Writing up drug medication charts is not something I am fond of. Those poor staff who then have to interpret my writing will vouch that reading my writing is not something they are fond of either.
The number of drugs that are prescribed to patients is growing every year. This has been concerning me for some time.
Many of the drugs are there for lifestyle related disease.
Essentially people would not need to be on them if they had a better relationship with their eating, smoking and exercise habits over the preceding years. Addressing nutrition NOW means taking back control of health TODAY.
I see those people taking back control of their nutrition every week and reducing their medications. They are happy people.
Only yesterday I saw a gentleman with 27 years of unstable diabetes control, grin from ear to ear, telling me that he had reduced his insulin requirement by 25% in just 3 weeks of taking on Lower Carbohydrate Healthy Fat living. He was happy. His wife was happier. Happy wife = happy life and even happier surgeon.
A real food change sees potential reductions in blood pressure medication, diabetes drugs, pain killers, anti-inflammatories, reflux medication and those statins.
It fascinates me that most doctors find it easier to add medications to patients rather than reducing them.
I wonder if that is a fear factor of a patient succumbing to a supposedly preventable condition.
Or is it the collateral damage of the multi doctor clinics where people can be seen by different doctors each time. The medical record is the same but there is less continuity of care and it takes time to educate people to reduce medication.
The same thing happens in hospitals where many teams may see a patient and add in their medication. Once patients leave hospital they can often head off with enough tablets to sink a ship.
Good doctors do good prescribing.
Great doctors do deprescribing!