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Think of what goes through your mind when buying a car or listening to TV ads for the latest super-supplements, work-out programs or wrinkle removers.
Our healthy shield of skepticism urges us to be careful, to take the info with a “grain of salt”, look into the subject a bit, and then even sleep on it before making a decision.
According to a recent study out of Australia, this skepticism evaporates when making decisions on medical interventions. The researchers reviewed patient expectations regarding various medical treatments, tests and screening methods and compared those with the latest evidence on the actual known benefits and risks.
They found patients over-estimate the benefits and under-estimate the risk of many medical approaches. The researchers were blunt: “Most people have naïve optimism about medical care.”
They went on to say people have “set a halo” around medical care and that in marketing terms, medical care has a “…dream sell: our ‘product’ is thought to be far better than it really is.”
You can find these same patient confusions on benefits and risks in the spine care field. Look at the millions of opioid prescriptions (oxycontin, etc., really a synthetic heroin) and the havoc it has brought. These drugs killed 18 American women per day in 2010. The number of prescription for these drugs has dropped slightly since then, but deaths are continuing to climb according to recent data from the White House. Addiction to street heroin has rapidly risen as a result of these prescriptions, as it is actually cheaper than prescription versions.
Similar concerns exist for extensive use of surgery and spinal injections. These procedures continue to climb in usage for questionable diagnoses, with less than hoped for results.
The researchers, Drs. Hoffman and Del Mar, said these patient perceptions need to be emphasized during physician training, as well as insuring doctors themselves are more aware of risk/benefits of tests and procedures and can communicate those to the patient.
So, how about this? Let’s increase our trust, let’s ramp-up a blind-faith, not in some new drug, device or surgical approach, but in the fact that health is our native state.Eat a real food diet with fewer grains and sugars, sit less and move more, stop worrying (Stop It!), get outside in the sunshine and fresh air – and watch what happens!
Dr. Huntington practices Chiropractic, Biomedical Acupuncture and Physiotherapy in Oracle, Az. 520-896-9844 huntingtonchiro@hotmail.com.
John Huntington is a local business owner in Oracle. He is a chiropractor with many years in the community. He writes a health related article in Pinal Nugget.
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