A MASSIVE Red Flag You Missed at the Doctor's Office

Today we're talking about one of the biggest red flags MOST people miss when they're at the doctor's office.

Approximate read time: 2 minutes 38 seconds

Let me paint you a familiar scene.You came to the doctor's office for some sort of check-up, and they ran some tests.Let's say you have back pain that you've tried to address a few times, and you even went to physical therapy. It feels ok most of the time, but a few times a year, you still get flare-ups that really wipe you out, so you go to the doctor because you want to get to the bottom of what's happening. The doctor orders an MRI and prescribes some muscle relaxers, and you come back a few days later to get the results of the MRI. "You have the spine of an 80-year-old."That's a problem because you're only 45. "You have degenerative disc disease that's making it impossible for the nerves in your back to move freely, and it will likely get worse if you don't do something about it.""This is the worst case of this I've seen in someone your age. I can't believe you're still functioning. It's just incredible you have such a high pain tolerance."

Where's the RED FLAG?

The red flag is how the doctor speaks to you, the patient, in this scenario. Telling someone they have the spine of and 80 year old when they aren't even close to being 80 is a problem.Telling someone they have "degenerative disc disease" that's going to cripple them WILL DO more harm than good.Telling someone that they're the worst case of something you've ever seen and painting them as a martyr to their pain is unethical. 

Why are these things a problem?

You've heard of the placebo effect, right?

It's when you believe something is going to work, and then because you believe it, it works.In fact, the strongest predictor of whether or not a physical therapy treatment will be successful has nothing to do with the skill or experience of the physical therapist; it's whether or not the patient believes the treatment will work. Yeah, but that's pretty much just exercise; it doesn't work for BIG issues. Yes, it does.This STUDY found no difference between patients who received a sham surgery and an arthroscopic arthritis surgery on the knee. That means they put everyone under and made an incision on everyone so that none of the patients could know they DIDN'T get the surgery, but then they only did the procedure on a portion of the patients. The result was that the people who didn't have the actual surgery but believed they did had just as much pain relief as those who had the actual procedure. Here's another STUDY that did something similar with shoulder surgery if you want even more evidence. 

Why am I telling you this?Belief changes EVERYTHING about the way you feel!

Nocebo, the evil cousin of the placebo effect

Ok, so it's clear that the placebo effect is incredibly powerful. In the cases mentioned above, it was just as effective as surgery at getting people out of pain, but what does that have to do with the red flags we started with?The placebo effect also works in reverse.When your belief is doing something that helps you, it's called the placebo effect. When it's working against you, it's called the nocebo effect, and that's exactly what was happening with the back pain example I gave earlier. Telling someone they're uniquely broken, and hopeless has zero upside.

In fact, when it comes from a person of authority like a physician, it's unethical. Why?They're the individual in power and the ones who benefit from your negative beliefs.If you believe you're broken, you get more imaging, surgery, and treatment from them. You see, nocebos are horrible for people but great for business. 

What should you do?

Fortunately, most doctors and physical therapists don't speak like this. But it is common enough that most of us know someone who's been told something that sounds eerily similar to the story above. If you do ever find yourself on the receiving end of a prognosis like this one, you can know without a shadow of a doubt that it's time for a second opinion and likely a new doctor. 

If you enjoyed this issue of Vitality on Tap, please share it with your friends, family, and anyone you believe will find value in learning about this important red flag. You can do so that easily by sending them THIS LINK