Some Opinions Of Medical Care

Some of those who have read my 1600+ posts on Skin Cell Forum and the several hundred posts scattered widely on the rest of the net, and on my other blog, Eureka Ideas Unlimited, sometimes berate me for not being specific enough about the problems plaguing health care. Others think I am unfair to the medical profession, which they seem to regard as a pretty pristine industry with few real faults.

When I get such criticisms, particularly if they are thoughtful and well written, I tend to look back and see if I have been out of line. Comments about specific doctors or dentists -- two highly favorable -- two highly unfavorable. A tie score.

But it is true that the medical profession and the associated industries (hospitals, clinics, HMO's, private and government insurance providers, and pharmaceutical companies have been saturated with problems. Some of my remarks went back in history to the nineteenth century, and occasionally into the eighteenth. Here I am told that history is not relevant to today's issues. Of course it is.

I have even heard that I have not been comprehensive enough. This is the opposite side. It is true. Ninety percent of my exposure to doctors was prior to the age of forty. About eight percent between forty and forty five, and the last two percent in the remaining twenty-three years. Up until the 1980's my health had been pretty marginal. In spite of medical treatment, and the surgical removal of the lower lobe of my right lung (which I was later told might not have been necessary), long term survival seemed unlikely. It was actually when I started to take my health into my own hands, that my health started to improve. I am in my late sixties, Neither my wife or myself take any prescriptions. My wife had some serious medical issues when I met her. Two doctors recommended major surgery. We delayed while I did some innovative things to alleviate the problem. The problem went away. Of course it could always return. That was only twenty-three years ago.

Several years ago, my blood pressure started to really climb. At one point it spiked at 191/110 mm Hg. And since I had had a stroke previous to that (which only affected my thinking speed and depth) I almost went to a doctor. Had I done so, I would probably been ordered to take a beta-blocker like Toprol XL., a very common regime that might well have continued for the remainder of my life. I must admit that I was so concerned that I did go to Mexico and got some Metaprolol (the Mexican version of Toprol) but I used it only for about a month, tapering off as I employed non-pharmaceutical measures. Now, my blood pressure is almost always in the normal range or below; 116/76, and rarely gets to 130/90, usually with an identifiable crisis involved in the elevation.

How many people in their late sixties do you know who are not on a handful of daily pharmaceutical medications? My wife too is prescription free.

Even younger people can often wind up in the prescription trap. Nick, a genius by my measure, and my best friend had just gotten his degree from the local University, Married, and raising a young son, he was at the opposite end of the spectrum from me. He was under the regular care of two, and sometimes more physicians. His degree was in chemistry, and he was a true believer in pharmaceutical intervention. His doctors seemed quite in sync with his perspective. In most other things we were generally on the same wavelength.

Nick died last year. While there was an autopsy, the cause of his demise was not firmly established. Perhaps his reliance on his doctors played no part.