FEATURE

Do see your doctor when not well; never before!

Prof. B. M. Hegde,

hegdebm@gmail.com

“The best six doctors anywhere

And no one can deny it

Are sunshine, water, rest, and air

Exercise and diet.

These six will gladly you attend

If only you are willing

Your mind they'll ease

Your will they'll mend

And charge you not a shilling.”

 Wayne Fields, What the River Knows, 1990

Each one of us should have a family doctor who eventually becomes our friend, philosopher and guide. When one is feeling off colour, however trivial the symptom might be, one MUST consult her/his family doctor to discuss the problem with the doctor to be an intelligent partner in themanagement, should the need arise. Most of the time your good doctor will pat you on the back and boost your immune system by his two kind words which will be therapeutic. After all human body is immaterial-mental and spiritual. Matter is energy and energy is matter and so the mind and the body are but the same. A good doctor’s kind words will be very powerful medicine.

Should you have routine check-up when healthy as is advertised?

An emphatic NO is the answer, unless you are a heavy drunkard or heavy smoker. Barring the latter two, no adult at any age needs check-up when healthy. New born babies need a good check-up to detect correctable birth defects like holes in the heart etc. School children must have check-up before being sent to heavy sport to avoid sudden deaths in sports field. Marginally demented old-elderly need check-up as they usually fail to recognise mild symptoms. 

In fact, routine check-up might throw up so much false positives that no one who goes for a check-up comes back without getting afraid of some future catastrophe being prophesied. We do not know what is normal in the human body; we only know the averages for any group which we mistakenly interpret as normal levels! Writing in the BMJ (1991; 303: 1565) a noted physicist, William Firth of the Strathclyde University in Glasgow, shows how “doctors have been predicting the unpredictable future of their patients!” In quantum mechanics there is no future which is yet to be born. Check-up leaves no well person in society is the opinion of Professor Nortin Hadler in his celebrated book: The last well person.

“Advertising is to create new demands, giving rise to artificial wants.

It is not that supply rises to meet demand, rather producers lead consumers to demand more(Dependency Effect)”writes John Kenneth Galbraith in his book,Affluent Society. Do not, therefore, go by advertisement.

How to choose a good family doctor?

It is not an easy job. Canadian Medical Association did a survey many years ago and the following factors came up on top. Family doctor must be a good listener, must be one who does not belittle his/her peers behind their back, a kind and considerate human being, one who has time for you when you make an appointment, interested in your welfare, keen on treating the whole person and not just the organ or part of the body, knows your family background, your worries, fears, beliefs, fads, and obsessions, must be parsimonious in prescribing drugs, and more than all these, s/he must be a good human being: his qualifications are irrelevant here as long as he has a good basic medical degree. After you choose onesuch, have full faith in her/him. Faith in the doctor heals by the Placebo Factor. (Science Translational Medicine 16th February 2011). Please note this old saying:

“GOOD doctor is one who knows how to prescribe medicines,

BETTER doctor is one, who knows when to prescribe medicines,

BEST doctor is one who knows when not to prescribe medicines.”

Be an informed patient:

There is an old saying that “half knowledge is dangerous.” It was Mark Twain who wrote: “Do not read health books, you might die of a misprint.” How true? Please do not read about diseases from the internet and try to confuse your doctor with your scholarship. Even if you are a doctor allow your family physician to do his job to the best of his abilities. 

Symptoms denote need for external help to fight the disease:

Any symptom, however trivial, must not be ignored. That does not mean that there is a pill for every ill. That simply means that you need to discuss the symptom with your doctor who knows what to do. Extensive research has shown the futility of treating any deviation from the “so called” normal in the absence of a symptom. Even trying to lower elevated blood pressure or sugar in the asymptomatic stage has been shown to be futile. In the asymptomatic stage the body’s defences try and set things right. In the unlikely event of their failure ONLY symptoms come up.

Do not talk about your illness to others:

Never try and share yours troubles with others like colleagues, friends, neighbours and the like. 80% could not care less; the other 20% are probably happy about it. Do not take lay advice for consuming medicines. Do not rely on over the counter medicines and TV advertisements that look very attractive. Do not borrow medicines from any near and dear ones in the house. Do not go to quacks. Talk to your family doctor only. Reward your family physician for his time and concern adequately. Do not belittle your family doctor compared to specialists. The former is more useful even according to the recent 14 industrialised country study which clearly showed that Japan, with 90% family physicians stands head and shoulders above the rest of the 13 in health indices and longevity. USA was the last but one with 90% specialists!

Your family doctor is your best bet in times of need. May the family doctor come back again to make us all healthy. 

“The power of love to change bodies is legendary, built into folklore, common sense, and everyday experience.  Love moves the flesh, it pushes matter around.... Throughout history, "tender loving care" has uniformly been recognized as a valuable element in healing.”  ~Larry Dossey