Number Crunching

One of the comments on yesterday's post re-affirmed one of my truths, that all healing is faith based. She said a friend of hers swears by the bar of Ivory soap between the sheets method of curing leg cramps at night. She thinks bumping into the soap during the night reminds her to reposition her legs. Hey, more power to her if it works! What I hope is that she has thought about also trying other things to ease her cramps. The soap trick can't work forever, right? Or maybe it can, what do I know?

Speaking of faith-based healing, I heard a story on NPR yesterday about independent medical labs that (they say) eliminate the "middle man." I think that means the doctor. Does this mean that for some of us, test results are now what we believe in, moreso than doctors? Wow. Or should I say whoa?

"From a marketing standpoint it's a good position to be in where you create a service, create a demand," says Rodney Forsman, president of the Clinical Laboratory Management Association. "It becomes a consumable like Starbucks or bottled water."

Oh. Lab tests are consumables?

I wonder if the people who partake of this consumable understand every medical test is no more than a measure of a very particular thing that's either within or outside of a set of parameters that exist only because someone decided what's "normal." These tests are not carved on tablets brought down from Mt. Sinai, they are very narrowly defined reports of one tiny aspect of internal chemistry, no more than that. None of these tests are useful out of context. Do you think they know that?

What do these people do with the results of their tests? Do they tune in to Web M.D. or other sites that claim to be accurate? (Please don't. If you must consult over the internet, go to the Mayo Clinic website which is reliable.) Remember, anyone can post anything they want on the internet. It doesn't make the information true.

I find it alarming that people can't listen to their own bodies, their own sensations and feelings of wellness or illness. I'm sad we no longer trust our doctors (I don't trust western doctors either - they are sleep deprived, their attention spans are fractured, and they depend far too often on a number that appears on a piece of paper rather than on the body and being of the individual, when diagnosing a problem.)

I don't blame anyone for wanting to take control of their own health care. God knows the medical "industry" is falling to pieces before our very eyes. But I don't believe independent medical testing is the most useful way to be proactive. Instead, find a doctor who has time to sit with you and talk, someone who cares about you, someone who still has enough of an attention span to put 2 and 2 together. When you explain how you're feeling, you want to see their eyes light up. Find a doctor who is curious and attentive. Please take care of yourself, eat well, sleep, get outside, have some fun sometimes. Receive therapeutic massage, acupuncture, go see a therapist and talk about whatever bugs you. Take care of your teeth. Please pay attention to the richness of ongoing sensation that's a part of being a living being. You are the person best suited to monitoring your health and well being. When something is off, seek some help. OK?

Forget independent testing labs. Please? And be well. Shalom.