Doctor Visit
Went to see a new pcp as my old/longtime doctor retired. My longtime doctor was fit and took really good care of himself and understood that abs are made in the kitchen.
This new doctor I went to interview was extremely overweight, definitely morbidly obese. He reviews my charts/files, then begins to give me “advice” on health and fitness and longevity.
In his defense, he was knowledgeable and had a good bedside manner.
Definitely couldn’t take him seriously and didn’t respect him. Mostly due to the extreme obesity. It seems like the majority of healthcare workers are oblivious to their own health. I was walking the medical campus after the appointment and I’d guess 8 out of 10 people maybe 9 out of 10 - in scrubs or with the name tag lanyards were obese.
Doesn’t make sense to me that the people “responsible” for helping people get - be - stay healthy are unhealthy and not someone I’d look to for advice. If I want serious healthcare from someone who practices what they preach I guess I’ll have to keep looking for a new doctor.
Pretty disappointed and disgusted with the current health care system.
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Thank god for Trump though! Deal he did with astra zenica is gonna bring down prescription prices big time.
I liked trump until the de minimus tariff shit. Now he can die for all i care. Trying to fuck up the gear supply. SMH... i won't stand for it.
Might take time to look up the most famous steroid info gurus. Theyre not in shape yet they created the healthy views of 'how to' . If it wasnt for skinny gay dan duchaine absolutely NONE of what we do would be possible. Look up Llewellen PhD who taught endocrinology. Etc etc etc. Proper info is there....living the REAL bodybuilding life is absent in medical, gym and yes, here as well. The toxic masculinity was killed off a decade ago. Now instead of 5ft 6 220 sub 10 we have the 6ft tall broccoli heads at 165 running tren to be shredded. Go figger.....
It's a god dam shame.
I'd like to go to a gym full of those scrawny bozos who are all about "cutz" and just fucking mow em down.
If only they realized they have nothing to cut. No muscle mass to refine. At all. Struggling to hit 225 once, can't even hit 315, pathetic.
Ha, sounds like all the “personal trainers” at my local gym. Not one of them look as if they have ever worked out or manage their diet yet the clients pay close to a $100/hr. Their Go to exercises are farmer walks, planks and burpees. Jeeezzzz, at least do a lunge, pushup, and power clean not to mention a plethora of other effective moves which have been proven effective for decades!!!
On one hand the doctor is there to give you advice and interpret bloodwork and send out necessary orders and they can be very good at what they do without actually being healthy themselves.
On the other hand it’s hard to take advice from someone who won’t take their own advice.
Our bodies are a reflection of our long-term decision making and people will either consciously or subconsciously judge us accordingly.
Just because the doctor doesn’t seem to value or prioritize their health doesn’t mean they aren’t a potential wealth of knowledge but I can understand your hesitation and reluctance to take them seriously.
My current doctor happens to be a blonde bombshell that I met at the gym prior to becoming her patient but everytime she speaks on anything she is so well versed and demonstrates such a thorough and profound understanding of whatever the topic may be I’m dumbfounded and stricken speechless for a moment because no individual deserves to be that well endowed with both beauty and brains.
Had I dismissed her as a “dumb blonde” I would have missed out on a killer pcp. There is a chance your pcp could be just as jaw-droppingly smart.
I think a big part of the issue is they are taught all about diseases, and medication, or procedures to help/fix the symptoms mostly. They don't really learn about how lifestyle affects it. Also the majority of people aren't willing to make the lifestyle changes to fix problems. They just want a pill or quick fix.
Obesity is the new normal
I see my abs and am severely obese
Never have seen my abs. I think I'm close tho.
In all fairness, he is there to give you advice and guidance on how to be healthy and interpret your bloodwork - which as you say he did in a polite manner and he was correct in the things he said. Doctors often work long hours and after his day at work he probably just wants to go home and be with his family and relax with the little time he has. He probably doesn't have the time or desire to be working out in a busy gym which is fair enough - everyone has a right to have their own personal interests. You never ever know what his own personal reasons or circumstances could be as to why he is overweight - there could be various things. Many people simply don't care if they aren't a walking lean muscle factory, you could say they are more comfortable within themselves and not as self conscious and pretentious as we maybe are. Don't be fooled by overweight people appearing to be unhealthy - the reality is that guys running gear cycles particularly whilst on a cycle are running much worse health parameters and blood pressure than these guys actually are even though they appear to be unhealthy to the eye.
Its kind of like saying that if you get shown around a big expensive house - then in turn you expect that salesman to live in their own mansion otherwise how can they give advice and perspective on things.
I think this is a really solid take. While I am skeptical of a lot of Drs nowadays, they typically have no work-life balance and sacrifice a lot of their personal life and health in the journey to helping others. As long as the advice he is sharing is solid and he seems to know his stuff, I, personally, wouldn't get too caught up on his appearance. If he's giving dogshit advice and outdated takes that's another thing entirely. I think the same thing can be said for a lot of top level coaches across sports. They're often very out of shape, but can still be some of the most knowledgeable people you will ever find in their specific sport. It's just that they spend all their time advising and guiding others rather than doing things personally for whatever reason they may have.
For sure mate, I have seen some of the powerlifting coaches John Haack has worked with who design his programs and they look like pencil pushers no joke!!! But the reality is that they know exactly what they are doing and extract incredible lifting out of him. I do get the idea that you want to think the person you are taking the advice from at least follows the same themselves so you have more confidence in the knowledge they pass on, but you also have to remember that Doctors are some of the most intelligent people on the planet. You have to be extremely clever over here even to get into Medical School - the same as Dentists have to be. The difference is that when speaking to a Doctor, at any moment they have to carry huge knowledge in all areas of the human body and diagnose many different things, we are sat in front of them having spent many many hours reading online about one specific area in detail - so it is more than likely we are more knowledgable in that particular area than they are at times, I have experienced this myself. I have a lot of respect for doctors and the help they bring, they have helped me a lot here over the years and 95% of the time don't judge me when they realise I use steroids which have caused some of the issues I am sat there talking about with them. They are Good people in my eyes, its pretty easy to criticize anyone in life if you really want to.
Doctors today are mostly useless human beings. Incapable of solving any complex problems. They simply want to treat you for life and guarantee that revenue stream.
Legalized pimps with prescription pads.....
It’s the opposite result over here. It’s free so they don’t treat you
Our system sucks, your system sucks. I don’t know what the solution is. It’s very complex issue. If you take profit out of pharma companies you lose innovation. Not that they’ve really done that much good in the last 50 years. Life expectancy is the same or maybe even less than it was 100 years ago when you control for infant mortality and acute illnesses that used to kill people. So all the new drugs to treat lifestyle conditions have done nothing to extend life expectancy. But being for profit incentives them not to cure anything. Like any for profit company the most profitable endeavors is having a customer for life. Not curing them of their ailments in a week or month or whatever. Getting them on a lifetime prescription generates consistent revenue.
Scientist here in the life sciences, actively working on disease cures. The first half of what you wrote is accurate.
But to suggest that pharma doesn't want to "cure" you because they lose you as a customer, is patently untrue. The cures simply have not been discovered, and they are trying. If you want to see this change, support politicians who want to fund science at higher levels than what they currently are (which are the same as they were in the 90s - so with inflation, science funding is actually much much worse today than before).
Proof that pharma will bring actual cures to the clinic? Look at CAR-T cells for the treatment of B-ALL (leukemia). This is a one-time treatment, that literally eradicates the cancer. And, the cells infused in you, persist forever, as a surveillance mechanism to kill off any new cancer cells that emerge. It's literally a one-time treatment, that cures.
And if they had the choice between this one time treatment, or a pill that had to be taken daily for life which do you think the pharmaceutical company would choose if they had a choice?
Although they’re sure as shit getting their money out of this one treatment charging $500k for it. Who’s ever going to get this breakthrough therapy? Most people will die trying all the other cheaper treatments required by the insurance company before they are forking over $500k for this treatment. Insurance companies are a whole other issue.
I hear you.
Unfortunately the debate gets harder and harder as we zero in on specific examples, because each has so much nuance. CAR-T, for example, is widely available now, all across the USA, it's not just specialized research hospitals anymore it's really exploding. You might even know someone who got it. And when it works, it works. But it doesn't work for everyone, some unlucky people qualify for it, get it, and no luck, and because that was their last shot, they die. And, we don't really know why it fails sometimes.
So because it sometimes doesn't work for some people, and we don't know why (yet), yeah, in your example there, for sure everyone would choose this hypothetical daily pill, because you can try that daily pill and if it works, done. And if it fails, you can still next try the CAR-T $700k solution. But the pill is chosen not because it's a "guaranteed revenue stream", but because it's just the safer, logical next step.
You're totally right though - insurance companies are where the devil really is, because they would rather pay for that pill and gamble on you not living for decades, vs paying $700k once.
They’d rather pay for some cheap 25 year old almost obsolete treatment that only has a 20% chance of success, plus 3 more like it first before CAR-T cell therapy. And hope you die before you get through all of them and you have to pay up.
It’s like when you need a knee replacement and all the cartilage is gone but they require you to do physical therapy first. Like physical therapy is going to regenerate cartilage in the joint lol. Insurance companies suck.
Hahaha ok, yes the PT bullshit has to stop. I also had an MRI that showed, nope, no more cartilage behind my kneecap. Next step? PT!
What a waste of a year.
It’s unreal that we let Insurance companies dictate treatment and not doctors. That shit needs to end. I’m spitballing here but what if we had a committee of independent doctors who could make the decision if there’s a dispute between insurance company and the doctor? Made up of doctors who did not used to work for the insurance company lol, like every government regulatory agency and the revolving door. I’d love to just say whatever your doctor says goes but that’s never going go happen.
Boom
They're there to administer western healthcare. Not give advice on preventative medicine (diet, exercise, holistic practices, etc). They regurgitate generic knowledge and advice from their field whether or not they themselves are healthy. They live in the same ultra-processed and sedentary world we do.
I only rely on these types for solving acute issues. If i get an infection, or broken bone, or need stitches then I go get treatment. Other than that, I jus let the scrub monkeys do my bloodwork so I can take care of myself.
the foundation of medicine should start with diet and exercise. But modern doctors spend like a week on diet in medical school and know nothing about it. the reason we are so unhealthy as a county, why 80% of adults are overweight and why we have so many chronic health problems is because of our garbage food supply. The average senior in this country is on 7 different medications for chronic conditions. You just read the label of normal foods we eat and the first 10 things are all weird chemicals. How the hell did we get here and how did the FDA allow all this stuff in over the years.
But instead of saying to someone, you’re fat, you eat like crap and you don’t exercise they simply treat their symptoms. Here’s your statin to lower your cholesterol because you eat like crap, but you don’t have to change the way you eat now since you have your statin. Your BP is high because you’re way overweight, here’s a BP med. You’re prediabetic because you’re fat and eat like shit so here’s some metformin or GLP-1. Don’t even get me started on GLP-1s lol. Chronic pain or arthritis which is caused by inflammation from the garbage we eat. It all comes back to our crappy food and lack of exercise. All can be reversed by changing diet, exercising and loosing weight. I’ve seen people do it.
And then we treat everything in silos here and the doctors don’t communicate with one another. All putting bandaids on the problems and treating symptoms instead of addressing the root cause. But curing you does not get big pharma rich. They get rich by making you a customer for life. Modern medicine is 100% driven by big pharma. They donate the most to medical schools, all the different medical associations, they spend the most lobbying the government, the spend the most on TV ads biting off the media. We can’t have a for profit entity deciding health care policy, but that’s what it is.
Look at what they've done with Diabetes.....don't try and eat/exercise/live better first, instead take a pill/insulin forever....
Yup exactly. Take a GLP-1, or if you’re too far gone, Insulin. And then you can keep eating the same crap that got you into this mess.
Look what they’re doing culturally with obesity. Removing all the personal accountability language and making it into just another medical disorder you can’t solve on your own. Not without help from big pharma.