It's not that I don't want you to use physician care when you need it. Most physicians are good at their jobs and care about their patients.
Not this guy:
...but most of them.
Dr. Oz is actually a good example of the kind of doctor you don't want to consult. He is very personable, and very much likes explaining things to people in a convoluted and condescending way, but in actual fact he's a cardiac surgeon who speaks about nutrition, an area outside his education, and being a cardiac surgeon he understandably has a bias toward surgery. He also is trying to sell a series of books, endorsements, and stands to make a lot of money if you think you are unwell.
Let's give the guy the benefit of the doubt--I'm going to assume he really wants to help people. After all, I don't know him and I doubt he set out rubbing his hands together and evilly cackling, "ha ha, I know what I'll do, I'll write a book, go on Oprah, and get EVERYONE to go on statins and do my diet! bwahahahaha!" More likely, I think he is just very busy and did not take the time to go and read the original studies for and against the positions he advocates.
For instance, the whole belly fat thing? Yeah. Not a cause of early death or diseases. "Correlated" with diseases in the same way that having feet or blinking is. But, as Mr. Todd taught us in Intro to Statistics, Correlation Is Not Causation.
So Dr. Oz is just mistaken. Honestly mistaken, probably, since his guidelines simply regurgitate those of the CDC and the WHO, and since pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money convincing doctors to prescribe their cholesterol-lowering drugs.
I don't think pharmaceutical companies set out to kill people, either. But it takes anywhere from 10-25 years to develop a new drug. I think that, about 25 years before statins (cholesterol drugs) were developed, we weren't sure whether blood cholesterol was causing heart disease or not. Now we know that both are probably mostly genetic, and that neither dietary nor drug intervention does a lot. But, I'm sure the companies reason, surely some reduction is better than nothing, and the drugs won't hurt people with high cholesterol, and we did spend millions developing it.
Except that cholesterol drugs can hurt some people. They can do liver damage, or even when they function precisely as hoped, they generally take money, time, and mental space from people without an equivalent benefit. They are an example of the reasons that you should, when a doctor proposes something long-term to you, ask them about the research or (better) do your own research, looking at the original studies. PubMed is one place to see studies. The ones you're looking for are "clinical trials", not "epidemeological studies".
So I am not ever discouraging you from going to the doctor when you have bacterial pneumonia, a broken leg, are having a heart attack, or just feel funny and don't know what's wrong. If you've found a doctor you're comfortable with and who listens to you, you've likely found someone who has enough professional strength to prescribe what's right for you instead of what the drug reps tell them to. (Most doctors are less impressed with drug reps than the conspiracy theorists like you to believe, by the way.)
Doctors are excellent at fixing you when you are sick. They are not so great at keeping you from getting sick in the first place, as they would be the first to admit. Here is something drastic to consider:
Is it even their job?
I mean, given that we've been trying as a nation for about a hundred years now to do "public health administration" or preventative health care administered by the government. Public health has worked best when it's things like "quit spitting your tuberculosis on the sidewalk and get your measles vaccine", and least when it's things like "quit having unplanned babies and eat more vegetables". Perhaps this is because the government crossed the line between the area where they actually have authority--keeping me from hurting others--into the area where they don't--my private reproduction and diet. Thank goodness they haven't been sucessfull, because quite frequently their ideas about reproductive health and diet have been wrong, discovered only after people have been hurt.
So, in my opinion, preventative health care is not a physician's job. They have enough to do just taking care of sick people, and at least in this country don't have the resources to do much more for you than prescribe pills. Keeping myself well is my own job, and in that I'm greatly aided by a wise body that God designed to let me know when I'm not well.
The clarification then is: Don't stop using medical care. We are not going to be those people who walk around with a broken wrist chewing strange wild berries and rubbing peanut oil on it because we're afraid of the hospital, right? We're not going to be the people who have heart attacks and then don't seek care, right? Use medical care. It's a blessing. Just don't expect more from it than it can give.
Cheers,
Breanna
P.S. As an example, I'm going to the midwife this very morning. I've done my research--prenatal care is one of the best ways to take care of a baby. So don't use the failure of public health policy as a reason to avoid doctors altogether; just realize, like I did, that it actually makes a ton of sense that the government administers health recommendations as well and wisely as it does the budget.
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