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More and more doctors, every day, are beginning to realize that the science they’ve been taught is outdated. Every day, more doctors are starting to uncover the truth behind the information they read and its sources. It’s important to know, that your doctors are humans, too – and it’s okay to question their direction. It’s paramount that you work with your doctor, ask the right questions and take responsibility for yourself. It’s even more so critical that you take the time to find out on your own, what YOU can do for yourself.
The current medical model is setup to chase symptoms. Doctors are trained to prescribe a remedy to pain and keep you comfortable. They are enticed to keep your numbers in the green. They are incentivized to treat as many patients, to perform as many procedures as they can, to make money. Although that model is terrific at treating acute conditions (say, you were in a car accident), it fails miserably when confronted with a chronic condition (heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, et cetera).
The medical community is under a lot of pressure, too. People just want an easy fix. They want a magic pill that allows them to continue the indulgent lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to. Blood pressure too high? Take a pill. Cholesterol out of wack? Take a pill. Have diabetes? You’re in luck! Here’s a needle.
Yet, Americans are getting fatter. And worse yet…sicker. Could it be, that the current guidance (provided by the unquestioned medical establishment) may actually be the problem? Well, what if it was? What would it look like? If the current conventional wisdom says, “do X and you’ll be healthy,” and even when followed, more and more people (of epidemic proportions) are getting sicker – doesn’t it stand to reason that the conventional wisdom may be wrong?
Dr. Peter Attia, an ER surgeon, went through his own inner turmoil when he felt justified condemning an overweight patient who developed diabetes and needed her foot amputated. Yet, he consoled and wept for a young [in-shape] newlywed who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. As he humbly recounted his misplaced disdain at a talk at TEDMED, he argued it was his ignorant acceptance that “eat less, exercise more,” (in his words, “settled science”) that shaped his bully attitude – that it was the patient’s fault for not caring or trying hard enough.
Despite his own blind following of “conventional wisdom” (i.e. working out multiple hours per day and following the dietary guidelines to the letter), he too gained weight and developed insulin resistance. Insulin resistance – the precursor to Type II Diabetes. The “disease” he so quickly discounted as bad luck and poor effort in the ER. His own beliefs were now in question. Go figure.
Here’s the thing – your body is self-healing and self-regulating. That means, that your body will adapt to its environment to save itself. That means, that your body will mount an inflammatory response when you get sick or injured. The sneezing, coughing, redness, itching, fever? It’s not the cold. It’s your body FIGHTING the cold. Why would you want to then handicap your immune system even further by taking an anti-inflammatory? Why would you want to take a steroid that inhibits the immune response? Yes, I know – allergies suck and colds aren’t fun either. And I’m not saying you never take medications, but know what’s going on deep inside before asking your doctor if the latest medication you saw during Wheel of Fortune is “right for you.”
Another example is blood pressure. If your numbers aren’t within some arbitrary range, what happens? You’re prescribed an anti-hypertensive. Why? To lower your blood pressure. But remember, the body is intelligent. Could it be, that the reason your blood pressure is up is because you’re stressed? Maybe you just lost a loved one or can’t keep up with the bills. Or maybe, just maybe, your body is responding to the past three decades of poor nutrition – your arteries are damaged from all the sugar in your diet so your body tries to repair them with cholesterol, calcium and collagen; which restricts the flow of blood throughout your body, so your body raises its blood pressure to get the required oxygen and nutrients to your cells. Remember when you were a kid and you stuck your thumb over the end of a hose? What happened? The pressure built up and squeezed by your thumb, shooting out farther and harder than before. It adapted to your input. This is what your body does. Now ask yourself another question…if your body raises blood pressure to cope with a chronic condition of stress (chemical, emotional or physical)…do you think it would be a good idea to take a chemical to artificially lower blood pressure? If your body NEEDS that higher blood pressure to survive why would you challenge your own innate physiology? What do you think happens when we cut off the supply of oxygen and nutrients to cells? They die. What do you think a heart attack and stroke are? So, is it fair to assume that taking a pill might not be the best thing to do? Instead, should we question why our blood pressure is high in the first place?
Dr. Peter Attia put it so eloquently,
“I dream of the day when our patients can shed their excess pounds and cure themselves of insulin resistance, because as medical professionals we’ve shed our excess mental baggage and cured ourselves of new idea resistance sufficiently to go back to our original ideals – open minds, the courage to throw out yesterday’s ideas that don’t appear to be working, and the understanding that scientific truth isn’t final but constantly evolving. Staying true to that path will be better for our patients and better for science.”
We must continue to search for the answers. We must continue to ask, “why.” We must be held accountable for our own actions.
Chris Kresser, in his latest book Unconventional Medicine, wrote to this very topic,
“When patients grow accustomed to being passive recipients of care, rather than being actively engaged in their own lifestyle changes, symptomatic problems will persist, and root cause healing will elude them” …that, “The willingness to challenge even our most deeply held assumptions, and the humility to admit when we’ve been wrong, are essential to good science.”
The Heading Healthy movement is about finding answers. It’s about leveraging the collective knowledge of scientists, doctors, and patients to find the “why.” It’s all about empowering YOU with knowledge and suggestions that you can use to improve your life!
Recently, we’ve outsourced our critical thinking to electronics, the cloud and even authority figures. Without questioning “Why” something is, or “How” something works, or “When” something is needed, how can we truly know that we are doing the right thing? We, as humans, evolved by learning from others and our own mistakes and successes. The current age of “group think,” however, is stunting our growth as a species. We must continue to learn and grow. We must continue to challenge opinions. We must continue to seek the truth so as not to be led astray.
