Docs only treat symptoms, not causes

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TAS2000

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Ok, I am not really asking for advice here so much as I am complaining about the attitude of the medical profession in general in our society. Here is the situation: I had an ectopic pregnancy that resulted in me loosing a tube, and then had two children. After each child I went on the pill to regulate my periods (unstoppable bleeding), and stayed on it despite that fact that I knew the church says it is wrong (I mean, really, who doesn’t know that). I have since started to take my faith much more seriously (yeah Catholic radio!) and went off the pill. Of course, the fact that we wanted to try to have our third child was a big factor there, so I am not really as great as it sounds. So, ever since going off the pill, my periods have been extremely irregular (not just a little off). I know there is an adjustment period, etc, but this has been 6 mths. And the doc even tested my thyroid. Test came out ok, doc says, “Either I put you on the pill again for a few months, or try a low level fertility drug.”

So, here is the thing, and I know this is a sweeping generalization, but: Why is there such a huge “prescribe a pill, and get out of my office” mentality these days? There was absolutely zero talk past the thyroid test of trying to discover WHY I am irregular. It was like, oh well, it wasn’t obvious, so just try a pill. I am an engineer, and if I had a system that was not working and told the guy, oh well I tried one test and that didn’t work, then gave up, I wouldn’t have a job very long. Aren’t doctors trained anymore to find causes, not just treat symptoms? Or do we need scientific researchers, not doctors? Or I am just too logical?

Feel free to rant along with me, or offer advice for my situation, as long as you avoid the obvious, “find another doc”. What is another doc going to do that this one hasn’t, and if you can tell me that, I can ask this doc to do it, as he is a pretty decent sort.
 
I feel the same. I have pneumonia…again…I get it almost every year it seems. Everytime I go to the doctor’s its, take this pill, take that pill…makes me angry. Tell me why I’m getting it, or at least what to do to prevent it…instead of handing me fistfulls of antibiotics and hoping it will go away. It won’t unless you at least TRY to help me. If anything, give me a pamphlet or something…but no.
 
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sarcophagus:
I feel the same. I have pneumonia…again…I get it almost every year it seems. Everytime I go to the doctor’s its, take this pill, take that pill…makes me angry. Tell me why I’m getting it, or at least what to do to prevent it…instead of handing me fistfulls of antibiotics and hoping it will go away. It won’t unless you at least TRY to help me. If anything, give me a pamphlet or something…but no.
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Pneumonia is chronic and after you get it a couple of times, you will most likely be prone to continue to get it. There isn’t a cure so you want have it again, maybe a little preventitive medicine, but that’s it. I’m basing this off of a conversation I had with my dad a couple of years ago (he’s a Respitory Therapist).
 
Oh…didn’t know that. Well, in that case…rant over. That;s my only experience.
 
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TAS2000:
Ok, I am not really asking for advice here so much as I am complaining about the attitude of the medical profession in general in our society. Here is the situation: I had an ectopic pregnancy that resulted in me loosing a tube, and then had two children. After each child I went on the pill to regulate my periods (unstoppable bleeding), and stayed on it despite that fact that I knew the church says it is wrong (I mean, really, who doesn’t know that). I have since started to take my faith much more seriously (yeah Catholic radio!) and went off the pill. Of course, the fact that we wanted to try to have our third child was a big factor there, so I am not really as great as it sounds. So, ever since going off the pill, my periods have been extremely irregular (not just a little off). I know there is an adjustment period, etc, but this has been 6 mths. And the doc even tested my thyroid. Test came out ok, doc says, “Either I put you on the pill again for a few months, or try a low level fertility drug.”

So, here is the thing, and I know this is a sweeping generalization, but: Why is there such a huge “prescribe a pill, and get out of my office” mentality these days? There was absolutely zero talk past the thyroid test of trying to discover WHY I am irregular. It was like, oh well, it wasn’t obvious, so just try a pill. I am an engineer, and if I had a system that was not working and told the guy, oh well I tried one test and that didn’t work, then gave up, I wouldn’t have a job very long. Aren’t doctors trained anymore to find causes, not just treat symptoms? Or do we need scientific researchers, not doctors? Or I am just too logical?

Feel free to rant along with me, or offer advice for my situation, as long as you avoid the obvious, “find another doc”. What is another doc going to do that this one hasn’t, and if you can tell me that, I can ask this doc to do it, as he is a pretty decent sort.
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Try a dr in holistic medicine…
I think they sometimes call them drs in preventive medicine…or hey you could try a chiropracter (sp?)
I know ,I know some think they can be quacks…but you could try it …I know in some cases it works.
 
I used to get pneumonia or bronchitis the same time every year when I was younger and lived in New York City. After I moved from New York, I had it a few times but not regularly. In the past 30 years I can’t recall ever having it. I suppose it was either related to the climate, area, or perhaps I “outgrew” whatever was causing it. Since living in New Orleans, I get seasonal allergies but nothing like when I lived up north.
 
I forgot to add that your dr might think its not workable…because they only know what they’ve learned…even if your dr is a decent sort…you start talking holisic med or chiro…they can’t see it…
 
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aimee:
I forgot to add that your dr might think its not workable…because they only know what they’ve learned…even if your dr is a decent sort…you start talking holisic med or chiro…they can’t see it…
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This reminds me, in a way, of something our pediatrician once said, and I’m still troubled by his mentality. Last winter, we took all three of our children (at the time, age 4.5, 3.5 and 2) with high fevers and other less pleasant symptoms (I’ll spare you the gory details). The conclusion was that they all had a virus, possibly flu. Then, he said, “But I feel that I must give you something, so here’s a prescription.” It was an antibiotic for a virus!

I think they’ve been bombarded with messages from the pharmaceutical companies, and often resort to medication as a first response, rather than a last resort. For that reason they’ll either mock the natural/nutritional/holistic approaches, or tell you that you’re putting yourself in danger. Those who’ve healed themselves of serious, supposedly lifelong illnesses with natural methods (like my wife) beg to differ, of course.
 
Aimee,

I have to admit, *I *fail to see what a chiropracter could do to help with this situation. If I had a bad back, or something, maybe. I am considering taking an “herbal suplement” to see if that helps, but I tend to shy away from stuff like that. Just some aversion to anything that could be considered “quack”. I try to be open minded, but…

It just bugs me that docs seem so content to not find root causes, especially with fertility issues. I heard on the Catholic radio a woman telling her story about how she went to her doctor, he never ran any testa, just gave her drugs. No baby, go for IVF. No tests were done, ever. Turned out she had bloked tubes, endometriosis, and some othe rstuff that weas totlay treatable, then she got pregnant naturally. But she had to travel half way across the country to do it. Why didn’t the local docs care to find the cause! it just makes me so mad!
 
I am also prone to pneumonia so my doc gave me a pneumonia vacine which lasts about 5 years. Hasn’t your doctor ever mentioned that?
I do understand the rant about the medical profession and pharmacueticals though. My husband and I mentor two children from a motherless home and their psychiartrist prescribed ritalin for the little girl which then caused depression so he prescribed an anti-depressant on top of the ritalin!! The family and I have since worked and gotten her off the anti-depressant.
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sarcophagus:
I feel the same. I have pneumonia…again…I get it almost every year it seems. Everytime I go to the doctor’s its, take this pill, take that pill…makes me angry. Tell me why I’m getting it, or at least what to do to prevent it…instead of handing me fistfulls of antibiotics and hoping it will go away. It won’t unless you at least TRY to help me. If anything, give me a pamphlet or something…but no.
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I’ve gotten it myself with my hypoglycemia. I just chalked it up to poor doctors in the rural area I’m living in. Once I move to Dallas in a month I plan on finding a good doctor who might be at least interested in finding out why I’m hypoglycemic. The ones here just aren’t.
 
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Almeria:
I’ve gotten it myself with my hypoglycemia. I just chalked it up to poor doctors in the rural area I’m living in. Once I move to Dallas in a month I plan on finding a good doctor who might be at least interested in finding out why I’m hypoglycemic. The ones here just aren’t.
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I’m hypoglycemic as well. THe doctor said it’s usually a genetic thing and that was it. I basically had to cut back on my sugar consumption and eat more fruits that produces natural sugar (i.e. oranges).
 
Two thumbs WAY up for Chiropractic, and this is coming form a devout Catholic … and admitedly a student in Chiropractic college! 😃

TAS, you said you fail to see what a Chiropractor can do for you, and yet your question is what Chiropractic is based on! It’s all about the fixing root of the problem, not just the symptoms.

Did you know that the nervous system is the master control of the entire body? It’s how your brain tells your heart, your stomach, your lungs, and even your reproducitve system what to do! If there’s any interferrence in the nervous system (and believe me, everyone has SOME, just due to daily stress), your body can’t function properly. That’s where your Chiropractor comes in.

A Chiropractor will give you what’s called an adjustment, which relieves that nerve interferrence and opens up your body’s communication lines again. It’s amazing what kinds of results this produces! You won’t hear a Chiropractor say s/he “cured” anything (and if they do, they’ve mispoken), but instead helps the body HEAL ITSELF, without drugs or surgery. It’s not uncommon at all for patients to come in for low back pain, and discover they’re no longer getting migraines, stomach problems, or even realize that they’re not sterile afterall! (also helps patients with sugar imbalances!)

Since this isn’t how most people are accustomed to thinking, they label Chiropractors as “quacks.” But it’s actually very scientific, and requires trust that God made the body self-sustaining. It’s not contradictory to our faith at all.

I strongly, strongly encourage you to visit your local chiropractor and see how they can help you. And when I start my practice, I’ll make a note to hand out not only health pamphlets, but also Divine Mercy prayer cards. 😉
 
Chiro,

Please know that I didn’t mean anything bad when I said “quack”. I just can’t think of a better term to describe “treatments” that often turn out to be big money grabbing schemes at best and actually hurtful at worst. Unfortunately, valid treatments, like herbal suppliments, chiro, accupuncture, etc. that have got documented results, are often mistrusted out of hand becasue people associate them with these “quack” schemes. After all, most prescription drugs started out as stuff in herbal remedies, and complicated chemical processes just tried to isolate the one thing in the herb, etc. that caused the desired result so it could be compressed into a pill. I just wonder what the chiropractor would say if I called to make an appointment for my irregular periods. And what would they suggest at that point?

I also have to examine your comment that chiro’s are dedicated to finding the solution. SOME are, sure, but I have heard of waaaay too many stories that say, just come in twice a week for the rest of your life. Similarly, there have to be SOME regular docs that do try to find root causes. But too many just prescribe a pill and treat the symptom. And as a mom of 2 small ones, I have to agree with the poster who said they prescribe anitbiotics for viruses all the time! Our regular doc is good about that though. He’ll tell me straight out, it’s viral, I can’t do anything but give you something for the symptoms. And if it makes you feel any better, my OB/GYN is actually a D.O. by training, and he did try giving me an adjustment when I was prego.
 
Let’s go back to the thyroid test for you and for the hyperglycemic folks.

Did they test your thryroid antibodies or did they just do the standard TSH, T3 and T4? I was hyperthryoid, my husband and eldest child are hypo. The latter two tested positive on all of the thryoid tests except for the seldom given antibody test which they were both off of the charts on. You can have tons of thyroid in your blood but if your body is attacking it, it’s useless. You’ll need more.

Thryoid and diabetes are very linked and I’m finding that out more than ever. I was never diabetic with my first 3 pregnancies. I let some quack kill off my thryoid (thank God for the new doctor!) and the next 2 pregnancies I was diabetic. This pregnancy, I’m on a really high dose of thryoid and my numbers are much lower. As the pregnancy weight goes up I need to up the thryoid or else the sugar numbers go up too.

My doc says that most people who are diabetic are also hypothryoid and that if they can many times reverse the problem with a higher dose of thyroid. It, of course, depends on how far gone the problem is.

Just my :twocents:

Also, Red Rapsberry leaf has always helped my cycles even when I was totally screwed up from the thryoid problems.
 
Actually, I have no idea what test was run. I don’t really even know if he was tesing for hyper- or hypo- thyroid. Or if it is the same test for both. Pretty sad, huh? I mean, aren’t we the lay people supposed to be able to defer to our doctors vast training and experience? :rolleyes: But these days you have to have a degree yourself and be an expert to make sure the doc’s are doing all they can instead of just running you through their office. How would I know going in what to ask for for tests? This is one reason why the internet is such a great tool, when used the right way.
 
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TAS2000:
Ok, I am not really asking for advice here so much as I am complaining about the attitude of the medical profession in general in our society. Here is the situation: I had an ectopic pregnancy that resulted in me loosing a tube, and then had two children. After each child I went on the pill to regulate my periods (unstoppable bleeding), and stayed on it despite that fact that I knew the church says it is wrong (I mean, really, who doesn’t know that). I have since started to take my faith much more seriously (yeah Catholic radio!) and went off the pill. Of course, the fact that we wanted to try to have our third child was a big factor there, so I am not really as great as it sounds. So, ever since going off the pill, my periods have been extremely irregular (not just a little off). I know there is an adjustment period, etc, but this has been 6 mths. And the doc even tested my thyroid. Test came out ok, doc says, “Either I put you on the pill again for a few months, or try a low level fertility drug.”

So, here is the thing, and I know this is a sweeping generalization, but: Why is there such a huge “prescribe a pill, and get out of my office” mentality these days? There was absolutely zero talk past the thyroid test of trying to discover WHY I am irregular. It was like, oh well, it wasn’t obvious, so just try a pill. I am an engineer, and if I had a system that was not working and told the guy, oh well I tried one test and that didn’t work, then gave up, I wouldn’t have a job very long. Aren’t doctors trained anymore to find causes, not just treat symptoms? Or do we need scientific researchers, not doctors? Or I am just too logical?

Feel free to rant along with me, or offer advice for my situation, as long as you avoid the obvious, “find another doc”. What is another doc going to do that this one hasn’t, and if you can tell me that, I can ask this doc to do it, as he is a pretty decent sort.
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My mom read this, and she had considerable problems after my youngest sister was born. She had difficulty finding a doctor that would help in a Catholic manner. After listening to Relevent Radio, she heard about the website: www.omsoul.com and after ten years, finally has found a good doctor who is helping her. These doctors don’t consider The Pill as an option. Since we don’t know where you live, she said to tell you about the website. Hopefully, there will be a Catholic doctor in your area. She needs to drive 30+ miles to get there, but it’s really worth it. And she would drive farther if she had to. She is so glad she found a good doctor.
 
Hi, I had irregular cycles and I had polycystic ovaries. Mine were detectable during my (ugh )yearly exam, but it had gone untreated for some time and the ovaries were notably cystic. Very irregular cycles. I did take the pill to try to shrink the cysts, and had some surgery. Later we used clomid and got pregnant after one month. I was oblivious to all the issues surrounding use of the pill at the time. (Pre-Catholic days). Also, is it wrong to use it if you are trying to shrink ovarian cysts and your goal is to solve a problem so you can get pregnant? Anyway, that’s a little detour, but you may want to discuss an ultrasound which could look at ovaris and uterus to see if there are issues in either place (not just what I had). BTW, we went on to have 4 children. God Bless.
 
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TAS2000:
Actually, I have no idea what test was run. I don’t really even know if he was tesing for hyper- or hypo- thyroid. Or if it is the same test for both. Pretty sad, huh? I mean, aren’t we the lay people supposed to be able to defer to our doctors vast training and experience? :rolleyes: But these days you have to have a degree yourself and be an expert to make sure the doc’s are doing all they can instead of just running you through their office. How would I know going in what to ask for for tests? This is one reason why the internet is such a great tool, when used the right way.
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There’s a really good book called Thyroid Power that actually mentions my doc. It has a chapter in it to give to your doctor and lists the test you should have run. It’s amazing what one little gland can do! I was also told I have polycistic ovarian syndrome. I mentioned this to my endochronologist and his response was “of course you do, you have thryoid problems.”
 
struggled with symptoms you describe for 30 years, and yes docs treat symptoms not causes because they don’t know the cause, and don’t know or don’t care enought to diagnose the cause. you need a complete workup including endocrinology (thyroid, pancreas, adrenal function etc.) and rule out polycystic ovary disease, endometriosis, fibroids, and related syndromes. Pill will mask some (not all) symptoms, but will not erase the root cause and may worsen it. Taking the pill whacks out your entire hormonal regulatory system, has horrid side effects that may not be apparent until you are older, and delays diagnosis of potentially deadly conditions. that being said, if you are taking the pill for medical reasons unrelated to preventing pregnancy, that is not a sin by itself. You have to keep looking till you find a doc you can trust.
 
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