As a healthcare professional, it seems like an uphill battle every time your message goes “against the grain,” so to speak. Unless you have “Dr.” in front of your name, people do not listen. They hear your message; they just don’t follow it!

I have a friend who is a naturopathic doctor (ND) and her husband is a medical doctor (MD). She says that many times when they get together with others, people will ask her husband all sorts of health-related questions, but never her.

There’s no doubt that MDs carry considerable clout over NDs, yet even with all the advancements made in medicine, the rate of obesity and disease continue to rise. We need to re-examine our approach to healthcare – and fast – before things get worse. You can put a band-aid over a symptom only for so long; eventually you need to look for the cause.

As a case in point, consider the controversy surrounding cholesterol. I think we have it all wrong. I’ve written about it in the past (check out my article Challenge The Establishment) but again, I wonder how many people truly listen and follow the message?

When someone has elevated cholesterol levels, often the knee-jerk reaction by the medical community is to place them on a statin, and the patient happily complies. Why wouldn’t they? The drug is covered by their health plan and taking a pill is far easier than any lifestyle modification. Granted, in some cases a statin is needed (e.g., familial hypercholesterolemia), but in the majority of cases I’m not so sure it’s necessary.

Well, here’s an episode of The Dr. Oz Show that aired not too long ago on the topic of cholesterol. It featured Jonny Bowden, PhD, and Stephen Sinatra, MD, authors of the book The Great Cholesterol Myth and two experts with “Dr.” in front of their name. Maybe now people will listen!