The Limitations of Western Medicine - Side Effects

In 2013 I went to see my doctor for an annual physical.  This was my first time seeing Dr. Michaels for a physical and he went through the standard procedures before asking Is there anything else that is bothering you?  This is a standard question - one that I have heard at virtually every physical, and I always answer it the same way.  Aside from my chronic health issues, nothing.  Instead of casting my answer aside, Dr. Michaels dug deeper, which was completely atypical from most of the other doctors I had seen.  The result of that deeper investigation led to a number of treatments that I follow to this day - including eliminating dairy from my diet - and one that as well-intentioned as it was caused my health to plummet to new lows.  That treatment was for a prescription for Flexeril, a muscle relaxant sometimes prescribed to Fibromyalgia patients.

If a doctor prescribes a drug for a particular ailment, you can be assured that the drug has undergone numerous years of studies to document, among other things, (1) the effectiveness for a particular ailment and (2) the side effects of the drug.  The prescribing doctor is not assuring that the drug will cure your ailment; rather he is making a judgement call that the potential benefits of a particular drug outweigh the potential complications.  

On the whole, prescription drugs are extraordinarily useful in treating illness.  I have taken many prescription drugs where the benefits dramatically outweighed the complications.  However, in certain instances for certain ailments, the side effects of drugs may prove more harmful than good.  In my case, while Flexeril did help me sleep better and feel more energetic during the day, my days were filled with unending anxiousness, nervousness, nausea, and digestive discomfort that forced me to miss important business meetings, collapse while mountain biking, and to deplane from a flight to a good friend's wedding.  On the whole, the side effects of Flexeril added a new dimension to my chronic issues that was worse than anything else I had experienced.  And it took seven months to identify that the Flexeril was the cause.  I have been Flexeril free and side-effect free since June.  And since then, many of the symptoms that I discussed with Dr. Michaels at my physical have been eliminated or minimized through experimentation with alternative therapies.

If you are taking any prescription drugs read the label - understand what the potential side effects are.  If you observe any of the side effects or an increase in your current symptoms, make sure to discuss them with your doctor.

The Limitations of Western Medicine - The Human Element (It's All About Attitude)

The human element is often thought of in terms of the creativity, spirit, or life that humans can breathe into a variety of subjects.  It is also often though of in terms of humans propensity to make errors or the limitations due to physical or mental limitations.  While both definitions of the human element exist in the western medical system, the latter is all to prevalent in one sense or another.  The human element includes a number of different factors.  In this post, I'll attempt to describe how a physician's attitude can impact their execution of western medicine.  Note that human elements are equally valid for alternative practitioners.

It's All About Attitude

When Adelaide was born she could have been diagnosed as colicky.  She slept, ate, or cried.  When my father, a pediatrician, first visited, he suggested that we go to see our pediatrician and prepped us for the visit.  "Colic is usually a bad diagnosis on the physician's part," he said.  "There are three or four things that typically cause a baby to be colicky..."  He told us to have our pediatrician look into her ears and into her throat (for signs of infection) and to ask about diet.  When we went to see our pediatrician, we asked him to look at Adelaide's ears, to look in her throat, and we asked for suggestions to ease her colic through Ingrid's diet.  Instead of doing as we had asked, our pediatrician told us that babies this young don't get ear infections or sore throats and that diet wouldn't help.  He told us that colicky babies get better around age three months and that we should just carry on until then.  I did just tell you that my father is a pediatrician, right, I wanted to ask him.  And I know what you are telling me is complete bull.  I didn't say anything.  Ingrid and I thanked him, left, and never returned.

The dismissive and disinterested stance of this pediatrician is one example of how western medicine is limited by the attitude of the practitioner.  As my father put it, "if someone is in distress and there's something the physician can do about it he should do it."  Unfortunately, there are western practitioners who, for one reason or another, don't take this same stance.  So even if western medicine clearly understands and can treat a problem, as was ultimately true in my daughter's case, our former pediatrician was unwilling to help. 

I have had a number of doctors look at my health history, look at my current history, and then tell me "I don't know what's wrong with you, but you're not dying."  Some doctors, good ones, would suggest possible harmless treatments (such as diet) or colleagues (including alternative practitioners) that might be able to help.  Others would tell me that there was nothing to be done or that I was getting old and that I should learn to live with my symptoms.  Guess which doctors I've found more helpful?

Fortunately, a physician's attitude is one limitation that is possible to bypass.  A good doctor will not be dismissive or disinterested.  They will work with you or make referrals or suggestions that can help you reach your health goals.  If you are seeing a practitioner who is not working with you or has reached the edge of their abilities, it's time to make a change.

The Limitations of Western Medicine

Tests that I've had: Abdominal CT Scan with contrast, Abdominal CT Scan without Contrast, Pelvic CT Scan with contrast, Pelvic CT Scan without contrast, Abdominal MRI with contrast, Abdominal MRI without contrast, Pelvic MRI with contrast, Pelvic MRI without contrast, Prostate Exam, neurological exams, blood tests, stool tests, urine tests.

Things I've been tested for: Lyme Disease, Diabetes, Celiac Disease, Food Allergies, HIV, RPR, Chlamydia, EB virus, Typhus, RMSF, West Nile Virus, Ehrlichia, rare bacterias, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and more.

Drugs I've taken: Ciproflaxen, Metronidazole, Levaquin, Flagyl, Zithromax, and Doxycycline.

All of this could not cure me. While I do believe that western medicine is one of the greatest tools in diagnosing and curing ailments, it is not without limitations. A few of these limitations include but are not limited to (1) Diagnostic tests can have false positives and false negatives, (2) All ailments are not defined, (3) Treatments have not been developed or proven for numerous ailments, (4) Existing treatments are not 100% effective, (5) Some treatments cause more problems than they solve, and (6) The economics of diagnosis and treatment is sometimes prohibitive.

My diagnosis and treatment was not limited by economics; nor was it limited by physician resources; it was limited by knowledge. My father ran out of illnesses to test for and specialists to consult. All medical tests that I've had been subjected to over the past couple years have pronounced me a normal, healthy 30-year-old male.  It took years for me to contemplate and rationalize why western medicine pronounced me healthy when I was anything but.  In an attempt to help shorten that time frame for others who are suffering, I have started a new series in this blog titled The Limitations of Western Medicine, which will expand on particular reasons why western medicine fails.