More about cycling and bone strength

[Crankin]

I think there are some that think that the heavy sweat rate of elite cyclists can cause bone loss or add to it. Don't quote me... but mostly what you said is the truth.
My Vitamin D test came back "normal," but I don't know what the numbers were. I will wait until I go see the endocrinologist and see what she recommends. Definitely won't stop cycling because I have osteoporosis. Hoping I will be a candidate for Reclast, as per my earlier post. I am sort of waiting for a fight from this woman; I saw her a couple of years ago for a thyroid issue and she is not exactly a paragon of friendliness, although she knows her stuff. I guess these specialists are so used to seeing people who have such bad health habits, they don't know what to do with someone that actually knows something and is going to question stuff.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I guess these specialists are so used to seeing people who have such bad health habits, they don't know what to do with someone that actually knows something and is going to question stuff.

There are some people just don't like to have their expertise questioned by anyone, regardless of how much or how little they might know.
I had a smart young woman doctor who I liked a lot at first, but she began to lecture me like I was a stupid child or something, so I gave her the ol' Heave Ho. LOL

My new doctor happens to be a cyclist himself, so we share many of the same life philosophies. (I ran into him on bikes in Great Barrington, by the way Robin, and his office is ONE BLOCK from our house!...talk about good karma).
Sadly, we sometimes need to change doctors when they are not working out well for us.

[OakLeaf]

Sadly, we sometimes need to change doctors when they are not working out well for us.

And then you get a black mark on your record for "doctor shopping" and being a "difficult patient," and it becomes really difficult to establish a good relationship with a new doctor.

[Biciclista]

And then you get a black mark on your record for "doctor shopping" and being a "difficult patient," and it becomes really difficult to establish a good relationship with a new doctor.

seriously? where is that black mark???

[OakLeaf]

Oh, not a literal "black mark," but medical records are full of doctors' subjective impressions of patients' personalities and "compliance" (which means "not questioning" and "getting better promptly" as much as it does "following instructions"). Now, sometimes they're spot-on, but often there are underlying issues (medical or psychosocial) that the doctors don't spend enough time to be able to identify/diagnose; and very often, if a doctor can't find a diagnosis to explain a patient's symptoms, or if a diagnosed condition is refractory to treatment, the doctor will implicitly or explicitly blame the patient.

Obviously, doctors who do this are disproportionately represented when patients fire their doctors.

But then, when the patient goes to a new doctor, if the medical records get transferred (which they should, so the new doctor has a complete history and doesn't have to repeat tests, etc.), the new doctor is "infected" by the first doctor's opinion of the patient.

I used to represent disability claimants, so reading sick people's medical records is what I did all day long. It was an education in more ways than one.

[staceysue]

Oh, yeah. What Oak Leaf is saying is definitely true. I saw it a lot when I worked ER.

There are a LOT (and I mean alotalot) of patients who have ulterior motives for going to the Dr. I'm not talking abou any normal people and I doubt there's anybody like that on this forum. The kind of people I'm talking about don't have the motivation or inclination to bicycle, so they won't be on here. They make up a very small percentage (I think I may have heard the figure 3%?) of the general population but use up a huge percentage (75%) of health care, at least in the ER. They go from doctor to doctor to doctor looking for any kind of medication that will get peple high, or looking for a chance to file a lawsuit, etc. It is literally a full-time job for them. They actually spend at least 40 hours a week doing it. They'll drive all over the state. I used to see them outside the ER selling their pain pills to drug dealers. Some of them manage to get thousands of pain pills per month.

Most people who aren't in health care don't believe this is true, but it only takes about a week of working in an ER/doctors office before it becomes crystal clear.

The term "doctor shopping" came about from those patients. Unfortunately, now anybody who even looks for a second opinion gets labeled a "doctor shopper" and that is totally unfair. People are encouraged to get second opinions but, when they do, they're treated like scum.

This is one of the big reasons I've been trying to get out of healthcare. All the practitioners are so jaded that legitimate patients don't get what they need or deserve.

One way to avoid being treated badly for looking for a 2nd opinion would be to go to a Dr. who doesn't accept medicaid and, therefore, isn't jaded. Almost all of the patients who do that are on medicaid.

I wonder if this is a problems in countries other than the U.S.?

[shootingstar]

This is one of the big reasons I've been trying to get out of healthcare. All the practitioners are so jaded that legitimate patients don't get what they need or deserve.

One way to avoid being treated badly for looking for a 2nd opinion would be to go to a Dr. who doesn't accept medicaid and, therefore, isn't jaded. Almost all of the patients who do that are on medicaid.

I wonder if this is a problems in countries other than the U.S.?

I would submit here, that like any other profession, there are doctors in the profession who are there for status/money , or at least they've lost sight of their Hippocratic oath a long time ago. And those who are just good professionals just doing their job as best as they can and recognize there are some bummer patients.


As for patients who seriously do too much doctor shopping to get drugs or whatever, that's bound to happen in any health care system.

As for countries that have a different health care insurance system, think about this please:

For most people who have jobs or are full-time students, it really is serious effort and precious time just to even book in a doctor's appointment time and juggle this with work/school time schedule and family time, when employers/teachers want you on the job, not away on work/classroom time, seeing the doctor. So already there are built-in mechanisms, that prevent most people from wasting their own personal time seeing too many doctors just to get 2nd, 3rd or 4th opinion.