising, but I don't think the answer is to throw all science right out the window. For one thing, if regulation was a bit less and studies were less expensive, it wouldn't be only drug companies paying for them.

I'm sorry to hear about people's bad doctor experiences. It really is true, doctors just aren't educated about nutrition.

I used to be a big believer in conventional medicine. But . . . Several years ago I had a ferocious bout of insomnia--not just laying awake but crawling out of my skin night after night for weeks. Went to the Dr. She told me it was perimenopause and wanted me to start premarin. I didn't want to, so I came home and took a hard look at my diet. Realized I was eating a lot of MSG via frozen dinners and entrees. Eliminated all MSG from my diet and in three days was sleeping normally again.
A couple of years later I had a bout of unbelievable arthritis-type pain in my feet and hands. Began to think I'd have to go on disability. Could hardly walk in the a.m., couldn't open a can or prepare my breakfast for the pain. Dr. gave me prescription for pain medication. At the time I was eating whole wheat berries for breakfast every morning--healthy, high-fiber, low-fat, filling, tasty. I quit eating them because the prep work was more than I wanted to face in the a.m. Pain went away. Began to experiment and I found that the more wheat I ate, the more pain I had. The less wheat I ate, the less pain I had.

Neither of those Drs. asked me one word about my diet. It was absolutely of no interest to them (I maintain a normal weight.)

I will go to the Dr. for mammograms, pap tests, colonoscopies, etc., and, of course, to set broken bones or stitch a wound. But I trust them for NOTHING ELSE!!! Each has his or her pet pill they like to hand out, and if that doesn't fix it, it is all in your head.

Hmm..my experience with doctors is both positive and negative.

They're necessary when surgery is necessary, but in preventing diseases, I agree, most don't even know aging can be prevented. I mean, with CR, it's becoming more popular, but this is only recently, and it's still a low fat mantra that they believe is healthiest. It's pathetic really. But healthcare is really amazing. You should see what we learn in school, just in anatomy and physiology..doctors aren't dumbies..most are just ignorant or brainwashed to promote the drug companies.

I think that the bottom line is that 99% of people do NOT have a drug deficiency. Most medical problems we have (ruling out birth defects and accidents) are due to lifestyle. The sad thing is that a majority of this majority would rather just pay their co-pay and take a pill rather than change anything about their diet/exercise program. It's a shame...

I don't even do this. My theories are based on the idea that I create my reality with my thoughts and emotions. What I put my attention on expands. Also, I believe that if you are looking for something, you just may find it.

To me, the group mentality about health is somewhere that I don't go. There is a group fear of cancer, heart disease, etc., and everyone is programmed to go looking for it on a regular basis. The dynamic has gotten so huge that I think the group fear itself is a large part of what causes the epidemic proportions of the diseases of civilization in the first place.

JMO ...

But finding it doesn't mean you created it. Yes, if you screen for cancer you may find cancer. But the test didn't cause the cancer. And finding that your condition has a name may be all the therapy you need.

If you have insurance, I would not trust their test results. The medical profession is dangerous. And we are just as gullible as we were in the 18th century when treatment was limited to bleeding the patient and sawing off limbs. Took them 100 years after germ theory was understood to start washing their hands. Most of them still don't.

If you doubt that, follow one around in a hospital for 1/2 day.

They have become pill pushers. One to counteract another. Iatrogenic disease and death rates have reached ridiculous all time highs. Its about three times as dangerous to visit a hospital as it is to drive a car. And those deaths by medical error are only the ones officially reported.

I have a similar view. I will not have a mammogram. I believe that it can damage the breast tissue at the same time it is being radiated. Not a good combo. Colonoscopies can damage/tear the colon possibly causing other very serious problems. There is a report just out that says that removing the main cancer from the breast causes other smaller cancers that were in the body to have the opportunity to grow larger. (This is why there are so many cases of women having breast cancer that 'comes back in another place"). The medical profession is definitely not on the right track to cure anything at this rate. We must take responsibility for our own health and be as knowledgeable as possible.

Well, whatever else my doctors may have been doing, I can testify to the fact that they have spent many, many hours, days and weeks literally bringing me back from the brink of death. They have provided me excellent care through innumerable emergency situations, and managed to keep my health relatively stable for the past 25 years.

No, they aren't gods, just mere human beings. But in my book, they sure are wonderful people, and I appreciate them a whole bunch.

Well, I think it is like a lot of professions but with an entirely different set of metrics to measure against. There are good and bad practioners of the medical profession, however the set of metrics that are measured against this profession deal with peoples' lives and that is a very dangerous and risky thing to get wrong.

I have been through my share of bad and very bad doctors. Recently I was in the hospital for a month with very odd symptoms, seizures, etc and basically, my body was shutting down. I had doctors that just wanted to throw drugs at me until something "stuck". Luckily, I came across one doctor who actually wanted to diagnose me FIRST before actually throwing a bunch of medicines at me, which would cloud the issue anyway. As it turned out, I had a very very rare condition that she only found because she was willing to look outside the box, which none of the other doctors were willing to do so. In other words, I didn't fit into the "statistical norm."

I feel the biggest thing that has endangered our medical community is the removal of the key tenet of "art" in the practice of clinical medicine as an art and as a science. This means that doctors forget they are treating human beings that are unique, that they are treating the whole person, that they are not treating a petri dish, they that can't have a single solution for every situation, and most of all that they must approach each situation with compassion and understanding. This is something that the medical community is sorely lacking and which very very few doctors have. Those that do remember this are few and far between and difficult to find. If you every do find one, hang on to that doctor for dear life because you just hit the lottery!

When my husband was dx with diabetes in Oct.. the PCP told him to stay away from sugary food. Wow thanks.. everyone knows that much.. his appt. with an endo wasn't for a week. We were given NO information.. and even the nutritionist we saw recommended the ADA diet.. and 370 carbs a day! He eats about 200.. seems like a lot but he has to eat over 3,000 cals. a day to maintain his weight.. he is trying to gain.. he is about 10 pounds underweight. He has type 1 by the way.