Doctors Drive me Nuts.

Yes yes, my mommy is a doctor too and she sometimes drives me nuts too, but she's my mum so it's ok :)

I just got back from visiting a dermatologist and an allergist.

First the dermatologist:
I'm seeing him about acne and scarring on my shoulders, I've had pretty bad acne in my past and it's gotten better over the years through positive changes in lifestyle, diet and exercise. Some years ago I took a course of iso-tetronin (sp?) and it dried the hell out of my skin, my lips cracked up in massive pain, but my really bad acne subsided considerably.
So the Dermatologist had me on Doryx, a low dose antibiotic for about a month and he's given me a prescription for another 2 months. When I went in today I told him that I had ran out of the stuff for the last 5 days, but that I had noticed my energy levels were way higher when I wasn't taking the meds, even though I was taking pro-biotics.
"taking what?" he asked. He didn't know about pro-biotics, yet he was ok prescribing me Doryx for 2 years straight. I told him that the antibiotics were killing off my intenstinal microflora and that I could literally "feel" it, to which he said " you should probably go and check with a sports medicine doctor about that".(red flag red flag red flag). I asked him about the mechanism of action of the Doryx, he avoided the question and told me that I have 2 options: Doryx straight for like 2 years or more to keep my acne at "bay" or accutane, that that would take 2 weeks to get in due to some federal regulations... I told him I want the fastest most effective solution. He busted out of the room to "collect something" and sent in his assistant with some permits to fill out - i have to read the paperwork, I'm not sure what the permit is for, but I have to go submit some blood tests tomorrow and then go pick up the meds in 2 weeks.
hmm.......

second, the allergist:
I came to see this guy about a year ago when I suspected having an allergy to some sort of pollen. I worked with him for a while since he got a bunch of blood tests done for me including the testing of homocystene levels, anti-oxidant levels and C-reactive protien. I went to see him today because I'm doing an in depth investigation into food allergies, specifically, delayed-onset IgG type food allergies and how they affect weight loss, water retention, depressed energy levels etc etc. He doesn't test for them becuase he claims "there isn't enough scientific evidence to prove the efficacy of these tests" - he knew he just opened a massive can of worms right there and followed up with "maybe you should go see a naturopathic doctor, they believe in this stuff more than I do" - I then asked him for a referral and he is going to get back to me with a contact. The good thing is that he was open to me going to see someone else and was open to finding out about new things / approaches that did work.


so why do doctors drive me nuts?
what did these 2 men have in common? They were both in their forties or early fifties and so have probably been doing this for a while. The problem is that I don't believe they are current in the scientific breakthroughs and/or discoveries that are occuring in the medical world. It seems intuitive that the older a doctor is, the more "experienced" he is. I argue otherwise - that's its probably safer to assume that the older a doctor is the older and more obsolete his knowledge is. One of the first times I came to this realization was just over a year ago when I was back home in Kenya and went to see one of the more famous cardiologists in nairobi. He had put my grandmother on some diuretics in order to reduce her blood pressure, he was also the doc who had treated a bunch of my late uncles who died of heart attacks. (what's wrong with this picture?).
so anwyay, we got into a conversation about heart disease, cholesterol and drugs like Lipitor. I asked him if he had heard about Co-enzyme Q and how statin drugs affect endogenous production of Co Enzyme Q10, which in turn could lead to cardiomyopathy. He had nothing to say.

So just remember that what doctors tell you is NOT THE WORD OF GOD. Most people treat it that way. Get a 2nd opinion, get a 3rd opinion, go to a different country and get an opinion. Definitely talk a doctor in a different age group / generation.

In terms of cholesterol, I'm not going to delve into the details of it in this post, all you need to know is that if you are taking statins and not supplementing with Co Enzyme Q10, you are messing with your hearts oxygen supply at a cellular level and your heart muscles could very well be slowly dying away - a condition that you won't feel or get measured until you drop dead some day on the golf course.

REMEMBER:
The pharmaceutical companies make millions of dollars every year, they give incentives and kick backs to doctors that prescribe their drugs. Moreover, the majority of "prescription" medication is not curative, it holds symtops at bay or masks them in some way. eg. statins go in and mess with your normal cholesterol output whereby dietary changes are a safer and longer term fix.

Cheers to your health!


CoQ10: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coenzyme_Q