(If these are not your questions, you might want to step over to the MCS directory now, instead of wading through to the references at the end.) This goes on to broader areas of what doctors do, and what the more successful patients do to help themselves. First a little about herbs, then on to why many doctors are so unresponsive, and how you can get more response from your doctor. As well as links to other resources.
Because they are less complex than the steps to make and test modern drugs. Not being patentable, they are also FAR less costly. And, you don't HAVE to have a doctor supervise this non-standard treatment. Meaning to say, a lot FEWER people in the medical and allied professions profit when YOU choose to use Herbs.
Doctors use what they are familiar with. The high prices of drugs pay for A LOT of familiarity insuring education! (And some research, and safety from risk of UNEXPECTED harm -- THEIR expectations, not yours. Doc's rarely tell ALL!)
Herbs are not harmless either! Some are downright dangerous! But since YOU are making the decision to take them, it is YOUR responsibility to read up on them, to do the research, before you decide to use them. It's YOUR life!
As for your doctor and modern medicine... Here's how it works.
Your Doctor is a family health care _practitioner_. He _practices_ what he was taught in medical school many years ago:
Don't misunderstand me, this is no small achievement! But who donated a large part of the money that helps pay for the on-going research and education at medical schools? Whom do many young research docs want to work for? Who sends millions of dollars of samples and tons of literature to doctors? Guess! The Drug Co's!
Your Doctor is NOT responsible to you! (Not unless you pay cash, and even then...)
His goal hierarchy is:
Malpractice insurance rates may be 20% OR MORE. _Some_ high risk specialists, like orthopedic surgeons and OBGYN's have to pay over $400,000 per year! That's $2,000 per work day, $50 per 15 minute visit! However, some non-invasive low risk specialists may pay little over $5,000 per year. A doctor who looses insurance, or ability to pay for it, is a sitting duck!
(And you wondered why most bills are checklists?)
Treat what you can! Why't beat your head against the wall? It's not going to change the behavior of most people. Disquieting them only makes the either lie or leave.
Note: There is ABSOLUTELY NO concern for maximum payments per year, per illness or per patient in insurance cases! These are caps that are VITAL to patients with long term care problems!!! And when you reach the final caps, you are FINISHED -- NO Insurance! EVER!!! No one will write you another policy for an existing condition -- that would be financial suicide for the insurance companies!By the way, the insurance companies are traded openly on the stock exchanges. Like all businesses, they are responsible to their stockholders. You too, can invest in them, become a stock holder, and let your voice be known. But... then you too, will be putting your money at risk. If you have a pension fund or invest in mutual funds, you may already own stock in some of the insurance companies. Now, does that put a little different perspective on what you want them to do? Think about it.
If you loose your insurance, maybe you can go on to welfare, social security, medicare, medicaid, with even lower per visit caps. It is so low, and so much more tightly REGULATED, that many doctors refuse those patients. I said regulated, as in "do A after B", and "see the patient no more than X times per year". I did not say inspected for fraud. And again, many doctors will diagnose what is paid for, not what is really there. And once that diagnosis is set, the treatment is to the diagnosis, not to the real problem.
(Ok, now for some more links...)
That is not to say that modern medicine is evil. Man in the wild lived only 25 - 30 years. In Rome, it was under 45. Average life span declined in the middle ages, when the church considered herbalism and medicine as an attempt to defeat "God's Will". (All that "you are suffering for the sins of mankind" crap.) Even by the early 1900's, average life span was in the 50's to early sixties; and that ignores the horrendous death rates of childhood disease. We have modern medicine to thank for the extra twenty to fourty years of life we now enjoy. No small matter!
Yet we still have problems with yeast infections, something Hippocrates described in ancient Greek medical literature. Only today, many modern doctors refuse to recognize the systemic implications of the problem. The malaise and fatigue, as well as the prevalent allergies and arthritic problems in these patients were described by Hippocrates. Had there been many chemicals, no doubt he would have included chemical allergies in his descriptions as well. (Links repeated at end.)
During the Clinton push for a comprehensive, uniform, and Mandatory medical care program, one conservative magazine wrote an interesting article laying out how our medical system grew up. Regretably, I don't recall which which magazine that article was in, but in considerably fewer words, this is gist of it
Up until the rise of corporations and corporate income tax write offs for insurance policies in the fifties, most medical care was pay as you go by the patient. Doctors would defer billing those who were very ill, and prorate bills for those who had little money. I remember those days! The decision as to mode of treatment was a matter between the doctor and the patient, and cost v.s. effect was a matter of discussion between patient and doctor. As a result some doctors favored talking about behavioral changes and homeopathic or herbal treatments to keep patient's costs down. They also had a higher stake in keeping their patients alive, and getting them healthy and back to work. To get paid, they HAD to care.
With the advent of medical insurance for most everyone, the direct responsibility between patient and doctor was broken. NO ONE was directly in charge of costs! No one cares! And so prices and treatments skyrocketed. Without the direct financial linkage and the give and take of discussion, the true family physician who cared enough to come out and see you when you were too ill to come in, ceased to exit. He was simply run out of business by insurance companies unwilling to pay for the kind of personal CARE person whom you would not even THINK of suing if things did not work out! He was replaced by businessmen bent on high volume practices. He had to have high volume to pay for the insurance premiums as more doctors started getting sued.
That's why the Office of Management and Budget has reported that modern medicine is not cost effective! Who CARES about cost? Just pass it on to the insurance co, then on to the corporate payer.
But now, many of the corporate payers can't afford it, so they go into what is called co-insurance, where everyone in the company pays in to the pool to pay for the medical treatments of the people in the company. Unfortunately, in a smaller company one employee's medical disaster hits EVERYONE hard, and they find a reason to get rid of that extraordinary expense. But... since that person is known to be a financial liability, no company wants to hire or insure that person. BOOM! Unemployed with crushing medical bills! And the state will not help with any but the most minimal routine treatments. So many doctors refuse to handle the various minimal state paid cases. It is not profitable, and not worth the risk of trying anything which may be questioned by the state as then the doctor will spend more of his time answering questions than was spent on the initial treatment of the patient. You can't pay your bills this way!
This also meant that many parents, as well as young people, began seeing "doctor" as a high income career. The kind of person entering medicine changed. He has HAD to become a Businessman FIRST, a Lawyer Second, and so had to leave the occupation of care provider a distant third.
Bad as this may all sound, on the average, Americans are living longer. This is Very Good if you are an average American! (So why are you reading this?)
If you are not average, don't have the typical problems, then YOU will have to take responsibility for YOUR illness. Only YOU have the MOTIVATION to research YOUR specific illness, to keep up with all the new research for YOUR illness, and to discuss it with your HIRED HELPER, your doctor. It's up to YOU!
Oh, many doctors won't like that. They don't want you to become upset with what the insurance companies dictate; because, for all practical purposes, neither you nor your doctor have ANY shred of control over what is allowed or not allowed for your treatment. And most doctors find it just takes too much time to LISTEN to YOU when you gripe about things you clearly do not understand. (So read and understand them first!)
Many doctors, when they encounter an intelligent patient who asks intelligent questions, showing he or she has some understanding of medical terms, but has an open curious mind... will bend their practice standards a bit to answer and discuss. It is worth while reading up on your illness. Don't tell the doctor what you think you have or how to treat you; that just threatens his sense of authority, and soon shows him how limited your knowledge is v.s. his. Don't even try. Instead, ask questions about this v.s. that which you have read about, about the mechanisms of the illness, and the long term prospects. Let the doctor feel in control, but... give him the feeling he is dealing with a partner, not an inert patient. And if he tells you that HE is THE DOCTOR, tell him he isn't your doctor and leave.
Take control of YOUR LIFE, of your own health care! Don't be a passive drug sponge, ASK questions, discuss your treatment options WITH your doctor as a PARTNER! Avoid simple pill oriented solutions if you can. If your doctor won't listen to what you tell him or her, won't Discuss the treatment of your irreplaceable body, THEN GET ANOTHER DOCTOR!!! It's your body, your time, and your money!
I mean, would you accept this kind of treatment from your auto mechanic???
It is indeed fortunate that some of us believe in reincarnation... We remember how much worse things use to be!!! (Or think we do.)
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