MD Whistleblower

Physicians handle thousands of questions annually. We respond to inquiries from patients, their families, insurance companies, nurses, professional colleagues, pharmacies, our staff and even strangers.  This is, of course, a part of our job, and it consumes a substantial amount of our time and energy. Questions come via homing pigeon Questions come via telegraph Was Alexander Graham Bell Calling his Doctor for a Question? And, responding to questions is not as easy as you may think.   Words matter and a clumsy word choice or an omission can wound instead of heal.   Here are some of the challenges we face when a medical inquiry is directed toward us. We may not know the answer. We may misunderstand the question and may misfire with our response. We may have incomplete data and need to calibrate our response accordingly. We may not be aware of the questioner’s true intent and anxiety.  For example, the question may seem innocent, e.g., “Is it normal

In two prior posts , I have offered my steep skepticism that probiotics deliver on the claims their manufacturers make.  By not being classified as actual drugs, these products leapfrog over traditional Food and Drug Administration scrutiny and are marketed directly to the public who seeks relief from various chronic diseases – conditions that conventional medicine doesn’t handle well. While I have lambasted the lack of medical evidence underlying probiotic treatment claims, in fairness, I will now offer an opinion that also has no supportive medical evidence.   So, probiotic enthusiasts may wish to call me out as well. I worry about unproven but plausible risks of long term probiotic use to the individual users and to society at large.   These products  are tampering with our own bacterial ecosystem that we don’t yet truly understand, always a dicey prospect.   And keep in mind that if you scan the labels of probiotics that fill several shelves in retail stores, they are all diffe