The One Question Doctors Don’t Seem to Ask
by Margarita Mcclure on August 21, 2009
in Home, Kids
My son has had this persistent cough for about a year now that seems to get worse whenever he comes back from staying the weekend at his grandparents. I’ve made several conclusions on its causes from maybe he gets exposed to more cooties there, to maybe he just gets too worn out playing that his immune system gets taxed. His doctor diagnosed his coughs as allergies and prescribed an over the counter allergy medication. It worked for a while, and then it stopped working. So I decided to have him see an allergy doctor to see what he was reacting to. They did some tests on him, to which he came out negative for all environmental allergens. They said he might be just mildly allergic to mold. Yet they sent him home with a bag full of medication with complicated directions for administering. After discussing this issue with other moms, the question about food allergies came up. The allergy doctor never even got into this. I looked up food allergies and ways to determine what my son might be allergic to. To make a long story short, after careful observation, I’m suspecting he’s allergic to dairy. It’s been a few days since he’s had cheese. So far so good, hardly any coughing at all.
Two weeks after his appointment with the allergy doctor, I got a letter from them stating the results of his allergy tests and that he’s a good candidate for allergy shots. Allergy shots??? He was only mildly allergic to one out of the 20 environmental allergens and they’re recommending allergy shots??? When I did the same test about 2 years ago, I came up allergic to everything except dogs, and all I got was a nasal spray (which I never used). I had my other son undergo the same test, with the same results and just got the letter from the allergy doctor. I didn’t even bother opening it.
I truly believe the cause of a lot of what makes us sick is the food we eat. Yet doctors never seem to ask their patients what they eat. They just slap them with a prescription to take care of the symptoms they’re having. Got diabetes? Here’s 523 types of pills you need to take 73 times a day. Have high cholesterol? Add 53 more pills to that. Afraid of cancer or the swine flu? Here’s an untested vaccine that MIGHT prevent it. In the meantime, go on with your merry lives eating burgers, soda and hot fudge sundaes. They might tell you what not to eat if your case is really bad, and they might ask you what you had for lunch. But they never ask you what you eat on a day to day basis. Knowing what you’ve been eating for the last week or two will give a pretty good indication of what’s causing your symptoms. Relying solely on prescription medicine to alleviate health problems is like constantly buying more expensive shoes while walking on broken glass. Save your money and get off the broken glass!!
Most health problems can be solved by spending more time at the produce section of the grocery store, not at the pharmacy. All doctors should know this.
I absolutely agree. Food allergies are all too common these days. My 4 month old is dairy, soy, and slightly egg allergic. She would break out in a horrible rash, be irritable, not sleep well, etc. I never took her to see her doctor for the rash, I immediately cut dairy, then soy, out of my diet and the rash cleared up. At our next pedi visit I tried to bring her allergies up to her doctor and all she had to say was “Oh I don’t know about that.” I took immediate offense to that, being that I spend 24/7 with her. Apparently the doctor did not like that because she stopped seeing us. We now have a better doctor who listens to our concerns
I agree wholeheartedly. It seems silly that in this country, physicians do not look at nutrition until it’s a life or death situation. We are prescribed entirely too many unnecessary (oftentimes NEW) medications without determining the source cause of the problem. To me, that is unacceptable, and I won’t give in to ineffective, unsafe, or potentially harmful medications. I’ve never been fond of medication unless absolutely necessary - and with most common ailments, there is usually a chemical-free remedy. It is impossible to walk through a grocery store and every five feet, not see a food item which is heavily processed. I hope to reinforce healthy eating habits to my daughter at a young age and by example so that she won’t crave the things that are bad for her body and mind - no processed foods or animal products - mostly organic homegrown foods whenever possible. This is age-old knowledge. I find it ironic that many physicians take just one or two nutrition courses during medical school. It’s mind-boggling and offensive when a physician completely dismisses your concerns as a parent, as if they know more about your own child than you. It is no wonder that our healthcare ranking is #37 out of 191 countries, according to the World Health Organization.