Living in this age of information at our fingertips (some might argue too much information), how is it that lifestyle diseases directly connected to our daily Health decisions continue to figure so prominently?
As the contributing factors for Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) are well-documented. A great number of effective treatments have been developed to combat the effects. Yet the incidence of disease continues to increase with each generation.
Where are we going wrong?
Close to Home
My father was a Diabetic. He was in full denial of his condition from his first day of diagnosis until his passing due to complications of the disease process. He was also notoriously non-compliant in his treatment plan.
The medical establishment did not do him any favors when they coined the term “pre-diabetic”. Ever the wordsmith, Dad insisted that the definition meant that he really didn’t have Diabetes. Lifestyle changes were not needed because he was healthy. (I sometimes think he missed his calling and should have been a defense attorney. He was always trying to make something appear to exist where it doesn’t.)
Sneaking the occasional pretzel turned into consumption of bags of the blood sugar spiking delicacy. Physical exercise usually consisted of hefting the remote to change the television channel.
When the disease necessitated amputation of a leg. He was the proud owner of a prosthetic leg – until he had to use it. The appliance sat in the corner of his room as he became ever less mobile.
My father was an intelligent man. He also spent a lifetime purposefully not observing the best medical and health advice available.
Did his physicians and family members strenuously object and inform him of their concerns?
Absolutely.
Did that change his mind?
Not a chance.
Not in Their Best Interest
Vaccine hesitancy recently grabbed a lot of notoriety in media and political (is there a difference?) headlines. However the issue of noncompliance with medical advice and treatment protocols is anything but new. We have an entire healthcare system designed to provide teachings and interventions that address ailments and symptoms. This knowledge and medical treatment reach great numbers of people in need of the help. Many of these same individuals in need promptly decline the available help for no apparent reason.
One of the most profound lessons I learned my first years in practice was that all patients have the right to do things not in their own best interest. Personal health decisions can include poor health decisions apparently.
Go figure.
The patient approaches you for treatment of problems and alleviation of symptoms only to refuse to comply with the prescriptions that you went through years of medical education to be able to provide.
I could go full rant on this topic. Suffice to say that patients possess the right to not do as advised and they still retain the right to complain about how they are not getting any better. The abundance of information, both useful as well as dangerously fraudulent, exists within easy reach on the Internet. Hence the recent flap over COVID vaccines. Once a person’s mind has been made up, it is extremely difficult to convince them of an alternative, no matter how reasoned or researched that alternative may be.
Have you noticed some of the latest drug commercials where first side effect mentioned is death? Even with advertising like that, drug sales still go strong. The power of the decided mind is truly a powerful thing.
Health Decisions & Letting Go
Doctors must let patients be their own worst enemy every day. So too do the rest of us.
One of the harder lessons I have taken away from my work with patients professionally, and my family and friends privately, is that trying to maintain control over the world around us will make your life miserable. As much as we wish to be in charge, we live in a disorganized world. Good and bad don’t work. Nature around us, with all its chaos and unpredictability, really runs the show.
Accepting that the people we love the most are free to self-destruct, will eventually bring you some peace. Pretending Life is as we think it should be is frustrating.
Live where the cycle of Life takes place. Whether it is being with the ones we love or saying goodbye to them, embracing what we already have is a really good use of our time. Try not to waste it.
Letting go doesn’t mean that you don’t care about someone anymore. It’s just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.”
― Deborah Reber
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