A good friend in another city was monitoring some potentially risky blood markers during 2008 which, absent improvement, could have led to some serious invasive treatment. Without telling his primary doctor, he switched to a vegan diet a few months ago and also visited a naturopathic doctor where he received some "snake oils" (my friend's words; he doesn't use those words disparagingly -- he just doesn't know why they work -- and they did seem to work).
He reported this week that his blood tests were much improved, to the delight of his doctor. My friend then told the doc that he had switched to a vegan diet, visited the naturopath, etc. While his doctor wouldn't assign any correlation between the much improved blood markers and my friend's diet change and alternative treatments, the doc did say this: "I've been a vegetarian for 40 years. Vegetarian and vegan diets are definitely healthier." The doc had never made inquiry into my friend's diet or recommended he switch to a "definitely healthier" lifestyle.
Question: Why wouldn't a doctor recommend to his own patient the same lifestyle protocols he himself had been following for 40 years? Even if he didn't think it would help a particular condition, as the old saying goes, "It couldn't hurt."
It's amazing how constricted the AMA crowd is when it comes to making recommendations outside the mainstream medical practices. This is similar to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn at the Cleveland Clinic being asked by his fellow doctors to treat their heart conditions with his plant-based therapies, but those same doctors won't recommend that their own heart patients adopt Esselstyn's protocols. The real reason may be found in the words of one of Dr. Esselstyn's fellow Cleveland Clinic cardiologists: "I billed five million dollars last year." As "Deep Throat" told Bob Woodward in All the President's Men, "Follow the money."
Kudos to my friend for taking charge of his own healthcare and being willing to go outside the mainstream for help. Live long, bro'. (Job 5:26)
He reported this week that his blood tests were much improved, to the delight of his doctor. My friend then told the doc that he had switched to a vegan diet, visited the naturopath, etc. While his doctor wouldn't assign any correlation between the much improved blood markers and my friend's diet change and alternative treatments, the doc did say this: "I've been a vegetarian for 40 years. Vegetarian and vegan diets are definitely healthier." The doc had never made inquiry into my friend's diet or recommended he switch to a "definitely healthier" lifestyle.
Question: Why wouldn't a doctor recommend to his own patient the same lifestyle protocols he himself had been following for 40 years? Even if he didn't think it would help a particular condition, as the old saying goes, "It couldn't hurt."
It's amazing how constricted the AMA crowd is when it comes to making recommendations outside the mainstream medical practices. This is similar to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn at the Cleveland Clinic being asked by his fellow doctors to treat their heart conditions with his plant-based therapies, but those same doctors won't recommend that their own heart patients adopt Esselstyn's protocols. The real reason may be found in the words of one of Dr. Esselstyn's fellow Cleveland Clinic cardiologists: "I billed five million dollars last year." As "Deep Throat" told Bob Woodward in All the President's Men, "Follow the money."
Kudos to my friend for taking charge of his own healthcare and being willing to go outside the mainstream for help. Live long, bro'. (Job 5:26)
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