Have you ever ignored medical advice?

[stephec]

And a endless resource of knowledge from the internet

I know a few people who think that everything Dr Google says is gospel.

 

[Fastpedaller]

I was getting dreadful acid reflux. Went to GP and was offered a cocktail of several antibiotics. I'd previously consulted Dr Google, and concluded that these AntiB's pretty much 'knock out' the good bacteria in the gut. I decided to go for an alternative. I consulted a nutritionist (sp?) who suggested taking Mastic Gum for a 10 day trial. Wow, what a difference! On my next visit I asked 'how can I knock it on the head for good?' (as GP had suspected start of a stomach ulcer). N said I could use the Mastic Gum for 2 months, and all should be good. It worked, and I've not had the acid reflux since.

 

[PK99]

I was getting dreadful acid reflux. Went to GP and was offered a cocktail of several antibiotics. I'd previously consulted Dr Google, and concluded that these AntiB's pretty much 'knock out' the good bacteria in the gut. I decided to go for an alternative. I consulted a nutritionist (sp?) who suggested taking Mastic Gum for a 10 day trial. Wow, what a difference! On my next visit I asked 'how can I knock it on the head for good?' (as GP had suspected start of a stomach ulcer). N said I could use the Mastic Gum for 2 months, and all should be good. It worked, and I've not had the acid reflux since.

A friend was diagnosed by a "Healer" with selenium deficiency and given some dietary advice - a few months later he was diagnosed in A&E with stage 4 metastasized Bowel Cancer. He died a few months later.

 

[Punkawallah]

One of the problems with threads like this is that there will always he people able to say "I ignored my doctor's advice, and I'm still alive" but none able to say " I ignored my doctor's advice and died"..... and no way of counting.

Too true. The people with white coats, clipboards and too much free time looked at the enemy damage to bombers during the war, with a view to armouring the places where damage was found. Logical. It then occurred that those were the aircraft that actually returned to be examined, and the armour needed to be in the places damage -wasn’t- found.

Unfortunately with healthcare the patient can not both take, and not take, the medical advice at the same time, so it’s difficult to say which wouLd give them the better outcome. What can be said is that each patient, and their circumstances, will be different and the advice should be tailored to them as opposed to simply ‘shot-gunning’ the population. ‘Patient Centered Care’ is the term, I believe. It’s been about for a while.

 

[Fastpedaller]

A friend was diagnosed by a "Healer" with selenium deficiency and given some dietary advice - a few months later he was diagnosed in A&E with stage 4 metastasized Bowel Cancer. He died a few months later.

Sorry to hear about your friend.
To be clear my visit to the the Nutritionist was 10 years ago, so if the course I took was dangerous I think I'd have found out by now/

 

[Chris S]

I went to see my doctor about a persistent cough. I was referred to a 'medical practitioner' who took my blood pressure and informed me that it was normal. I then pointed out that the problem was with my lungs not my heart. I was eventually sent for a chest x-ray.