A recent study1 has shown that most doctors and specialists only give 11 seconds to the patient to speak before interrupting them. This is a startling revelation, but it matches what many patients have experienced with health care in recent years: doctors simply do not listen to their patients.
In the past 100 years, we have gone from doctors who were known personally by everyone in their communities, who made house calls and ran their medical practices out of their homes, to institutionalized Health Care Management Distributors who have absolutely no time for you, and perhaps no interest in your life or even how you really feel, and likely would not know your name without looking at a chart. And for all the money you pay for health insurance, doctor’s office and urgent care visits, and all the other fees associated with health care you only get 11 Seconds to discuss your concerns with your doctor. Doctors in the 21st century are simply not spending enough time with their patients and are not taking enough of an interest in the concerns and the quality of life of their patients. The focus now is merely the distribution of health care services and the reduction of symptoms via the use of pharmaceuticals. This paints a sad, tragic picture of how far that medical care has degraded. In the past there at least was a relationship between the physician and the patient; now, there is no relationship.
Adding insult to injury, there was another study2 recently that showed about 25% of all students in med school do not attend classes their first two years, and less than 40% of students attending Johns Hopkins med school attend classes their first two years. The reason given for this is that these students are preparing for the “Step 1” Exam, and are attending on-line courses that teach strategies on how to take the test. A quick internet search pulled up a public forum, with actual doctors and medical school students commenting, revealing such comments as, and I quote:
“There is no real detriment to not attending classes!“,
And: “I attended class religiously during first semester. Then I realized, I wasn’t getting anything out of class because I’d fall asleep and I could watch the lectures online in half the time… so after the 2nd week of 2nd semester, I never went to another class. My grades improved, I work out more, I have time to do research and work on my hobbies. Life has never been better. Nobody else really cares.”
“I didn’t go to a single class this year beside the first day of each, and most of the ones we were required to attend, there’s a chance that I may have signed in and then immediately left. Class is not my thing at all, and about 120 of my 140-ish classmates agree.”
And finally: “The professors won’t care if you attend lecture or not – they’ll likely not notice that you personally don’t attend lectures. We’ve actually had a couple of professors comment on how we have more people that attend lectures than they’re used to – that just tells you how common it is to have so few students attend class.“
Nobody “really cares”? Really? This is what the medical community is providing us with now, med school students more interested in “working out” and “hobbies” than actually attending classes? I will tell you who cares: your future patients. Hey, when you get see your patients, tell them that for the first two years of med school you never attended classes so you could hit the gym and work on your stamp-collecting hobby. See if that instills ANY confidence in your patients that you have a clue about what you are doing. It is utterly ludicrous to think that the very people that have your life in their hands and a monopoly on health care barely attended classes. It is a lack of integrity, and a clear sign that the only real purpose for these people to attend school for medicine is not to help people, but to pass the classes in any way they can, regardless as to whether or not they actually have functional, working knowledge of the material. So much for that “Hippocratic oath”. It is more like a “Hypocritical Oath” now.
Ask yourself this question: Do you really want a doctor who thinks “going to class really isn’t my thing” in charge of your health care, making life-or-death decisions for you? How much confidence do you really have in a medical doctor who was more interested in their hobbies than they were in attending classes in med school?
These are the people you are entrusting your care in. Do you think you should unequivocally trust the medical community after reading this?
This is not only an indictment of the medical establishment and how they are simply NOT preparing students for the complex world of medicine, but an absolute battering of how poor the collegiate system really is in the 21st century. Students are enrolling in college, and are clamoring for “free” education, and yet are not even attending classes, nor are they even interested in attending. These are the people telling you that nutritional supplementation just makes “expensive urine” and “won’t help at all”. What do these people know? They didn’t even go to classes!
So, that new, young doctor that is calling you to schedule your Medicare checkup at that brand spanking new clinic that just opened up in your town barely attended classes his or her first two years of Med School. Doesn’t this bother you a little? How can you, as a patient, have any confidence in your doctor if he or she didn’t even attend classes?
Perhaps this would explain why Doctors in the 21st century are completely disinterested in actually treating their patients. They were never taught to care. Instead, the bulk of the Medical Establishment has transitioned into Health Management Services Distributors; bureaucrats who distribute health services to their patients based on specific parameters set forth by other bureaucrats who control what treatment is used for what condition or symptom, what diagnostic tests to use, and which drugs are used for what lab test result. This completely “new” methodology is utterly destructive to the health and well being of patients, and the even worse philosophy that accompanies it is bordering on criminality.
All of this is why we need a new paradigm of health care that focuses on patient wellness and health care providers that care enough to attend classes, learn beyond what is expected, and actually spend more than 11 seconds with their patients. The fact that I had to write that makes me sick.
I often hear from some medical apologists and well-meaning but misguided do-gooders that “there are some really good medical doctors out there! I know! My son/daughter/mother/aunt/uncle/spouse is a good doctor!” To use a word-play on an old saying don’t let a few good apples spoil the rotten bunch. Just because there are a handful of medical doctors or medical personnel in the 21st century that are “well-intentioned” doesn’t mean that they have any real grasp on what it takes to truly help someone heal beyond what their preconceived industry-created metrics tell them. It also doesn’t mean that the methodology they were taught is specifically designed to produce favorable outcomes. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent over the past several decades and still not a single cure has been produced for any of the major diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and so on. However, truly great doctors from the mid-20th century like Fredrick Klenner, The Shulte brothers, Abram Hoffer, and William Kaufman cured thousands of people using biochemical medicine, or, to put it simply, vitamins and minerals in appropriate forms and dosages. The late 20th century produced some remarkable doctors who practiced nutritional medicine, such as Robert Cathcart and Hugh Riordan, who successfully treated patients with Vitamin C for disease ranging from Cancer to AIDS to heart disease. Yet, you never hear about these people, and countless others, who actually did care to attend their classes, follow up on what they learned, and took the approach that the best patient is one that is healed and disease-free without the use of drugs or chemicals alien to the human body. These and other orthomolecular practitioners were the first true pioneers of Drugless Functional Medicine. And I assure you, these extraordinary individuals spent a lot more than 11 seconds with their patients.
1 https://www.studyfinds.org/doctors-give-patients-11-seconds-describe-visit/ Please read this important Disclaimer and our Privacy Policy notices here.
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