I can\u2019t find the source of this quote. Maybe philosopher Bertrand Russell, but I\u2019m not sure. Once, when asked how he\u2019d respond if given evidence that went totally against something he\u2019d believed for years, he answered,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would change my mind, of course. What, sir, would you do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s too bad the same can\u2019t be said for the medical profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When presented with information that\u2019s not in synch with what doctors learn during training, it seems a majority of physicians stop thinking altogether. Of course, a change of mind is possible eventually. A doctor may see an article or overhear a colleague saying \u201cDid you hear the latest on\u2026\u201d and a glimmer of new thought is sparked. The entombed brain cracks opens to let in a little light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The entire medical profession seems to have a single reality tunnel and, inside it, a healthy hostility toward change. Sometimes there\u2019s a shift in beliefs (bleeding patients with leeches doesn\u2019t work for everything) while other times deeply held beliefs seem ossified (homeopathy is nonsense). Since the 19th<\/sup> century, psychologists have referred to this as \u201cherd mentality\u201d and it\u2019s never viewed in a positive light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019d be surprised how many people have suffered needlessly or died as a result of the medical profession\u2019s herd mentality. In the 19th<\/sup> century, Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweiss<\/a> realized the high infection and mortality rate among women who had just delivered babies was being caused by physicians not washing their hands before delivery. When he proposed compulsory hand washing, he was summarily drummed out of the profession and later died in an insane asylum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the middle of the 20th<\/sup> century, the AMA\u2019s official stance was that cigarettes were a harmless pleasure, not associated with heart or lung disease, but actually good for you because they reduced stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a shame that access to medical information on the internet has actually further narrowed the tunnel vision of many physicians. Just watch your doc\u2019s facial expression or body language when you begin a sentence with, \u201cBut doctor, I read on the internet that\u2026\u201d See the look of dismay when you hand her a few pages of reading material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why does this rigid thinking occur? It\u2019s because in medical education, young physicians succeed by being obedient. A medical textbook is gospel, the wisdom of professors written in stone. Any out-of-the-box thinking (\u201cWhy not try chiropractic?\u201d) is mightily discouraged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The med school price of a controversial opinion might be a poor letter of recommendation that ends a young doctor\u2019s chance for a particularly desirable residency. (\u201cHe\u2019s a good student, but prone to some unusual and unscientific opinions\u201d can kill a career.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be a patient with chronic symptoms and normal lab tests and be told there\u2019s nothing wrong with you. Go online and read about some of the conditions contemptuously called \u201cfad diagnoses.\u201d Over the years these have included candida (yeast) overgrowth, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, leaky gut syndrome, chronic Lyme disease<\/a>, multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome, adrenal fatigue, subclinical hypothyroidism, toxic mold syndrome, electromagnetic field sensitivity, hypoglycemia, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps you\u2019ll read an article and think, \u201cHmmm\u2026this sounds like what I\u2019ve got.\u201d You may even buy a book on it. But what will truly sabotage your case with your physician is to have learned about it from an alternative practitioner\u2013your chiropractor, nutritionist, or naturopath. Maybe you even had some tests done, paying out of pocket: Lyme antibodies, stool for candida, lactulose\/mannitol ratio for leaky gut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Present this evidence to your doctor and her face hardens. You sense the negativism, hostility even. She tosses down the paperwork with barely disguised contempt. You know immediately the book you\u2019ve purchased for her will go unread. \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of any of this. These tests<\/em> you paid for are meaningless. We never use them. Can\u2019t you just stay off the internet?\u201d And then, the coup de grace, \u201cI realize you\u2019re really tired of feeling poorly, but I think a lot of this is depression. Here (handing you a business card), why don\u2019t you make an appointment with this psychiatrist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s take the controversial diagnosis \u201cleaky gut\u201d (intestinal hyperpermeability) to give you an idea what you\u2019re up against. In leaky gut, an overly porous\/permeable intestinal wall leaks large molecules of food and triggers an immune reaction that causes a variety of seemingly unrelated symptoms. I\u2019ll devote a whole Health Tip to leaky gut syndrome in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s Wikipedia, in an article likely written by Stephen Barrett, MD, of Quackwatch. Leaky gut is called \u201ca dishonest ploy designed to make money from the sale of supposed remedies for it.\u201d On the other hand, an apparently open-minded gastroenterologist on WebMD says \u201cWe don\u2019t know a lot, but we know it exists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, if you Google \u201cintestinal hyperpermeability\u201d an immense article in the conventional medical journal Gut<\/em><\/a> from 2006 goes into detail about the physiology, testing, and treatment. A 2003 article from East African Medical Journal<\/em> <\/a>concludes \u201cThe occurrence of increased gastrointestinal permeability is probably vastly underestimated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now picture your doctor with a rivet in the back of her neck, unable to look to the left or to the right, just rigidly straight ahead. Her narrow-mindedness, her utter lack of intellectual curiosity\u2013her total commitment to a single belief system\u2013is very costly to your health and well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If there\u2019s a dim light at the end of this tunnel thinking, it\u2019s that physicians can eventually change their minds. It was tough for Louis Pasteur to sell the idea that germs caused disease. It took the advertising power of Big Pharma, which had developed mediocre drugs for fibromyalgia, to convince many (but not most) physicians that fibro actually existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWant to experience some of this narrow-mindedness? <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
For example<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Change is possible<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n