You May Have A Stupid Doctor If ...

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she tells you fibromyalgia doesn’t exist.

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she dismisses your fibromyalgia symptoms as nothing more than you being a hypochondriac-someone wanting attention.

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she tells you that more exercise, sleep or losing weight is all you need to do to for your fibromyalgia symptoms-you know the doctor who says “you just need to improve your sex life, take a vacation, lose some weight, your just depressed, it is just PMS…”Give me a break, this doctor doesn’t have a clue!

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she tells you that all your blood work looks normal so you must be a “drug seeker.” It may not occur to this stupid doctor that you never mentioned you wanted pain medication, that in fact you have repeatedly declined to take pain meds in the past. What you are really seeking is to have a doctor listen, understand and help you feel better.

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she fails to order the proper tests, especially but not limited to thyroid tests. Simply following the herd and only ordering routine tests, including “the normal” thyroid tests, stimulating hormone (TSH) and a T4 (Thyroxine) is similar to trying to critique The Sound of Music after only watching the first 20 minutes of the movie/play. Your synopsis is-Julie Andrews was a quirky nun. Ok, what about the Captain, his children, the Nazi party, the wedding, and the escape? My point is stupid doctors are happy to stay stupid. They don’t care to practice the art of doctoring, being a detective, investigating anything outside the routine.

They’re happy to follow the herd, not make any waves and dispatch the drugs the pharmaceutical rep asks them to based on “this is how we’ve always done it.”

Sorry but it burns me up that patients go to their doctor with all the symptoms of low thyroid-fatigue, depression, anxiety, elevated cholesterol, brain fog, weight gain, cold hands, cold feet, swelling, tingling pains, constipation, hair loss-only to be told their blood work looks fine.

They totally miss the diagnosis because they don’t go the extra mile (“this is how we’ve always done it”). They are then only too happy to promote life draining drugs to cover up the hypothyroid symptoms-Ritalin for low energy, Lipitor for elevated cholesterol, Zoloft for depression, Lyrica for tingling pain…it just goes on and on.

The patient’s symptoms and poor health continue to grow year after year when all the stupid doctor needed to do was run the right tests, or think outside the box and recommend prescription or over the counter thyroid hormone therapy. Correct the cause, low thyroid and all the symptoms go away!

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she dismisses the very real condition known as adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue occurs when your stress coping glands, the adrenals become to stressed to perform properly. Stress is definitely the catalyst for disease! They will tell you your symptoms associated with adrenal fatigue, low energy, brain fog, low immune function, depression, poor sleep, weight gain, etc. are from getting older or all in your head.

Why? Because doctors are evaluating blood work for disease not function. They don’t care that your adrenals aren’t functioning at optimal levels (to allow you to deal with and rebound from stress). They only care if you have TOTAL adrenal failure, Addison’s disease. Blood tests won’t show adrenal fatigue but a four-sample, 16-hour saliva test will.

Guess what else stupid doctors don’t believe in, saliva tests. This despite they’ve been proven valid and are recognized by insurance companies, accredited labs, Harvard Medical School, and other leading organizations.

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she has you taking two different SSRI or SSNRI antidepressant medications. These drugs, including Savella, Cymbalta, Effexor, Celexa, Zoloft, Paxil, Pristiq, and Prozac are supposed to help your brain re-uptake the happy hormones serotonin and or norepinephrine. It makes no sense to be on more than one of these drugs at the same time-you only increase the risk of more side effects (including poor sleep, depression, anxiety, muscle pain, etc.).

If you stop to get gas why would you mix 89% with 91% unleaded fuel? You wouldn’t. If you need more fuel you simply increase the cars intake, you don’t mix them. Mixing these drugs is a sign of a lazy and stupid doctor!

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she has you taking a stimulant drug or drugs and a relaxant or tranquilizing drug. Examples include-taking Ritalin, Adderall, Strattera, Intuniv, Vyvanse, Wellbutren, Effexor, Cymbalta, Savella, or Pristiq and a benzodiazepine drug for anxiety including Ativan, Xanax, Seroquel, Klonpin, Valium or Busbar. One drug is revving you up the other is making you a zombie.

Lazy or stupid doctors are happy to over medicate you. They don’t take time to study how to naturally reduce your anxiety, which after the fact, you can and should use natural amino acids (which make the happy, calming and or stimulating brain hormones, serotonin and norepinephrine)-no one has a drug deficiency!

You May Have A Stupid Doctor If-

He or she has you taking a potentially stimulating drug while you are complaining of insomnia. It used to surprise me to see doctors recommending their patients take a SSRI or SSNRI at bedtime. Why? Because these drugs can, not only re-uptake the calming hormone serotonin, they can also re-uptake the stimulating hormone adrenaline. Now I may not be “a real doctor,” I’m only a little chiropractor nutritionist, but I know enough about biochemistry and physiology and after 17 years experience of treating fibro I know you don’t do anything to potentially sabotage deep restorative sleep.

Timed-release stimulant drugs including some antidepressants and Ritalin are notorious for causing sleep disorders. AND you should know that these drugs deplete your natural sleep hormone melatonin.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But I’m sure the stupid doctor simply increased your sleep medication or added another potentially dangerous drug to knock you out at night.

Well I could go on and on about stupid doctors but I’ve got to finish up now so I can pack my clothes for my weekend seminar on Functional Medicine. I’ll be learning about more tests that stupid doctors don’t use or even know about. I’m happy not to follow the herd, and strive to be a smart doctor, even though I’m still learning how to work the new TV remote.

I'll Take My Chances With Complementary Medicine

Over 700,000 Americans die each year from government sanctioned, FDA approved, AMA sponsored medicine.

Iatrogenic, or doctor induced, illnesses take the lives of 783,936 American each year. This makes conventional medicine the number one killer in the United States, ahead of heart disease and cancer. And, beware that as few as 5% of iatrogenic events are ever reported.

This implies that iatrogenic deaths are much higher and would be equivalent to six jumbo jets falling out of the sky each day. Now that’s news!

An October 2003 JAMA study from the US government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reported 32,000, mostly surgery-related, deaths costing $9 billion and resulting in 2.4 million extra hospital days in 2000. Americans submit to over 600,000 bypass surgeries each year. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that up to 10% of bypass patients die from the surgery. Yet, the National Institutes of Health has estimated that 90% of Americans who undergo bypass surgery receive no benefits. Another study involving 14 major heart hospitals around the world showed that one-third of all heart bypass surgeries were unnecessary and actually increased the risk of death.

Americans using FDA sanctioned drugs, as directed, are dying at the rate of one every three to five minutes. In fact, the average American has a 26% chance of being hospitalized from a drug injury from the effects of a lifetime of drug taking. Of the 30 million people admitted to hospitals each year, approximately ten percent, or 3 million, are admitted specifically because of adverse drug reactions. In 1995, a JAMA report noted that, “…approximately 280,000 die annually as a result of these injuries.” And to top it off, hospital born infections kill another 26,000 (conservative estimate) patients each year. The General Accounting Office reports, “of the 198 drugs approved by the FDA between 1976 and 1985, 102 of them or 51% had serious post approval risks including heart failure, myocardial infarction, respiratory failure, seizures, and kidney failure.

The FDA estimates that NSAIDS cause 200,000 cases of gastric bleeding annually, leading to 10,000 to 20,000 deaths. Calcium channel blockers increase the risk of stroke by five-fold.

Americans take over 5 billion sleeping pills each year. And each year, 15,000 Americans die from these same sleeping pills. The heart drug Digoxin causes over 28,000 cases of life-threatening or fatal adverse reactions each year.

The very drugs that are being used to treat various illnesses are causing more American deaths in one year than occurred in the entire Vietnam War! Yet, in spite of the fact that these FDA approved drugs are killing over 100,000 Americans each year, people still believe health comes from a doctor prescribed pill bottle. Annual spending on drugs continues to grow by 12% or more each year. The public and the medical profession have been brain-washed into believing drug therapy is a safe and effective way to “cure” every ailment known to man. This starts at an early age as our kids become jaded and used  to the idea of lining up for the school nurse to dispense their Ritalin and other psychotropic drugs. To safeguard their stranglehold on public perception, the pharmaceutical industry makes sure doctors are thoroughly duped with half-truths and pseudo-science about the newest, greatest wonder drugs.

In 2001, drug companies paid for over 60% of the costs of all doctors’ continuing education classes. And over 80,000 drug reps give away $11 billion worth of samples each year. There is now one drug rep for every doctor in the United States.

However, today’s latest greatest drug is often tomorrows widow maker. Does Rezulin, Zelnorm, Baycol, Fen-Phen, Propulsid, Avandia, Vioxx, and Bextra ring any bells?

Vioxx alone has been linked to 27,000 cases of heart attack. The diabetes drug Avandia, increases heart attack risk by 43% and increases risk of death from heart disease by 64%. Dr. David Graham of the Food and Drug Administration estimates that Avandia may have caused 30,000 to 140,000 heart attacks or deaths since it was introduced in the U.S. in 1999.


Despite the periodic yellow journalism that warns us against the dangers of alternative medicine, given the risks associated with traditional medicine, I'm happy to take my chances with complementary medicine.