After working in a pharmacy for over a decade—reading lakhs of prescriptions and often accompanying friends to doctor visits—I've gained some insights that many physicians might not want you to hear.
Much of modern medicine is rooted
in dogma. It's like a tribal belief system: intensely held convictions that
certain treatments are absolute truths, even though most scientific evidence is
actually quite grey and nuanced. Yet doctors—especially specialists—often
present it as black-and-white fact, implying you're foolish for questioning it.
This has always struck me as odd.
When did medicine become so political and dogmatic? Why are those practicing
alternative approaches demonized for challenging standardized treatments?
I'm sharing this to empower you:
Your doctor isn't God. They're human, susceptible to long-held biases, and the
desire for their practices to be "right" after years of experience.
For instance, many physicians
fail to adequately inform their patients about the potential side effects of
certain medications. Moreover, they often do not fully recognize conditions
such as anxiety, back pain, high cholesterol, chronic stress, constipation,
fatty liver, hypertension, neck and shoulder pain, PCOS, postural issues, and
Type 2 diabetes as primarily lifestyle-related disorders—many of which are
largely preventable and reversible through improvements in diet, exercise, and
daily habits, rather than relying solely on pharmaceutical pills.
This isn't limited to one group;
most of the people in the medical community often treat complex biology as if
it's straightforward and factual, when it's not.
Stay informed, learn how your
body works, question the common narrative, and use your critical thinking.
Physicians are humans too—just like us—and we all fall into these patterns
sometimes.
