So I was just discharged today from a 3 day stint in hospital, most of it in Emergency, and I wanted to share a few impressions that are still fresh. None of it will be new to the folk round these parts, but I was struck by several things:
- Even within a highly flawed, compromised, dangerous beast of a system, there are still some incredibly knowledgable people working in 'mainstream' healthcare. There are lots and lots of things about the human body that doctors and nurses know that AREN'T controversial or contested, and I felt genuine gratitude and relief to lean on their knowledge and skills.
- Further, they are all of them human beings. Even the arrogant senior doctors who barely made eye contact with me. They are flesh and blood, they are overworked, they have spent years of their life shovelling ***t to get where they are, they are doing their best. Every single person on this forum has plenty of blind spots, and no one, not even Ray Peat, has all the answers. Sometimes I do think we lose sight of these things. Believe me, I'm appalled by much of what happens in 'western medicine'. But I no longer wish to view it as the enemy or the thing to waste my life railing against.
- I needed to be completely honest with them, whilst they tried to work out what was wrong with me. So I told them about the supplements I take. And in every single instance, they were highly critical and told me I was doing more harm than good.
By far the biggest example of this was my mention of aspirin. I told them I take one 300mg tablet no more than twice a week, and a tiny bit on my face via occasional Solban. It was amazing to witness the negative response, and to hear several doctors confidentally tell me to stop doing that immediately. One of them said the idea that aspirin is a helpful preventative substance, or has any benefit to young people, was debunked 10 years ago. It was even mentioned in my discharge papers: stop taking aspirin. I never bothered challenging them, because I was extremely unwell, and I needed their help, and you aren't going to change a doctor's mind on such matters.
Similar story when I mentioned my occasional use of B vitamins. I was told that's pointless. When I told a doc I take vitamin K about 3 times a week, I was met with serious alarm. "Why on earth would you do that?" she asked. When I mentioned I briefly experimented with very small doses of pregnenolone, a doctor immediately assumed that I'd bought it as an illegal anabolic bodybuilding steroid. I felt a real shift in his dealings with me after that, even though I tried to explain. And later on, I overheard a nurse telling another nurse that I had been experimenting with "off-brand alternative medicine". I could only smile at such moments. These were the same people btw who were otherwise genuinely helpful and concerned for me, and who I mostly got on well with.
- A dashing, arrogant cardiologist told me "there's no such thing as toxins in the gut", when I mentioned I take activated charcoal once a week. Again, I could only smile.
- And finally, hospitals are horrible, depressing places. This was my first ever time being actually admitted as a patient. And it was eye opening. I think it would be very hard to get better if you were extremely unwell and stuck in a hospital for a long stretch. There is just so much noise, and harsh lights, and horrible food, and you are surrounded by terribly unwell people, most of them elderly, coughing up their lungs all night long. One night they put a very drunk man on the bed next to me to dry out. He spent the entire night yelling Vietnamese profanities and giggling. Suffice it to say I got very little sleep.
Like I said, none of this will be revelatory round these parts, but it's been a poignant experience for me. I'm glad to be out, and I'm glad I got a glimpse behind the curtain.
- Even within a highly flawed, compromised, dangerous beast of a system, there are still some incredibly knowledgable people working in 'mainstream' healthcare. There are lots and lots of things about the human body that doctors and nurses know that AREN'T controversial or contested, and I felt genuine gratitude and relief to lean on their knowledge and skills.
- Further, they are all of them human beings. Even the arrogant senior doctors who barely made eye contact with me. They are flesh and blood, they are overworked, they have spent years of their life shovelling ***t to get where they are, they are doing their best. Every single person on this forum has plenty of blind spots, and no one, not even Ray Peat, has all the answers. Sometimes I do think we lose sight of these things. Believe me, I'm appalled by much of what happens in 'western medicine'. But I no longer wish to view it as the enemy or the thing to waste my life railing against.
- I needed to be completely honest with them, whilst they tried to work out what was wrong with me. So I told them about the supplements I take. And in every single instance, they were highly critical and told me I was doing more harm than good.
By far the biggest example of this was my mention of aspirin. I told them I take one 300mg tablet no more than twice a week, and a tiny bit on my face via occasional Solban. It was amazing to witness the negative response, and to hear several doctors confidentally tell me to stop doing that immediately. One of them said the idea that aspirin is a helpful preventative substance, or has any benefit to young people, was debunked 10 years ago. It was even mentioned in my discharge papers: stop taking aspirin. I never bothered challenging them, because I was extremely unwell, and I needed their help, and you aren't going to change a doctor's mind on such matters.
Similar story when I mentioned my occasional use of B vitamins. I was told that's pointless. When I told a doc I take vitamin K about 3 times a week, I was met with serious alarm. "Why on earth would you do that?" she asked. When I mentioned I briefly experimented with very small doses of pregnenolone, a doctor immediately assumed that I'd bought it as an illegal anabolic bodybuilding steroid. I felt a real shift in his dealings with me after that, even though I tried to explain. And later on, I overheard a nurse telling another nurse that I had been experimenting with "off-brand alternative medicine". I could only smile at such moments. These were the same people btw who were otherwise genuinely helpful and concerned for me, and who I mostly got on well with.
- A dashing, arrogant cardiologist told me "there's no such thing as toxins in the gut", when I mentioned I take activated charcoal once a week. Again, I could only smile.
- And finally, hospitals are horrible, depressing places. This was my first ever time being actually admitted as a patient. And it was eye opening. I think it would be very hard to get better if you were extremely unwell and stuck in a hospital for a long stretch. There is just so much noise, and harsh lights, and horrible food, and you are surrounded by terribly unwell people, most of them elderly, coughing up their lungs all night long. One night they put a very drunk man on the bed next to me to dry out. He spent the entire night yelling Vietnamese profanities and giggling. Suffice it to say I got very little sleep.
Like I said, none of this will be revelatory round these parts, but it's been a poignant experience for me. I'm glad to be out, and I'm glad I got a glimpse behind the curtain.
