Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Baa Baa, Black Sheep


Let me start off by saying that I have the utmost respect and admiration for medical doctors. They are, almost to a person, bright, skilled and caring individuals who have dedicated their lives for the benefit of their fellow man. Many, many of them deserve to be recognized as heroes – and there are countless patients who have benefited from their care who gladly echo this sentiment.

This being said, it should also be noted that these heroes, like most, have feet of clay. They almost all suffer from the same character flaw – they are conformist. They travel in a herd of consensus. They are sheep. That’s why they all wear white coats – it helps them blend into the flock.



It’s not their fault – the system that produces medical doctors is designed that way. Free thinkers don’t make it through medical school. Independent thought is considered detrimental to the well being of the herd.

The Japanese have a saying: “The nail that sticks out must be hammered down”. This is also the philosophy of most medical schools. Black sheep don’t have much of a chance of getting their medical degree.



This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It helps ensure that standards of care are followed throughout our nation as well as the rest of the world.

However, this ‘weakness’ is exploited by the parties who desire to control medicine, including the pharmaceutical industry.

The world of medicine is constantly changing. Most physicians get their news of medical advancement from drug reps and seminars sponsored by pharmaceutical industries. Trust me on this – all those medical journals you see scattered about your doctor’s office are there for show. No one actually reads them. If they did, they would be in the doctor’s crapper and not on his or her credenza.

Continuing education, for most providers, is supplied over the hot lunch brought in by a pharmaceutical rep, or at a seminar in some hot spot that’s sponsored by (you guessed it) a pharmaceutical company.

Their opinions are shaped by statistics that are generated by Big Pharm. Sociopaths lie to your face – sociopathic corporations use statistics.



Most doctors are scared to deviate from these ‘facts’, lest they be accused of straying from the ‘standard of care’ and be held liable for any poor outcomes. Colloquial evidence – results that they have seen with their own two eyes – is dismissed and discarded. Medical consensus happens very, very slowly – especially when such consensus is contrary to the interests of Big Pharm.

Take the world of vitamins, for example. People have been taking nutritional supplements for years. Up until recently, this practice has been dismissed by most medical providers. Excess vitamins were peed out of the body as soon as they were consumed. Patients were told that they were just ‘making expensive urine’ whenever they told their physicians of their supplement regime.

Over the past few years, however, physicians have made a 180 degree turn on their opinions on some supplements. Big Pharm has gotten into the supplement game by offering ‘prescription vitamins’. These prescriptives are touted as having higher potency and purity then the ones that you might by at the local Wal-Mart – even though all are approved by the FDA. Well, one thing is certain – prescription vitamins certainly cost more then the over-the-counter variety – sometimes 20 times more. Yikes.




However, physicians are now being schooled on the benefits of the prescription vitamins, and they are eagerly writing vitamin and supplement prescriptions for their patients.

Don’t believe me? Just wait until your next office visit. You will be encouraged to add a prescription fish oil supplement to your high cholesterol meds. The next time that you have blood work done, you’ll learn that you have low vitamin D and will be given a prescription for that as well. If you listen closely, you may even hear your doctor bleat as they write your vitamin prescription. BAAAHHH!



Suddenly, vitamins and nutritional supplements are ‘in’. It’s amazing how the human body only pisses out excess vitamins when they aren’t made by a big pharmaceutical company.

Please – don’t get me wrong – I am not blaming the doctors here. They are only a product of their education and environment. It’s actually a good thing that they have standards of care and practice, and that they continually enhance and evolve their education.

The bad thing is that these giant corporations exploit this system and use it to their financial advantage.

And that costs all of us a lot of money.




And, even without taking 'unauthorized' vitamins, that gets me pissed off. How about you?


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Who are you? Do you agree with me, disagree with me, or have another perspective to share?

PLEASE put your 2 cents in by leaving a comment or email me at HealthcareBlog@SystematixOnline.com



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2 comments:

  1. You mean there aren't a slew of renegades like "House"? Just found your blog by chance and it's really interesting. I'll have to read up on the back catalog.

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