Doctors And Nurses Are Revealing The Health "Lies" They Wish More People Knew, And It's Eye-Opening
A while back, we wrote where doctors and nurses shared the health "lies" people should stop believing. In the comments, more medical professionals busted health myths and shared the truth that you should know. Here's what they had to say:
Note: Some responses were pulled from this Reddit thread from Kerouac__.
1."Vascular surgeon here. Here's a generalization that many folks don't understand: Gangrene is associated with a very poor survival rate, and patients often don't understand this. They're not dying because of the gangrene — it's the opposite. They're developing gangrene because they're dying."
2."Your liver does not need to detoxify. It detoxifies your entire body, along with the kidneys. It's amazing! Your bowels will eliminate solid waste on their own; you do not need a colonic, ever, which wrecks the colonic microbiome. If you're constipated, there are many solutions, and none of them is a colonic."
3."I'm a doctor, and I'm trained to listen to you. I will ask you what you think is wrong. I will examine you and order tests. But also, I have a lot of training and will have my own suspicions based on my knowledge, information, and experience. I will encourage you to follow my advice. It's usually good advice because it is built on my experience, your involvement, and my knowledge. If I'm wrong, I admit it."
"If we tell you to take your antibiotics for 10 days, please do that. If we tell you to throw out your old meds, please do that. If we tell you not to drink alcohol on various medications, please don't drink."
4."Myth: The idea that the entirety of US healthcare is this diabolical moneymaking scheme that's all rooted in the greed of the doctor treating you. I'm a primary care doctor. I don't like how the US healthcare system works just as much as you. I hate the prior authorizations. I hate the fact that there are a million different insurance plans, and they ALL change their formularies every few months with seemingly zero rhyme or reason, resulting in the medication you'd been getting for the last five years now costing you $400 a month."
"I hate the wild documentation requirements to get patients what they need (as well as when things get denied because I forgot to mention something like 'patient was evaluated in a chronic stable state and not during an episode of acute exacerbation'). No, I'm not pocketing all that 'sweet, sweet vaccine money' when I say you should get a shot. That's not the way it works. I don't drive a Ferrari or Porsche — I drive a Toyota that I'll likely have for the next 20 years. The last car I had was a 30-year-old piece of junk that I only stopped driving because I got t-boned, and the car was totaled. If you want to be butthurt at someone, be upset at the admin who makes tens of millions annually, the insurance companies for constantly changing their rules, the pharmaceutical jerks who inflate prices on dirt-cheap meds, and your politicians who refuse to give you healthcare because of some 'socialism' Boogeyman."
5."You are not under general anesthesia (with a breathing tube) for all surgeries/procedures. I always hear my patients say, 'Well, this one time, I woke up during my hand surgery,' or 'I remember hearing things during my colonoscopy.' Lots of procedures can be done with IV sedation with local anesthetic/regional anesthesia. You potentially could hear things or be aware during parts of the procedure, but the anesthesia provider will be on top of it to make sure you're safe and comfortable."
"When you are truly under general anesthesia, it's extremely rare that you will wake up during the surgery."
6."ICU RN for nine years here. We don't 'shock' asystole, aka, a 'flatline' heart rhythm. We do manual chest compressions, and we give them epinephrine (adrenaline), and we hope that restarts their heart (along with a host of other meds and actions). Delivering a shock only occurs in the case of certain lethal arrhythmias where we are trying 'reset' or override the disorganized electrical activity of the heart."
"So, the movie scenes of shocking everyone who 'flatlines' is a total fabrication. It's an action that occurs in some code scenarios, but there are many, many codes where no shocking is indicated."
7."ECU RN for seven years here. When you sleep on your side, you keep the weight of your core off your lungs and organ systems. If you are suffering organ damage from an accident, this is the best way to sleep."
8."I have a friend who is a surgeon, and he says people often mistake him for a medical doctor and ask for advice about their heart condition and things like that. He could probably talk about open heart surgery for hours, but if you want to know if it's safe to cut down on your blood pressure drug or what is the best treatment for your arrhythmia, he can just refer you to his friend, the cardiologist!"
"My uncle, who's a surgeon, said that he hates when people think surgeons can do literally anything."
9."My job at the ER is to check you in and then later to verify your billing information and insurance. That's MY job, and with few exceptions for continuation of care, the doctor and nurse don't even know what insurance you have or even if you have any."
"I can't speak for other places, but here, it's not even part of the information medical staff can see."
10."Physician assistant here. I’ve worked in surgery for 13 years. Yes, please clean your belly button, clip your toenails, and check your business. We find the gross stuff and absolutely judge you for it, out loud, in the OR together while you’re asleep."
11."I'm a pharmacy student who works in a surgical hospital. If you're going anywhere that might require an overnight stay (this includes ANY surgery and trips to the ER; anything that isn't a routine visit), and if you can, bring all of your current meds in their original bottles, including OTC and vitamins you take regularly. Not only does it help staff assess what's safe for you by having a complete med profile, but some places, like my hospital, don't stock a full pharmacy."
"We have meds to cover surgery-related issues and emergencies, but we don't carry many maintenance meds for your chronic conditions, so you'll either not receive it, or we have to borrow from another hospital and charge you for each dose. I didn't know this myself until I started working here, and it's come in handy. I had to bring my cat to a specialty vet for surgery, and the staff was overjoyed when I pulled out the baggie of all the medications he'd been taking up to that point!"
12."Different hospital systems do not always have all your information or even update it properly when you end up in the ER on their computers. This no doubt can cause a possible death if they have old medication lists even from doctor or nurse on the same visit."
"Repeat if necessary, as they don't have the proper time to be reading your medical life history on a screen in an emergency life or death situation. Repeat it as often as necessary, especially when hallways are full of waiting patients. Yes, they are busy — one more reason to remind them you're no longer on a certain blood thinner, etc."
13."It drives me nuts when patients refuse treatment because 'you're trying to get more money out of me.' Dude, I'm a salaried employee of the hospital. I'm paid the same amount if I prescribe a $2 med as if I prescribe a $2,000,000 med. I'm recommending the best plan I can come up with under the circumstances — the same one I'd want if it were me, my wife, my mom, etc."
"And honestly, if there's a $2 med that works, I'm gonna prescribe that first every damn time because if you can't afford your meds, you aren't gonna take them, and if you don't take them, you won't get better, and then we're gonna have to do this all over again. And ya know what? My salary is still gonna be exactly the same. I genuinely want you to get better and get on with your life. There is nothing in it for me to keep you going through this. Believe me, we go on diversion at least once a month because our hospital is too full. We don't need the extra work."
14."Myth: That healthcare is here to cure all of your ills. Too many patients come in complaining about lethargy, headache, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or some other fairly common minor symptom and expect medication or some sort of intervention to cure them. While there might be something that can help with the symptoms, medical intervention cannot solve the problems started by your lifestyle."
"Also related is when patients are unhappy that their pain/symptoms are not completely controlled. Yes, you could take an opioid to reduce your three to a zero...but really...it's not a good idea."
And finally...
15."When families want us to 'do everything possible' to keep their older, weak, sickly, poor quality of life family member alive. When they use language like, 'They're a fighter; they'll get through this,' or 'God will save them,' it can be quite frustrating. Your loved one is suffering. Our interventions are not gentle; they are painful and aggressive, and their recovery can last weeks to months. Recovery also means ending up back in the hospital with reinfections or other complications in a few months. Is that really what they would have wanted? If it really is, then I'm here to help them fight. But if it's not, then it's heartbreaking to see."
"The best advice I can give anyone is to consider the life you enjoy and what you want your life to look like at the end. Consider if you would want to be kept alive if you've had a stroke and could no longer communicate. What if you couldn't write? What if you couldn't see your family often because you had to survive in a facility? Have these conversations with family and make them into a living will. Unfortunately, many people don't have these conversations, and people believe love means keeping people alive no matter what. Love is understanding how someone wants to live and accepting when it's time. Source: seven years of experience as an ICU nurse."
Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals, what are some other health "lies" people should stop believing? Tell us in the comments below, or if you prefer to remain anonymous, feel free to use this Google form.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
