PEOPLE MEDICINE: A Frugal Physician Prescribes

Table of Contents Chapters from coming book Common Sense and Enthusiasm Germs and Disease Cut to Cure Good Medicine, Bad Medicine Teaching and Learning Lip Service Review and Purchase Information ~~~ Links Dr. Bob's Other Sites Rocky Mountain Astrologer The Portable School ~~~~ Patch Adams's Gesundheit Institute Triangles Meditati on Creative Collaborators Scottish Artisans Magic Dragon Man Writer-Blogger Wishboats Viking Ships Baby Doctor Our Previous Book A Short Novel Worth Your Reading Well, there has been one recent complaint. Read about it here. Frugal Physicians Physicians Who Buck the Trend and Act as Real Healers Prudent Patients Patients Who Find Unique Ways to Deal with Illness and Injury David Miller Amy Welchez Harlee Watson Favorite Physicians Physicians Who Have Changed the World The Whole Works Deeper Ways to Look at the Human Experience Home Remedies Ways to Better Take Care of Yourself Medical Sanity The Doctor and The Prince by George Bernard Shaw Healthy Living Different Strokes for Different Folks Born to Run	Symbol for the Summer 2012 at Thousand Springs, ID Dr. Bob's Walk West is over, but the book on his 2002 Adventure is now available. For info, pictures and more, visit The Portable School. Lessons from Roads Less Traveled are now appearing most every week at The Portable School. PS. A Walk Around Montana is in the planning for 2013. Contact Dr. Bob via theportableschool at gmail dot com. ~~~ The Laugh is On You: Why Medical Reform is a Joke Health Care Reform has been a hot topic for years. Now it is in the hands of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. This is a sober moment for lawyers and justices, commentators and media, patients, and you, the public. But if YOU only really KNEW the medical system a little better, you might be laughing instead of fighting and fretting. Here are a baker's dozen of reasons to laugh about so-called health care reform: 1) There is no such thing as health care. Physicians know next to nothing about health. They never take a single course in health. They only know about disease, and not all that much about many of them. 2) It follows that there is simply no such thing as health insurance. All we have is disease insurance, which very often adds to the cost of medical care because physicians believe in their disease model. They test and test and test at your expense. 3) The present medical model promotes spending, duplication and waste -- regardless of any intended reform. This pattern has been developing since the 1940s, when Tinsley Harrison, the famed editor of a textbook on internal medicine named after him, wrote about "the present-day tendency towards a five-minute history followed by a five-day barrage of special tests in the hope that the diagnostic rabbit may suddenly emerge from the laboratory hat." Think how much worse it has gotten in 70 years. 4) The bottom line very often in the medical office, clinic, and hospital is income not care or service. The whole system caters to medical professionals and not human beings in the grasp of patienthood. We have medicine meant mainly for doctors not people. 5) Physicians use protocols, guidelines, algorithms, and most of all, guess work to pursue diagnoses of patient problems. Your physician generally knows only tidbits about the medications s/he prescribes, less about diseases diagnosed, and practically nothing about the human beings who consult him/her. 6) If you only knew how little your doctor knows about so many diseases. There are dozens of ways your physician can and does say "I don't know," while using medical terminology and professional verbosity to make you think otherwise. 7) Physicians get paid for dealing with illness, not with making you well. Job security and income are based on keeping you coming to the clinic and the hospital, not for helping you stay home and at work. 8) Medics takes bigger and bigger bites out of western economies because we believe they KNOW what they are doing. Most of the time, they use tests, procedures and scientific propaganda to hide their ignorance. Our ignorance and their ignorance add up to large medical bills. 9) We live in an age of technology which has taken men to the moon. We imagine physical and medical scientists to be akin to rocket scientists. But we have yet to usefully understand arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, schizophrenia, etc. The list is almost endless. 10) Clinics and hospitals are memorials to disease, not healing. Today, hospitals are treated as shrines and physicians as priests. Yet, how holy, healthy, and healing are they really? 11) Medical and cancer centers get larger and larger, and more and more expensive -- but not because people are cured. Cancer, like many other modern diseases, is largely incurable for the simple fact that its causes are almost totally unknown. How can such a disease be reasonably treated and dealt with when its causes are yet unknown? 12) Westerners pay huge bills for medical care which may be no more effective than the machinations of witch doctors. They actually may be less effective while costing fantastically more money. Many witch doctors and shamans work for free. 13) Physicians NEVER give guarantees on their treatments and surgeries. If any thing goes wrong, you suffer physical, emotional, financial and other consequences. You pay for doctors' mistakes. Why do patients and the public accept this and so many other blatantly absurd situations when they put themselves in medical hands? I have commented a number of times to friends about the POWER of a physician: "How many people do you know whom you might meet and within 10 minutes you will be willing to get naked at their request? And pay to do it?" Two answers come to mind at the present. One is a physician, the other is a prostitute. Both take your money -- often under questionable circumstances. They may leave you feeling better for a few moments, but the long term effects may not be good for your health -- physical, financial and otherwise. And, that's no joke. Consider purchasing PEOPLE MEDICINE to understand the system and much more. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thoughts from A Frugal Physician "Physicians are taught to save lives, not money." This quote is only partly true. Modern medicine is all about bodies and diseases, fixing and mending, repairing and curing. Unfortunately, health and healing, common sense and simplicity have become further and further removed form medical practice. There is NO course in medical school on health or healing. Neither on diet and nutrition, nor faith and beliefs, nor business and costs and laws. Medicine is now less a service than a business. A Big Business. Physicians often are more focused on the financial bottom line than on serving, helping and aiding their fellows. This can, must and will change. You can be part of that change. You are invited to give and take regarding a wide range of medical issues which will be presented here before, during and after the release of PEOPLE MEDICINE. Help out by sharing comments and stories about medicine and healing as they are and as they can be.

Table of Contents

Chapters from coming book

Common Sense and Enthusiasm
Germs and Disease
Cut to Cure
Good Medicine, Bad Medicine
Teaching and Learning
Lip Service

Review and Purchase
Information

~~~

Links

Dr. Bob's Other Sites

Rocky Mountain Astrologer

The Portable School

~~~~

Patch Adams's
Gesundheit Institute

Triangles Meditati on

Creative Collaborators
Scottish Artisans

Magic Dragon Man
Writer-Blogger

Wishboats
Viking Ships

Baby Doctor
Our Previous Book
A Short Novel Worth Your Reading

Well, there has been one recent complaint.
Read about it here.

Frugal Physicians
Physicians Who Buck the Trend
and Act as Real Healers

Prudent Patients
Patients Who Find Unique Ways to
Deal with Illness and Injury
David Miller
Amy Welchez
Harlee Watson

Favorite Physicians
Physicians Who Have Changed the World

The Whole Works
Deeper Ways to Look at the Human Experience

Home Remedies
Ways to Better Take Care of Yourself

Medical Sanity
The Doctor and The Prince
by George Bernard Shaw

Healthy Living
Different Strokes for Different Folks
Born to Run

Symbol for the Summer 2012

DR. Bob 2012

at Thousand Springs, ID

Dr. Bob's Walk West is over,
but the book on his 2002 Adventure is now available.
For info, pictures and more,
visit The Portable School.
Lessons from Roads Less Traveled
are now appearing most every week
at The Portable School.

PS. A Walk Around Montana
is in the planning for 2013.

Contact Dr. Bob

via theportableschool at gmail dot com.

~~~

The Laugh is On You:
Why Medical Reform is a Joke

Health Care Reform has been a hot topic for years. Now it is in the hands of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. This is a sober moment for lawyers and justices, commentators and media, patients, and you, the public. But if YOU only really KNEW the medical system a little better, you might be laughing instead of fighting and fretting.

Here are a baker's dozen of reasons to laugh about so-called health care reform:

1) There is no such thing as health care. Physicians know next to nothing about health. They never take a single course in health. They only know about disease, and not all that much about many of them.

2) It follows that there is simply no such thing as health insurance. All we have is disease insurance, which very often adds to the cost of medical care because physicians believe in their disease model. They test and test and test at your expense.

3) The present medical model promotes spending, duplication and waste -- regardless of any intended reform. This pattern has been developing since the 1940s, when Tinsley Harrison, the famed editor of a textbook on internal medicine named after him, wrote about "the present-day tendency towards a five-minute history followed by a five-day barrage of special tests in the hope that the diagnostic rabbit may suddenly emerge from the laboratory hat." Think how much worse it has gotten in 70 years.

4) The bottom line very often in the medical office, clinic, and hospital is income not care or service. The whole system caters to medical professionals and not human beings in the grasp of patienthood. We have medicine meant mainly for doctors not people.

5) Physicians use protocols, guidelines, algorithms, and most of all, guess work to pursue diagnoses of patient problems. Your physician generally knows only tidbits about the medications s/he prescribes, less about diseases diagnosed, and practically nothing about the human beings who consult him/her.

6) If you only knew how little your doctor knows about so many diseases. There are dozens of ways your physician can and does say "I don't know," while using medical terminology and professional verbosity to make you think otherwise.

7) Physicians get paid for dealing with illness, not with making you well. Job security and income are based on keeping you coming to the clinic and the hospital, not for helping you stay home and at work.

8) Medics takes bigger and bigger bites out of western economies because we believe they KNOW what they are doing. Most of the time, they use tests, procedures and scientific propaganda to hide their ignorance. Our ignorance and their ignorance add up to large medical bills.

9) We live in an age of technology which has taken men to the moon. We imagine physical and medical scientists to be akin to rocket scientists. But we have yet to usefully understand arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, schizophrenia, etc. The list is almost endless.

10) Clinics and hospitals are memorials to disease, not healing. Today, hospitals are treated as shrines and physicians as priests. Yet, how holy, healthy, and healing are they really?

11) Medical and cancer centers get larger and larger, and more and more expensive -- but not because people are cured. Cancer, like many other modern diseases, is largely incurable for the simple fact that its causes are almost totally unknown. How can such a disease be reasonably treated and dealt with when its causes are yet unknown?

12) Westerners pay huge bills for medical care which may be no more effective than the machinations of witch doctors. They actually may be less effective while costing fantastically more money. Many witch doctors and shamans work for free.

13) Physicians NEVER give guarantees on their treatments and surgeries. If any thing goes wrong, you suffer physical, emotional, financial and other consequences. You pay for doctors' mistakes.

Why do patients and the public accept this and so many other blatantly absurd situations when they put themselves in medical hands? I have commented a number of times to friends about the POWER of a physician: "How many people do you know whom you might meet and within 10 minutes you will be willing to get naked at their request? And pay to do it?"

Two answers come to mind at the present. One is a physician, the other is a prostitute. Both take your money -- often under questionable circumstances. They may leave you feeling better for a few moments, but the long term effects may not be good for your health -- physical, financial and otherwise. And, that's no joke.

Consider purchasing PEOPLE MEDICINE
to understand the system and much more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thoughts from A Frugal Physician

"Physicians are taught to save lives, not money."

This quote is only partly true.
Modern medicine is all about bodies and diseases,
fixing and mending, repairing and curing.

Unfortunately, health and healing, common sense and simplicity
have become further and further removed form medical practice.

There is NO course in medical school on health or healing.
Neither on diet and nutrition, nor faith and beliefs,
nor business and costs and laws.

Medicine is now less a service than a business. A Big Business.
Physicians often are more focused on the financial bottom line
than on serving, helping and aiding their fellows.

This can, must and will change.
You can be part of that change.
You are invited to give and take regarding a wide range of medical issues
which will be presented here before, during and after the release of
PEOPLE MEDICINE.

Help out by sharing comments and stories about
medicine and healing as they are
and as they can be.