Hi, Dr. Minkoff here.
Yesterday I had 15 Russian doctors
come as guests to tour our clinic and see what we do.
And they really had no idea of how this works
and I just gave them an average scenario
that would occur in an average doctor's office.
So the patient has about a six minute visit,
which is the average time that a doctor spends with a patient.
And in that six minutes, he's got to figure out
what is the major complaint?
What is the abnormality on the physical exam?
Does the patient need some lab work or not?
And write a prescription, because the next patient is waiting there,
and he's got to see him within six minutes.
And so, the average thing that happens is,
someone comes in with fatigue,
or they don't feel well,
or they have a headache,
and he's got six minutes, so he can't really do that much.
He can't look very hard, because it takes time.
Because most patients, if you talk to them for a while, will give you a real insight into what's wrong.
But what happens is they get the quickie exam.
And then they get the prescription.
And then they get a CBC,
and a CMP, and the doctor says,
"If anything's wrong there, I'll let you know",
"But, probably you're just menopausal",
"You're overtired",
"You're depressed",
and "That's just how life is today,
"because I can't really find anything wrong with you."
"And so here's some Xanax for your anxiety",
"And here's some Ambien for sleep",
"And here's some Prozac for your depression",
and that's the visit.
And for your average patient, that's pretty unsatisfying.
Because they're made to think that there's actually nothing wrong with them,
except some kind of psychosomatic illness,
when actually they know that for the 35 years before this occurred to them,
they didn't have any of those things.
So this isn't an inherited disease.
This isn't something they carried their whole lifetime.
They're 37 years old and they've had these symptoms for two years,
and they went to the doctor, but for the first 35 years, they didn't have it
And so the question is, "Is your doctor missing something?"
Yes. He's missing a whole lot.
He's missing that what you're eating probably isn't very good,
and he's missing,
"Do you have the nutrition that you need in terms of correct supplementation to make up for the problems?"
And he's missing, because he doesn't look at a stool test, or he doesn't look at your blood under a microscope,
or he doesn't test for minor vitamin and mineral deficiencies,
that you have not enough selenium, or not enough vitamin E, or not enough vitamin A,
or your omega-3/omega-6 fats balance is wrong,
or that you have a parasite in your gut,
or, or, or, or...
And what I suggest to people is, that if you have an acute illness,
you have a high fever, and a cough,
yes, the doctor can be very helpful to you.
If you get hit by a car or you're having a heart attack, go to the hospital.
Because the medicine is really good.
But, if you've got a chronic functional problem,
you're fatigued, or you have chronic headaches,
or your joints are hurting you, or you've got digestive problems,
there is a 99% chance that the regular family physician, or internist,
or OBGYN person, isn't really going to have the time, or the wherewithal, or the interest to help you.
And that you just must seek somebody who looks at these things differently.
And that might be a naturopath.
It might be a chiropractor.
It might be a nutritional consultant.
It might be somebody like me, where our interest is,
"What are the things that are actually wrong with the person,
"that can actually be located and fixed so that their health can actually be restored?"
And what we find is, that when we look for these particular things,
we can find them, and with that the person can get better.
So, I wouldn't settle.
Take away: Don't settle for a diagnosis where it's a prescription,
and the prescription's purpose is to take a symptom away from you,
because that isn't finding what's wrong.
You know, there's this story of the guys driving down the highway,
and the red light goes on for brake fluid.
Now, would anybody in their right mind take a piece of tape and tape over that light,
so you didn't see that the brake fluid was low?
And that's akin to giving something for a symptom without actually handling what the reason for it is.
So, if your doctor is helping you and you're doing better,
and you're not on a list of five, six pharmaceutical drugs,
you may have somebody who's working.
But, if the solution is always, "Take this", "Take this", "Take this", "Take this",
then find somebody who really is interested in health,
and they could help you get healthier.
Okay?
Hope this helps.
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