In Reply to: Don't follow your Gp's advice posted by Sergio on Thursday, 20. January 2005 at 09:30 Bali Time:
I hope your tongue isn't stuck so hard in your cheek that you need a doctor [or perhaps the fire brigade?].
Probably most of us are inclined to agree with you in principle, but a GP is simply that, a General Practitioner. He/she cannot know everything and sometimes has to take the "better be sure than sorry" approach.
I remember when I was 20 [fifty years ago] I had cause to consult my doctor. He told me to take 2 months off work, knowing full well that I couldn't afford to and wouldn't even try. I asked him why doctors told people to do things like that when they knew that the client couldn't and wouldn't follow their instructions. He just laughed and said that if I died, I couldn't blame him! [My problem wasn't that serious so I could laugh along with him.] But I got the point and that was long before negligence and malpractice suits were even thought of in that context.
Many of us will have stories of how conventional medical advice has not necessarily had the desired effect. Quite a few years back, I had some chronic bronchial problems. I've never smoked and generally had a very healthy lifestyle. My GP at the time, a good guy I was happy with, sent me for X-Rays, nothing. Lung function tests, remarkably good for my age. Allergy tests, not allergic to anything. Not asthmatic. Finally an ear, nose and throat specialist convinced me to have an operation on my nose. Painful, unpleasant and expensive. And nothing improved. Put it this way, if he'd been a carpenter doing a job for me, I wouldn't have paid him!
A little while later, I went to see a natural therapist. She was a kinesiologist. She picked my problem in about 5 minutes and suggested 2 cheap health supplements. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. A marked improvement within a very few days and eventual end of problem.
Don't ask your doctor what a kinesiologist is, because he/she is not likely to know, or will probably dismiss it as some kind of hocus-pokus. And don't mention Systemic Candida, which is what my problem was, as this is likely to be poohpoohed. [Just like Chronic Fatique Syndrome used to be regarded as laziness and Pre-Menstrual Syndrome as women being difficult.]
My GP is still likely to be my first port of call if I think I may have a health problem which I can't sort out for myself. But I don't kid myself on that he's infallible or knows everything.
We come on this Forum to both give and get advice. But most of us have enough sense to give due consideration to the various items of information we receive and use it, together with advice from other sources, to make an informed decision.