How To Know if You Need To Switch Doctors (And How To Find The Right One)

Kamilah Stevenson. Today I want to make sure that you get help with knowing the signs of a bad doctor. And this is important because if you have a bad doctor and they're doing some of these things that I'm going to mention, it may be time to switch doctors to make sure you're in good care. There are some good doctors out there. However, you know, there are some things that can kind of help you to know whether or not your doctor is educated enough to make sure that you're on a good health track. And before I continue, I want to say please make sure you like this video and make sure you subscribe to my page because I'm continually getting information out to you to make sure that you live a healthy life, and that will help me out tremendously. All right, so we all go to the doctor and we all know that doctors are there to help us and to care for us. There are a few things that you have to consider when going to the doctor. And that's, first of all, their success is based on something different usually than making sure that you're well. Their success is based on how many people they can get into their office and out of their office in a day. And a lot of times, if you come with too many problems, it's overwhelming. They don't even have the time to educate you, and so they just usually prescribe you medicine. Now, there's a few things that I feel like doctors, um, can work on when it comes to making sure that you are being cared for as a doctor and as a physician. And there's a few things that I think are warning signs that your doctor may not be educated enough to help you out, especially if you're having some health issues. Now, one of the main things that I noticed with a lot of doctors and the feedback that I always get is they don't often ask you about your diet. They don't often ask you about your lifestyle, your habits, and things like that when it comes to certain biometrics and certain results that you may get, whether it's from lab work or blood pressure reading or something like that. And I want to kind of expose some of the things that they may do or say that I just don't think is the right direction. And if your doctor does this, I know that your doctor just probably don't know what he or she is talking about. All right, so first thing I want to talk about is blood pressure. Now, when you go to the doctor, you get your blood pressure reading, and a lot of times this isn't necessarily from the doctor, this is from the nurse, so I'll include them also. So you'll get your blood pressure reading and it may be high at the moment. Now, everybody know when you go to the doctor, your blood pressure is higher because you're nervous, your pulse is higher, and you're just hoping that it's a good reading and you want it to be well. But first of all, things kind of can start off wrong from the very beginning, which is that they don't often put your arm in the right position, or they don't often put the cuff on right. I had a doctor one time that put the cuff on my elbow and left my hand hanging down, and I just knew it was going to be a bad reading. And You want to say something first of all immediately about that, because once they get your reading and they document it, now it's in your files. And let's say for example you get insurance or something that actually needs to be able to pull your medical records, and then they see that you got this crazy blood pressure reading, and now they start asking all kind of questions because they're considering you not to be healthy. Well, you want to stop that. And one time I made the mistake of making this happen where I allowed the lady to actually take my blood pressure reading and I told her, I said, hey, the cuff is on over my elbow and I just don't think this would be a good reading because it's not even positioned right. And of course it wound up being crazy, um, according to my normal baseline for blood pressure reading. And so it was way higher than what it was supposed to be. And so I challenged her and I said, take my blood pressure again because I actually have low blood pressure mainly. And so Um, I made her take it again and she was like, well, we're gonna do it on the other arm. And so then she does it on the other arm and now my blood pressure reading is much lower, low like it usually is. And I told her, I said, see, that is my actual reading, that is my normal reading, because I am a person who takes my own blood pressure often. And this is why you should take your blood pressure often so that you can know what's normal for you and what's not, so you can challenge um, if there is something weird, or you can try to figure that out. Because a lot of times if you go to the doctor and you haven't taken your blood pressure in years, and then all of a sudden you get a reading, you're just going to listen to whatever the reading is and you're not going to challenge it. And so of course the doctor had to make up an— or the nurse had to make up an excuse and say, well, the blood pressure can change dramatically from one arm to the next. And this type of dramatic change, I don't think so. The it just was a bad reading. And also, a lot of doctors, they'll like put the cuff on, they'll start trying to talk to you or ask you questions. Really, when you're taking your blood pressure reading, you should really just be sitting there calm, not talking, legs not, um, crossed. Like, there's certain protocols. And so again, just make sure that you let your nurse know, like, hey, while I'm taking my reading, I'm going to be quiet, because obviously they don't know that you shouldn't talk when you're you're taking your blood pressure reading. I'm not sure if it will change the numbers dramatically or anything, but you just want to get the best reading you can get, okay? Now, when it is high, if your doctor comes in and it's high and the doctor don't start to investigate, like asking questions like about your diet, about your life, you know, have you experienced grief, are you going through stress, all of those kind of things Like, they should be investigating. They should actually take your blood pressure reading again if it's crazy high, and they should just see if it's going to go back down. If they just come in and they're ready to prescribe you medication right away— like, I'm not saying you don't have to take the medication and take it home. I'm just saying you better make sure that you really need that medication short-term, because I don't think medication is something that needs to be taken long-term. I think you should have other alternatives to, um, you know, your health, other options. And if you just need to take it just to have it because maybe you do really have a high blood pressure and it's not going down immediately and you need to take it short term or whatever just to make sure you're okay, then, you know, take it. But you need to investigate with yourself and make sure that it was accurate. It wasn't some moment or it wasn't just because you were at the doctor. So Go home and take your blood pressure readings and see what it turns out to be, because if you don't need to take medication, then don't take medication. Now, another thing that I have noticed, and this is a huge thing, so please pay attention to this, and it is about your cholesterol. I have not known anything more than doctors getting people on medication because of cholesterol and they should not be on medication. Now, I've not known anything more damaging than this one topic when it comes to doctors. I mean, other than like giving people surgeries that they don't need. But cholesterol is important and it can allow you to know some things about your body. But the problem is a lot of times the doctors look at the wrong numbers. Now of course you have your overall cholesterol number, then you have your triglycerides, then you have your HDL levels, and then you have your LDL levels. Now if you go to a doctor and a doctor just comes to you and just based off your LDL levels they say you need medication, all right, you need to be put on statin drugs, and that's all they look at and they say your LDL is high, you need medication. They never say anything about triglycerides. They never say anything about HDL levels. Like, you need to question that dramatically because LDL numbers are not statistically associated alone with having heart problems or anything. Really, even the overall cholesterol number don't really have any real data that can show you if you are having heart problems or heart disease or anything like that. It is actually more important to look at your triglycerides, your HDL levels, and your A1C levels. So again, if your doctor don't mention those other 3 numbers and they just look at your LDL and try to put you on statin drugs, please question this, especially if you have low triglycerides, like under 100, and you have high HDL levels, like you want to be over 50. And if you have decent numbers with your triglycerides that are low and high HDL numbers, then that's not such a bad position where you may need any statin drugs, because the triglycerides can show you how much damage insulin is causing to your body. And so again, if those numbers are good and maybe your LDL is higher then that's not a reason to get on statin drugs. As a matter of fact, I know that a lot of people may disagree with this, but there has been some research that shows in the context where triglycerides are low, HDL is high, meaning they're good numbers, and LDL is high, that's not a problem at all. And as a matter of fact, many people are a little healthier sometimes when they have LDL levels that are higher. Statistics and studies have shown some cases where people actually live longer with higher LDL levels when their triglycerides and their HDL levels are good, and of course they don't have any problems with their A1C levels. And also, when it comes to the overall cholesterol number, there's no real research that is actually linked to any kind of problems with your heart. And so what the doctor wants to do is if you have high cholesterol or high LDL numbers without looking at everything else, they want to put you on a low-fat diet and then add statin drugs to this whole equation. And I would actually question that because what it's telling me is that your doctors don't really know numbers in cholesterol, and they don't probably really know what they're doing, and they haven't studied and understand real cases that help you to understand what cholesterol numbers you should be looking at to determine your heart health and how healthy you are. Okay, so make sure that you're paying attention to this because this is a big thing, and you don't want to be put on statin drugs when you don't really need it, and you don't want to be put on some diet that restricts you from cholesterol and restricts you from fat because it's not going to do good for your body or for your brain. Now, the last thing I want to say is when there is a problem and you go to the doctor because you're in pain or you're having some kind of medical condition— let's say you're having some kind of heart problems or some kind of chest pain or just something, right? And so when you go in, if the doctor automatically puts you on medicine again and don't investigate, then you have a serious problem. What you need to ask your doctor is, hey, what is your differential diagnosis? Like, what kind of evidence do you have to either support what you think this might be or support what you think it might not be? If you don't run tests, you really don't know. And so when you ask the doctor, what's your differential diagnosis How do you separate what you think it is from what it might be? Like, then that may get the doctor thinking, okay, I need to take some tests. Like, ask them if you having chest pain, like, how do you know this isn't heart problems or a clogged artery or something else? Like, what tests have you done to differentiate between what it is and what it's not? And why are you putting me on medication for something that you don't actually actually know what it is. And so, hey, I want to get some tests done, I want to get some further investigation, I want to push to understand how do I eliminate that it isn't a heart condition or something like that. Because again, doctors at times don't really care. They just rather put you on medication, get you out their office, and quite frankly, a lot of times they make more money just putting you on long-term medication. Again, this does not go against the fact that there are amazing doctors in this world. I actually follow a lot of them and I learn from a lot of them, okay? So I don't want to make it that all doctors are bad. I'm just saying that a lot of times what they learn in medical school is not really the solution that's going to fix the real culprit behind many of your health conditions, especially chronic illnesses and they often don't have the solution to either reverse or prevent chronic disease. They just have what they learn, and a lot of times that doesn't work. And you know it don't work because people tend to get sicker and sicker a lot of times, and all the solution is, is medication, and there's nothing really else. And if you have a doctor that addresses your diet and lifestyle habits and investigate, then you very blessed because you are, uh, one of the few, uh, because again, there are doctors that do it, but there are so many that don't. And be very careful when a doctor rushes you immediately again to surgery. Like, say for example, you have a fibroid or something that's not bothering you and is benign and there's nothing going on. Make sure you can see, okay, can I change my diet to reverse this right away? Don't just let them say, hey, I want to get, get you to surgery and just remove it immediately, and it's not even causing you any pain or disturbances. Like, make sure that you have alternative methods to whatever is troubling you, and just make sure that your doctor's just not rushing you, not asking questions, and you feel like they just really don't care. They're just trying to push you on your way to either surgery or medication. So I wanted to point these things out so that you know how to maybe find a good doctor, know when to maybe switch doctors, or if you got a good doctor, maybe this helped you identify like, yes, I got an amazing doctor, I'll keep my doctor. And I wanted to make sure that you know how to care for yourself and how to fight for your own health. So I hope that this helped you to determine if you need to make some decisions or not, to make sure that you're in healthy hands and that you're advancing your health the way you you desire. Don't forget to please like this video and subscribe to my page, and I'll continue to get information out to you that helps you to live a quality, healthy lifestyle. Thank you.