Going to the Doctor is sometimes a good thing.  I do it on occasion. However; i have a little bit of an unfavorable opinion about health care in the US and practitioners in general.  I have only formed this opinion from personal experience and from what i learned in school (BS in Health…).

Despite these views, i sometimes get to the point where either i can’t logically fix the problem myself (broken Collar bone) or am so miserable that i will result to anything for a fix (allergies).

The last time i found myself in the Doctors office it was for my collar bone.  Luckily for me and thanks to a good friend (Darin) i got hooked up with a quality ortho.  He was helpful and realistic and didn’t baby me.  I found myself going stupid while in the office (as i usually do in Dr offices).  I asked him if i shold be taking more calcium to help my bone heal better.  This is the mainstream media coming out in me.  I know bones are made of protein so i shouldn’t have even asked a stupid question like that.  The Dr. looked at me and shook his head and just said “Just eat more protein and you should be fine.”

A second incident (and i hope my friend doesn’t mind me telling this story) is a friend of mine that is not experiencing any adverse health effects was tested for his routine blood panel.  It came back all normal except for Cholesterol which was off the charts, literally.  As you can imagine the Doctor discussed the use of diet and drugs to bring these numbers to the normal range.  In case you don’t know much about statins you should read about them cause they are nasty little guys and the side effects alone are worth having heart disease…  Needless to say i told my buddy all that i know about cholesterol and statins only to hear him agree and hear a light go on in his head.  He is currently doing some additional testing but i’m not concerned about losing him to CHD.

The reason i tell these stories is to show you that its ok to be stupid sometimes, especially in cases where you are scared about your health.  I have sat in doctors offices and educators offices and watched as the dr or educator looks right into our eyes and tells a type 1 diabetic to eat more whole grains…  And to be honest i doubted myself for a second and thought, maybe she is right.  A quick phone call with  Robb Wolf cleared that up pretty quickly.  Which brings me to my point about this ramble:

If you are in doubt or being told something contradictory to what you believe (whether that be fitness, health or anything else) go to the people you trust and get their take on things.  Usually they are not quite as emotionally vested in the situation and can help you be more rational.

When was the last time you believed something you shouldn’t have.  If you want to remain anonymous, thats fine with me but it better be entertaining.