“Going to my doctor can make me more frustrated and confused about my health!
I hear this a lot!… so I want to give you some effective ways to get results from your next Dr visit (and feel satisfied with the answers, after walking out the door.)
Just quickly though… Click Here to join my mailing list for more simple help with your health (without the overwhelm.)
So, people tell me they feel frustrated when they have a health issue and they see their doctor about it. They’re unsatisfied much of the time by the discussion and often feel their Dr is rushing them out the door, feeling more confused than ever!
It’s also common for some people to take what the doctor says as ‘gospel.’ And hey it’s understandable, we put so much faith in our doctors if we don’t know any better. However this is where we hand over our control of our health… to an industry that is motivated by profit (not by our wellness.)
Thankfully, I also hear about some really helpful, caring doctors out there… but I’m trying to help those who have the not so great experiences and who’s health is suffering from it.
To be fair, we need to understand that in medical school, doctors were never taught about nutrition and holistic health. They are taught to treat symptoms with medication. And they do this extraordinarily well.
However, medications usually won’t get rid of the issue causing the symptom. We would just have to continue putting up with ‘it’ and possibly need other medicines to counteract the side effects of the first medicine. Not a good place to be in!
If we can dig deeper with our health, we can then find out what’s causing the symptom. And this discovery is not a fairy-tale either, we are finding these answers every day!
Mainstream medicine however, drives us away from this most logical thinking, to a belief that we automatically need medication, before we even give our body a chance to heal itself (which it can do very powerfully.)
And often the symptom e.g. daily tiredness (even though we slept the night before) can have nothing to do with sleeping, but everything to do with e.g. having a leaky gut. So you see if we have a symptom, it may not necessarily be due to ‘the obvious.’
It’s what is going on internally (and silently) where the long term solution lies. For example in the common case of leaky gut – our ‘master engine room’ is not functioning properly. So there’s a good chance other systems within our body won’t be functioning well either, such as thyroid, hormones or mental health to name a few.
Here are 4 ways we can take back our control at our next doctor’s visit:
1. Don’t feel ‘rushed’ by your doctor: Sit down, relax and insist on making him/her aware that you want to explore different solutions and that you don’t necessarily want to go down the standard route of going on medication as a ‘quick fix.’ Ask for clarification if you need to, so that once you walk out that door, you are crystal clear and satisfied that the visit was well worth the time and the money!!
2. Ask questions: Some doctors tend to tell you the bare minimum info. The reason they may not expand on info is because 1. they’re so busy and 2. they may not think you want to know or understand. Let him/her know that you’re ‘one of these patients’ who are prepared to do more with your health. (Some doctors will only give as much info as they think you can take.) If you signal to him/her that you want the whole story, and that you do understand it, then they’re often prepared to work harder and talk to you more about your issue. Sad but true.
3. Ask for functional medicine tests: Sometimes we are prescribed medications before we all really know what’s going on with our health. Some medications are prescribed just to ‘rule out’ certain conditions (the shotgun approach.) However this can back fire (pardon the pun) because medications do imbalance our sensitive physiology. They deplete us of nutrients and throw other parts of our health out. This is reality. We need to weigh up if that is worth it.
If not, perhaps inquire about other possibilities e.g. Functional Testing. These tests are designed to pick up patterns (or indicators) in our health which lead to ill health (but before it has advanced too much.) It can help us connect the dots before things get to bad.
Here are 7 easy functional medicine tests for you to consider:
Hormonal Profile: For acne, PMT, difficulty conceiving, heavy periods, PCOS.
Hair Analysis: for heavy metal toxins (related to cancer and other ill health)
Intestinal Microbial Analysis: for all digestive issues
Saliva Adrenal Hormone Profile: for chronic stress, exhaustion and poor sleep
Amino Acids: for depression and mood imbalances
Food Intolerance testing: if you suffer from frustrating food reactions
Functional Liver Detox Profile: for imbalanced hormones, chronic inflammation.
4. Check your thyroid: Low or high thyroid is very common in women and it needs serious attention. Poor thyroid can cause weight gain/loss, tremors, exhaustion, dry skin, bad sleep and many other problems. If you’re concerned about your thyroid and you’re getting a test for it, make sure you ask your doctor for a Reverse T3 (RT3) along with the normal thyroid test. Many doctors only rely on the basic thyroid test (without the RT3) and this often results in a ‘normal’ thyroid reading when it’s clearly not normal. The RT3 is a more extensive test (simple to do though) which will pick up hidden thyroid imbalances. We may think that what we don’t know won’t hurt us, but an imbalanced thyroid is only going to get worse.) The RT3 test will be an out of pocket expense (around $80 from memory) however it’s well worth it for the sake of your health.
And there are many other ways to ‘get what you want’ at your doctor’s visit, but I’m aware that you don’t have much time to read long posts because life is very busy!
So you’re very welcome to ask me about your own personal ‘doctor visit’ situation at Nutrition For Life Community.
Also don’t forget to join my Mailing List so you can always be in control of your health.
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