A Doctor A Day

I’m admittedly coming out swinging here with an opinion that may teeter on the edge of controversial. So here goes…unless your situation is an actual emergency at the expense of a major injury or due to an autoimmune disease there is NO REASON you should be seeing a doctor on a regular basis. Most of all a primary care physician. Still with me? Let me be clear, this is not a knock against conventional medicine doctors but rather an examination of the irrational choices made by those of us who make up the patient population and the systematic response of the health care system.

I realize everything is nuanced and every persons situation is unique. Broken bones, appendicitis, a hernia, disc issues etc., things of this sort can’t wait and won’t be alleviated through any mode of holistic healing or alternative medicine. Although some herbalists may argue against the broken bone claim. To clarify I’m not suggesting you rub coconut oil on a flesh wound, express gratitude towards the moon and hope for the best. What I am saying is how many of those visits to the doctor are essentially the result of lifestyle choices? Just look around you, the evidence is everywhere. Human beings are making uneducated and uninformed choices based on a blind trust that has been handed down to them since the beginning by their families, their culture, society and the corporations that control the food supply.

Here’s a quick chunk of a conversation I actually had with my Primary Care Physician a few years back…

“Hey doc, I’m thinking about going fully plant based. The changes I’ve made in my diet up to this point have made a huge difference.”

“Why would you do that? You should just eat cows. They already know what to eat so you don’t have to think about it.”

This was his advice to me. Just eat cows so I don’t have to think about it. There were no questions about vitamin or nutrient intake and no questions regarding b12 levels. Just eat cows. Ok so, which cows? Any cow? Fast food cow? Taco truck cow? Grass fed bullshit cow? Essentially his advice was don’t sweat the details, just eat animals and keep showing up at the office hopefully in need of medication. It was through MY recommendation that upon our next yearly visit we do a blood panel with a focus on my D3 and B12 levels. Unsurprisingly to me everything was exactly how it should have been after a year of eating a well researched whole food plant based diet. Most people who do more than one week of nutrition research are already leaps and bounds beyond the realms of understanding in which their primary care physician can grasp. No offense to the docs out there but this is the reality in which we inhibit. Most medical schools require roughly 8 hrs of nutrition study. Math is anything but my strong suit but I’m pretty certain those numbers equate to ONE HOUR PER YEAR. Yikes. But I digress…

As we sit in the waiting room of a doctors office we should be asking ourselves “why am I here, really?” “Did I do this to myself or am I just one of the ‘unlucky ones’?” The list of self induced disease is endless. The human body is constantly striving towards homeostasis and is only thrown off course by the things we put IN it and ON it. We’re not overweight because of our genetics, we didn’t develop a tumor because our grandparents did as well, we don’t have aches and pain because we just entered our 30’s or 40’s. These things are not “normal” occurrences. Our culture has convinced us that a conventional doctor is here to keep us healthy and has our best interest in mind. The reality is if we’re healthy, the “sick care” system has no patients, no patients equals no insurance claims, no claims equals no payouts, no payouts equals no mortgage payments, no car payments and no expensive vacations for Dr. DoNothing. Again, it’s no ones fault. Its a disgusting systemic issue that involves a lot of powerful institutions who are only centered around profits and lifelong customers. They need us to be sick and they rely on us to be unwell. Fuck that. Not me. I choose life, I choose homeostasis, I choose balance, I choose humanity.

More often than not it’s the small and seemingly insignificant deeds that make the most profound change and we’re equipped with so much more power than we’re lead to believe. It’s an unfortunate reality that EATING HEALTHY is a REVOLUTIONARY ACT but that’s just how backwards things are. The habit of eating healthy leads to drastic positive change that has a massive ripple effect both inside and outside of our bodies, our communities and our planet. If this superficial, imaginary economy is based upon supply and demand then it should be apparent that WE hold the power through the choices WE make. My advice to a stranger would be to vote with your dollars because it changes things swiftly and who knows, it might just lead to you forgetting the telephone number to your doctors office. Note that I said “eating healthy” NOT “eating vegan or plant based”. A plant based diet is just what worked and continues to work for myself and my family and allows us to thrive.

I used to suffer without realizing it and was clueless to basic lifestyle choices that were effecting my overall well-being but I eventually woke up. It took time but I’m 41 today, I feel better and can do more than I could two decades ago and I haven’t been to a doctors office in years (last visit was for a head wound that required four stitches). Maybe I’m just one of the lucky ones.

Peace.

p.s. Dentists are a scam too! But we’ll save that for another day.