First Do No Harm
Today was Kieran's nine month checkup with our pediatrician. He's healthy and developing well. I already knew that. I really didn't need to wait for almost an hour for the doctor to tell me that. However, not only was the appointment superfluous, it was actually misleading. Why would a doctor encourage me to feed hot dogs, chicken nuggets and 'mac'n cheese' to my children? Why would she say that my three year old could drink 2% or skim milk? Oh, and don't even get me started about when she asked if I work.
The medical community in general doesn't begin to understand about the importance of eating real food. They still think that processed, preservative laden, non-organic stuff is okay for our children. They think skim milk is better than whole, raw milk. They think that crackers, pasta and bread are good for us. That's our government in action. Also, many in the medical community still think that drugs are the answer to all of our problems. Progress through chemistry, right? Well, that theory nearly killed my husband last year.
Bill's cholesterol levels were on the border of being considered 'high'. His doctor prescribed a statin. Statins are a class of drug used to lower cholestrerol levels by inhibiting the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which plays a central role in the production of cholesterol in the liver. Of course there's a list of possible side effects for these drugs, but the doctor prescribed it, so he took it. He began feeling lethargic and kind of weak, but he attributed that to the fact that he was working hard, not sleeping very well and hadn't been running like he used to. Eventually, he decided to get a personal trainer and start working out again. He went to his first session and came home barely able to move. The next day he was much worse and he couldn't lift his arms at all. His urine was brown. I said he must be extremely dehydrated. He drank a lot of water. He continued to feel worse. Finally, I called my uncle, who is a doctor. When I told him everything, my uncle said to get Bill to a hospital for blood work immediately. Bill drove himself to an urgent care and then came home. They called within 24 hours telling him to go to the ER. After many tests, it was confirmed that he had Rhabdomyolysis. This is the WebMD definition:
The medical community in general doesn't begin to understand about the importance of eating real food. They still think that processed, preservative laden, non-organic stuff is okay for our children. They think skim milk is better than whole, raw milk. They think that crackers, pasta and bread are good for us. That's our government in action. Also, many in the medical community still think that drugs are the answer to all of our problems. Progress through chemistry, right? Well, that theory nearly killed my husband last year.
Bill's cholesterol levels were on the border of being considered 'high'. His doctor prescribed a statin. Statins are a class of drug used to lower cholestrerol levels by inhibiting the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which plays a central role in the production of cholesterol in the liver. Of course there's a list of possible side effects for these drugs, but the doctor prescribed it, so he took it. He began feeling lethargic and kind of weak, but he attributed that to the fact that he was working hard, not sleeping very well and hadn't been running like he used to. Eventually, he decided to get a personal trainer and start working out again. He went to his first session and came home barely able to move. The next day he was much worse and he couldn't lift his arms at all. His urine was brown. I said he must be extremely dehydrated. He drank a lot of water. He continued to feel worse. Finally, I called my uncle, who is a doctor. When I told him everything, my uncle said to get Bill to a hospital for blood work immediately. Bill drove himself to an urgent care and then came home. They called within 24 hours telling him to go to the ER. After many tests, it was confirmed that he had Rhabdomyolysis. This is the WebMD definition:
- Rhabdomyolysis, extreme muscle inflammation and damage. With this condition, muscles all over the body become painful and weak. The severely damaged muscles release proteins into the blood that collect in the kidneys. The kidneys can become damaged trying to eliminate a large amount of muscle breakdown caused by statin use. This can ultimately lead to kidney failure or even death.
I'm sure you can understand how upset we both were. I almost lost my husband because some idiot thought his cholesterol was borderline. Luckily, we caught it just in time and Bill did not suffer any major kidney damage. They kept him in the hospital for a couple days and just kept pumping fluids through him to flush everything out. His doctor immediately took Bill off the statin. He even said, 'I don't want to hurt you anymore.' If that's not an admission of guilt, I don't know what is. Oh, and Bill's cholesterol levels are fine. He never really needed any medication, but the levels are getting better now that we've changed our diet. He also takes extra fiber to help.
We are now extremely cautious when it comes to taking medication of any kind. Our kids have never needed anything because they've never had more than a cold or 24 hour tummy bug. I don't even always give them anything for fevers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that there aren't times when medical intervention is necessary. I just think that a lot of problems can be solved with diet, exercise and natural remedies, rather than medication.
I'm going to start looking for doctors who understand this. Wish me luck.
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