Big Kahuna, respectfully, you're an i***t. Period.

Ummmmmmm...... The patient has to institute healthy habits to have an optimal length of life. I spent my primary care medical career ranting and raving to them to do so but they just..............Continued their lousy health habits. I then had to struggle with manipulating diabetic and anti-hypertension meds until they die. All the while trying to educate them what they need to do and know they are ignoring me. Oh, did I mention the obesity problem? It is effing rampant!

I could preach until I was blue in the face and the vast majority "eat chit and die". PERIOD!! No matter what I told them!!!

Don't give me your B.S. about the medicos "not" trying to care for people. It's the PEOPLE'S fault for living unhealthy lives and ignoring their M.D.'s advice!! You're a F.O.S. a-hole in my book for your attitude and can go to where the devil lives and I mean that royally.

I did have patients who had problems, followed my advice and busted their buns to do so. They did well. Well yeah, I had to use drugs on them but at least they didn't stroke out, have a heart attack or have their legs cut off. A wise person will know what meds I needed to use prevent the above conditions. It was so gratifying to see a patient who followed my advice early on and did well taking, oh my gosh "gasp" drugs! They lived a long life even if they were older before I put them on meds. Jesus Christ, I didn't put anyone on a med who didn't need it. When I came "online" there was a lot of stuff with minimal side effects that I liked using to help folks.

Some of my best patients were the ones I knew had "something" but I wasn't able to pin it down. I'd send them off to a nearby medical center with specialists or sometimes to Mayo's and man when they got the diagnosis they came back and were so grateful I put them where they needed to be. Once the diagnosis was made, most of the time I could manage it and they would follow up with the specialists every now and then to make sure we kept the care fine tuned with a chronic problem. These folks had a treatable and sometimes chronic medical condition.

Bad cancer was easily diagnoseable when C.T. and later MRI imaging came online at the local hospital level and I and my local specialists could diagnose that unfortunate situation. It was the worst thing and sad for me tell a person they "most likely" had a terminal cancer. They say "chit" rolls downhill. It was usually up to the primary care guy to break the bad news to the patient.

That took a toll on my emotionality. I remembered in my surgical days the adage, "Good people get bad disease."
I saw a lot of folks suffer through no fault of their own. Glad I was able to retire from this a couple of years ago. I just couldn't stay up all night long answering phone calls and running to the hospital anymore. Time to go and I'm so much happier now though I miss my deceased wife. She died young through no fault of her own. Kurt (yeah a retired M.D.)

Sounds like you might be one of the good ones. But if you think that there isn't failed/bad medical tx out there, you're wrong. I loss a brother at 29 years old. His first major heart attack was at 27 when he waited in an emergency room for care and staff assumed he was there for "drugs", over heard by patient in waiting room. He was an owner/operator cross country driver, not a drug addict, not an alcohol. A hard worker who was able to become his own boss at age of 25 yrs. A home owner, married with one child. He wasn't obese, he played tennis like he drank water so I would say he lived pretty healthy life style. No, not all medical people set aside "presumptions" and do the right thing. They have biases also, make assumptions and send people home who should be monitor. So don't blame it all on the patient although I do believe some contribute to their own health problems. But as a doctor, if that's what you were, it's not your job to judge, educate yes, judge no.

I could turn you in to admin for calling me an i***t but I won't. You have some good points and might be a good guy but the medical profession promotes toxic v**xes, the suppression of break through cures,,over prescribes pharmaceuticals for every illness, harvesting of internal organs,, political correctness and surgery for the t***sformation of a 5 year old from a girl to a boy, medical studies skewed to favor big daddy l*****t government instead of factual scientific studies paid for by big daddy government. The list is endless. The allopathic model is now outdated and corrupted by left wing fools.

I didn't threaten you but I spent a career in medicine trying to get people to change their habits and they didn't. Some did and had good outcomes. Ummmm, some folks are genetically programmed to have horrendous cholesterol levels and are programmed to die young. Some are genetically programmed to get diabetes but weight is a factor here. I had folks with Type 2 diabetes and were at normal weight. Not their fault but they needed meds to lower their blood sugar and sometimes lipids for a long life. Use meds and they achieve a normal lifespan. Yeah, one has to watch for side effects and we worked with that and monitored them carefully. To say that docs throw meds willy-nilly at patients is an absolute insulting, ludicrous and naive view. That's how you jerked my chain.

Blaming medical people for the poor health in this country is totally WRONG! To use the old adage, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink!" holds true here. Mind you, it's nothing personal but I think your attitude is wrong to blame the medical establishment for the lousy health of a nation. It's the patients fault because, "THEY DON'T FOLLOW OUR ADVICE PERIOD!!". q.e.d. Kurt