You must be your own healthcare advocate!
There’s plenty of discussions to be had regarding healthcare. But here’s one aspect we want to bring some light to: The idea of being in charge of your own health.
Something we want to mention before we dive in to this topic is making sure we point out that we are by NO MEANS anti doctor or western medicine. What we are talking about is the idea of why you should be making sure that you don’t rely on one single person to give you all the answers regarding your body and what to do (or not do) with it. Make sure you read the whole thing!
Doctors are highly respected in our world. If you’re a doctor we know you’ve had to go through extensive schooling, have paid an arm and a leg to become one, and probably (hopefully) have some form of concern for peoples health.
Because of this, we tend to take their word for everything.
“My doctor said I shouldn’t eat x”
“My doctor said I shouldn’t lift x”
“My doctor said I need x”
And once it’s been said, we don’t do much research or look any further.
My purpose in writing this blog is so that you start digging deeper when it comes to your own health.
Things we need to remember:
Not every doctor is created equal.
Not every doctor has the time or resources needed to treat the CAUSES instead of the SYMPTOMS.
Some doctors have a wide base of knowledge but are not experts in specific aspects of health.
For example:
You go to the doctor because of depression. Your doctor hands you a prescription for antidepressants without asking you what your diet, activity level, or current life circumstances are. In some instances, diet change or even therapy may be options that you can look into before medication.
OR
You are dealing with knee pain. You are told you have a slight tear and they can get in there and fix it right up, but don’t inform you of other nonsurgical options. In some instances, a Sport Physical Therapist may be able to get you functioning just fine without invasive surgery.
OR
You are dealing with chronic fatigue. Your doctor tells you its just stress. In your mind, you think it’s more than that. You shrug it off and trust the doctor with no further research.