A journey towards health and well-being can be difficult at times. There are so many confounding variables and conflicts of interest that exist within the field of medicine, which really make the waters murky when deciding the best path to take. While providing counsel to my patients over the years, I’ve used the analogy of climbing a steep hill towards improvement of health. Unfortunately, the easiest path typically leads downhill rather than up. This is not necessarily a bad thing in certain circumstances, but when it comes to making decisions about treatment, it’s best to use discernment to understand what’s behind our choices. It’s also important to recognize that as a society, many of the options for medical treatment are the “easier” ones, both for the patient and the practitioner, rather than the most effective or supportive in the long run.
The best example is taking a pill, whether that’s a supplement or a pharmaceutical. It’s seen as a less invasive option in our lives to take a pill for a medical condition, as compared to changing lifestyle habits, such as diet, exercise, stress management, etc. It’s also easier for the practitioner to spend a few minutes with a patient and apply a population-based algorithm for the best pharmaceutical prescription, than it is to take the time to review lifestyle habits and make recommendations that are often more difficult for a patient to follow. To be clear, most medical interventions have a time and place, and there are certainly many complexities that create a descending approach versus an ascending approach. Although downhill medicine is pervasive, we can still make a conscious change in how we approach our medical decision making.
Here are a few suggestions to help you make the best decisions possible for your health:
1. Risk vs Benefit: Does the risk of the treatment outweigh the benefit?
2. Short Term vs Long Term: Are risks increased with long-term usage of a treatment? Would it be worthwhile for short-term symptom control but have a long-term goal of lifestyle changes?
3. Cost vs Benefit: Is the monetary cost of this therapy too high compared to the level of benefit provided?
4. Cause vs Suppression: Does the treatment simply suppress a symptom, or does it treat the underlying cause of the disease? If I stop the treatment will the symptoms return?
5. Decision Weighting: Place the options available as headings and write all the positives and negatives of the option underneath the heading. Then give each positive or negative a number value (Ex. Positives = +1 through +5, Negatives = -1 through -5) and add up all the values under each heading to obtain comparison values between the heading options. While it may take time, this is a great approach to help give a weighted value behind a decision and will help provide guidance when paths are difficult to decide.
At Mederi Center we are committed to providing what works best for you regarding the many options available for the trek uphill in your journey toward total health. As a reminder, we’re offering a special introductory rate for out-of-pocket consultations with me (in-person or virtual) that occur before February 28, 2023.
