May 4th, 2023
In America…
The top focus of U.S. doctors is keeping patients healthy.
Is this true or false in your experience?
If false, how do we fix it?
Is it an insurance issue? A med school issue? What role do we as patients play in the problem?
Would it be better and more efficient to simply drop any pretense that doctors have the time/energy/training/resources to help us thrive? And instead come up with a separate and more robust system outside of traditional healthcare offerings?
I am typing this with a Continuous Glucose Monitor taped to my arm. Thinking yes, this one month of glucose monitoring is expensive, but how expensive is a lifetime of metformin? Of blood pressure medication? Of statins? What are the financial, emotional and physical costs of the productivity lost due to sugar crashes, insulin resistance and chronic inflammation?
Unlike a doctor, this CGM is telling me in no uncertain terms which of my behaviors is helping and hurting me as well as providing the why and the fix…allowing me to make corrections in real time. I don’t have to wait for an annual blood test to show that my results are on the high end of the ‘healthy’ range where action is waved off because, well.. “you ain’t broke yet.”
And when you are broke? We got a pill for that.
P.S. Dear Doctors, I know you work your butts off and care deeply about people. I know you have to train and work within a system you did not create. I sincerely hope more of you can band together and develop an accessible model with a vigorous and determined focus on helping patients stay well. Which would in turn take pressure of your colleagues who need to treat the unwell.