Article about us smart people who distrust western medicine

Zizzle · Post by **Zizzle** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 3:34 pm

"Can the "magical thinking" of smart, creative people cause them to make poor health decisions with life-threatening outcomes? Walter Isaacson, biographer of Steve Jobs, wonders whether Jobs relied too heavily on herbal treatments when first diagnosed with pancreatic carcinoma. The Daily Beast this week tackles the subject in an article, "Why Smart People Are Dumb Patients," exploring alternative medications and broad medical beliefs that often are untested and unproven, but remain appealing to the well-educated."

http://ow.ly/zeLEv

Post by **tex** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 4:46 pm

I didn't bother to read the article, but I fail to see how Steve Jobs' decision to rely heavily on alternative treatments while totally ignoring logically-correct conventional medical treatments could possibly be construed as a "smart" choice. Frankly, as much as I respect the creative abilities of Steve Jobs, when I first read of his decision to eschew modern medicine and "cure himself" with herbal supplements, that decision struck me as a very dumb choice, a choice that was incongruent for someone who seemed to otherwise be highly intelligent.

IMO, this issue highlights a common problem with many highly intelligent people. Many of them are indeed highly intelligent, but they don't have much plain old common sense. They never had to learn it, because they were always regarded as over-achievers, so they always got a free pass on the ordinary stuff, and when they find themselves outside of their sphere of expertise, they are pretty much lost, but they don't seem to even realize it, possibly because of their ego and their history of self-reliance. Consequently, they are vulnerable to making a stupid choice in a no-brainer situation.

Now what I've said up to this point may seem to support the author's contention, but my point is — how can someone who is unable to make an intelligent choice (a choice that anyone who has normal intelligence could easily do), be considered to be highly intelligent?

IOW, Steve Jobs was brilliant and creative, but was he highly intelligent? Not by my definition. Distrusting Western medicine is clearly not the same as not having sense enough to take advantage of Western medicine when it can save your life. Ya gotta be smart enough to know when to use it, and when to give it a pass.

Tex

nerdhume · Post by **nerdhume** » Sat Jul 19, 2014 4:17 am

I thought Jobs just didn't want to spend his last days in misery. AFAIK pancreatic cancer has no cure and is always a death sentence. It's just a matter of fighting and denying until the end (Patrick Swayze) or facing it and taking advantage of every minute you have left (Randy Pausch).
I have trouble accepting what doctors say because I believe they are influenced by big pharma and because the research waffles back & forth on what is good/bad for us. After really trying to deal with the niacin side effects, then yesterday they came out with research saying it's deadly.

JFR · Post by **JFR** » Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:23 am

tex wrote: Distrusting Western medicine is clearly not the same as not having sense enough to take advantage of Western medicine when it can save your life. Ya gotta be smart enough to know when to use it, and when to give it a pass.

Tex

Well said!

Jean

DJ · Post by DJ » Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:23 am

I agree that a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer never does a person a bit of good. I read that some types are more treatable than others. So many cancers are highly treatable now. In those cases, it's best to find a good doctor and move forward right away.

People with MC are aware that the field if medicine isn't always a miracle

The FDA finds that nearly 1.5 million people per year are harmed by medication errors and that's just the beginning of the story.

About five years ago, I went to a holistic physician who was previously an ER doctor. He said he started the practice because he was tired of treating people after the damage was done. It was a great experience but my insurance stopped covering his services and the tests and products he recommended were not covered by insurance. The tests he recommended are the tests that people on this board often recommend. The short story is that I followed "modern medicine" and the route suggested by the holistic physician would have been the far better route for me! I took PPIs and when they didn't help, my GI doc recommended that I take a higher dose. I had frequent colonoscopies and endoscopies. My severe cough was originally treated with Nasonex and my vocal chord dysfunction was treated with speech therapy until an ENT identified that my throat and vocal chords were singed from stomach acid. Can you imagine how unsuccessful my speech therapy was?
I'm with Tex and Kenny Rogers on this. "You gotta know when to hold up, know when to fold up" and that's often impossible to know until after the fact.

Polly · Post by **Polly** » Sat Jul 19, 2014 8:55 am

Actually, Jobs turned out to have a rare subtype of pancreatic cancer that could have been successfully treated. But I hear ya about pancreatic cancer in general.....it is usually a quick death sentence in spite of optimal medical care , as was the case with my brother recently.

I have no problem with any holistic/natural practitioner.......as long as they are not in the business of selling you the herbs/supplements/preparations they recommend. To me, that is a major conflict of interest.

Polly

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Sat Jul 19, 2014 5:17 pm

Since when has discernment equated to distrust?

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Sat Jul 19, 2014 5:42 pm

Over the past few years, I have come learn about and accept some of the alternative treatments as wonderful and effective tools in my own healthcare

Overall I do not view it as a choice of one treatment modality over the other, rather I believe in many cases that they are complimentary treatments that work with each other. When it comes to healthcare we need all the tools we can to achieve wellness