The Hippocratic Oath is something that every physician who graduates from medical school presumably takes. While most physicians follow a great proportion of this important pledge, there is one passage in the modern version created by the late Dr. Louis Lasagna that is rarely followed by those physicians practicing allopathic medicine. It reads, “I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.” Is that the way medicine is really being practiced in today’s world? I think not and here is why.
The purple pill NexiumTM helps people with severe esophogeal acid reflux. These people suffer greatly from their disorder but by prescribing the drug without first making the sufferers change obvious bad habits are we really preventing disease? By denying the healing benefits of nutrients and proper eating do they also fail to fulfill their oath. Having been to a number of physicians over the years I really believe that it is not that they don’t want to prevent disease but that they cannot spend the time necessary to help their patients stop doing things that harm their health. There is plenty of blame to go around and here are my big three.
First off we should point our finger at the pharmaceutical industry and its focus on profits and selling drugs to overcome issues that can often times be treated by lifestyle and habit changes as well as low side effect nutritional supplements (note that I say low side effect not no side effect). Restless Leg Syndrome, while a serious issue is often times better treated with magnesium and well formulated electrolytes instead of the drug RequipTM which has numerous serious side effects. The way the pharmaceutical industry markets their drugs is a major reason why people look for a short cut drug instead of slower lifestyle changes.
Secondly, we need to blame our society as a whole where we eat bad foods and enormous supersized meals, cut back on funding physical education in our schools and take a laisse faire attitude towards health. This societal degredation is so reminiscent of the fall of the Roman Empire that it is just history repeating itself. So many physicians feed into this societal illness that they refuse to make their patients change their habits in fear of losing them.
Thirdly, we need to lay the ultimate blame on the individuals who allow themseslves to get caught up in the “blame others but not me” syndrome. From the moronic ex-judge who sued the dry cleaner for losing a pair of pants to the people who demand that their children get an antibiotic prescription for the flu. Each of us, and I am guilty at times, look for shortcuts, ways not to pay the required price for real health, not just the lack of disease. We all need to look in the mirror and assess what we need to do to get better and then do it. We need to follow our own personal Hippocratic Oath, something I will propose in my next blog.