I get so tired of doctors (what’s new?) who make a diagnosis and just give people prescriptions and basically just tell them to go away and take their medicine.
My office manager’s mother was recently diagnosed as being type 2 diabetic. She was put on Metformin and told to come back in three months for a checkup. Being a good working knowledge of diabetes from having work on literally hundreds of cases in her career in life insurance, she began to ask her mother questions. What was her A1c? Mom didn’t know. What did the doctor suggest to do other than take the medication? Nothing. What was the diagnosis based on? A one time glucose reading of 113!!! Were there any other labs out of normal? Didn’t know. Did the doctor discuss what’s normal and what it would take to get back to normal on a long term basis? No!!!
This guy is a quack of the worst kind. No retest. No A1c. No recommendation to try diet and exercise first. No education as to why he recommended what he did and what type 2 diabetes means in the whole scheme of things.
Bottom line. I think every exam room should have a computer link to Google so that when a doctor makes a diagnosis, they can immediately pull up information for a client and discuss and print it out so that the client understands their diagnosis or misdiagnoses, what their options are and what their prognosis should be given the different options. Doctors that just write prescriptions and turn and walk out should be given a CDL and told to go drive trucks for a living.
April 21st, 2008
I watched a program on 60 minutes last night that reviewed the impact of gastric bypass surgery not just on obesity, but on all of the other risk factors that a person takes on when they are overweight. The results weren’t surprising, but rather affirming based on my experience of working with people who have battle obesity and won.
The stories of the eight people they interviewed were all dramatic in their own right. One lost 160 pounds, another 96 pounds, another 130 pounds and one lost 260 pounds. Incredible weight loss. All 8 of them had type 2 diabetes prior to the gastric bypass. All 8 of them are now off of medication and no longer have diabetes. Some of them had sleep apnea and now none of them do.
One of the 8 was a doctor who had always recommended gastric bypass as a measure of last resort. He now says that he believes the benefits far outweigh the risks in the morbidly obese and believes that more people should consider the surgery rather than face a life of increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Life insurance companies are often characterized as beating up on the overweight by offering them higher rates than those who, according to their build charts, are less of a risk. I know the feeling of being offered a higher rate than I think I deserve, but the reality is that when it comes to obesity there are so many potential collateral health issues, that companies aren’t over reacting. The best that someone who is overweight can hope for is to lock in as good a rate as they can before they have any other health issues. After getting coverage they should go about reducing the risk through weight loss whether by diet, exercise, gastric bypass or stomach banding and then reapply for a better rate. The truth is that the life insurance rate shouldn’t be the impetus to take the necessary steps. Prolonging your life should be reason enough.
Another statistic that came from the show, a rather amazing thing when you look at the long term success of diet and exercise, is that between 80 and 90% of those who have gastric bypass don’t regain the weight. And, with the procedure now done almost always laproscopically, it is much safer than in the past.
Bottom line. It should be for your own life and health, but if the reason is for better life insurance, the end result is the same. Lose the weight and your chances of serious disease go down, way down. Lose the weight and you live longer and have more fun, way more fun. Do it because it’s the right thing to do.
April 21st, 2008
