Mrs. Robinson walked into my office the other day suffering from a severe herniated disc with nerve pain. She had been to several other doctors, each of which had given her a different diagnosis, and each of which was unable to help her with her recovery. Mrs. Robinson worked most of her life in the steel industry and needed to perform heavy lifting and bending for her daily workload. She had never learned from any of her physicians about preventive health. The steel company offered work preventive courses, but Mrs. Robinson (like most of her co-workers) did not pay too much attention to these classes.   Consequently, she ended up joining the group of millions of people in the United States suffering from low back pain.

In addition, she had several other medical conditions. Most of her conditions were not life threatening, or even required medical intervention, but Mrs. Robinson (along with most Americans these days) was taking needless drugs and over-the-counter medications to help with her daily life.

It has been a tireless adventure for me to try to educate Mrs. Robinson about her medical conditions. She had even refused to listen to her general primary care provider. Mrs. Robinson would watch the ads on television about drugs that are available, and Mrs. Robinson simply told her medical doctor what she wanted. If that doctor refused to prescribe the drug, she would move on to the next doctor until she could find one that would. Mrs. Robinson had no education of or even a desire to try nutrition, lifestyle modifications, or dietary restrictions to help her. She simply told me she is too busy for those things, and “why should I do that when I can take a drug and be done with it?”

The fact is, Mrs. Robinson is not “done with it.” Over 90% of prescriptions drugs prescribed today do not actually cure anything. Most of the drugs manufactured by the pharmaceutical companies merely suppress our symptoms. In fact, there is only one type of medicine that actually cures, that drug is antibiotics. Mrs. Robinson, like most Americans, take antibiotics for even the smallest ailments and colds when over 80% of colds are viral and an antibiotic cannot help. They are getting these antibiotics because of the pressure these patients are putting on their physicians.

As a result, society is being challenged by her errors and super bugs and super viruses have crept up and our responsible for suppressing our immune systems and death. Upon reviewing Mrs. Robinson’s medical history, I noticed she was taking too many drugs and combining them with unnecessary over-the-counter medications. I also noticed she was going to different specialists who were giving her drugs for specific symptoms associated to that doctor’s specialty, and she was getting legal prescriptions from multiple doctors without telling her doctors about her previous prescription. As a result, her body was being dumped with dangerous chemicals and wreaking havoc on her body and vital organs.

Mrs. Robinson is not alone. I have not seen many studies on this subject, but I will tell you that one out of three patients I see do not remember to tell their physicians about the drugs they are taking, nor do they think they are harming themselves in any way. Mrs. Robinson, like many Americans, thinks that over-the-counter drugs are safe because they do not require a prescription. Sometimes I see patients combining herbs and other forms of nutrition in their bodies without realizing there could also be potentially fatal reactions.

Does Mrs. Robinson sound like someone you know? Perhaps a friend or a family member? Perhaps you? This blog is about creating your dream team of physicians to enhance the quality of your life. It is about educating yourself about the dangers that are out there. It is about lifestyle modification – how to eat, how to plan your healthcare so it benefits you, how to get many different types of physicians and specialists working together for you.

In my office, I work vigorously to make my patients better. Most of the time I spend on patients is not face-to-face, but it has been spent collecting information so I can be the best physician for them. Each day, I collaborate with medical doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, and specialists to create a treatment plan that best serves my patient. Often, I discover miscommunications between the patient and the doctor, not because the doctor did not care or did not take the time to care for their patient, but because of some other factor. Communication with your doctor is the number one most important element of good health care. In this blog, I will also teach you how to communicate better with your doctor.