Doctors Can Help Reduce Medications

Reading news articles sometimes is very unnerving.  Not only was I offended by this one, I was irritated and not sure I wanted to blog about something that might have value. The title is really a turn-off and made me think an overly aggressive doctor was the author of the press release. Then I read the second paragraph and when it stated a professor – then I knew that it was one of the academia that has little or no knowledge of the real-world happenings. This is still no excuse, but just another lesson on how the people they write for are belittled and thought of as minds they should be the ones molding for compliance – BS.

This is a Danish study and does have value as very few American doctors even consider this approach. In America, doctors push pills for type 2 diabetes and very few will listen to other alternatives. In Denmark, doctors are more patient oriented and encourage patients to take charge of their health and see what they can do for lifestyle changes to stay off medications.

A doctor in the United States refusing to hand out medication until the patient shows the need is almost unheard of. The doctors here would much rather push medications (notice I used the plural) than allow the patient to prove they can stay off medications with exercise, weight loss, and food habits. Occasionally you find a doctor that will allow this to happen, but very rarely. Many insist on medications and then when the patient demonstrates the ability of managing their diabetes, they are still reluctant to allow them off medications. Some doctors will allow this to happen, but not that many.

I would say that the Danish doctors are to be commended for their actions and maybe a few of these doctors should be allowed to teach in our medical schools on the topic of diabetes management for type 2 diabetes.

This is one time when better heads should prevail and articles not titled by people with little knowledge of the disease they write about. This is the title that I found so offensive - “Complications In Diabetes Treatment Can Be Avoided When Patients Cooperate With Their Doctor.” I personally think the title could be improved dramatically and made for people to want to read the article if a title like this was used, “Diabetes Treatment Can Be Improved When Doctors and Patients Share A Common Goal.”