Many patients spend hours in bed struggling with life and wondering why doctors don't do more to help us. Why would he think I'm lying? Why won't she believe me? How can they get away with treating me that way? Why do I pay them when I get no help or answers? No interest? Furthermore, we wonder why doctors don't know about Cushing's.
Endocrinologists treat diabetes and thyroid patients. That's probably 85% of their case load. So in walks a pituitary or adrenal patient, and a doc may not be ready to dust off the information in their minds where such treatment notes lay dusty. Instead of telling the patient they are a little rusty or they will get back to us after some research, the doctor blames us. It's our fault. We are doing something wrong or not doing enough of what we are doing right. It's always the patient who is wrong, not them.
The National Academy of Hypothyroidism has provided an evaluation of the problem that is so spot on, I can't actually believe I am seeing it in print. It is a honest yet searing look at doctors as business owners and less like medical minds who took an oath to "do no harm."
Give this a read, and you will quickly see that patients aren't benefitting from this method of medicine or from the continuing education credits doctors register with their professional societies.
Why Doesn't My Endocrinologist
Know All of This?
"Similarly, the Endocrine Society, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the American Thyroid Association also have a long history of guidelines and recommendations that are not supported by the medical literature and fail to adjust or abandon recommendations when new understanding and knowledge contradicts their recommendations. A case in point is the recommendation by these societies that a normal TSH adequately rules out thyroid dysfunction, despite massive amounts of literature that demonstrate this not to be the case (see Diagnosis of Hypothyroidism) or that T4 only replacement is adequate for most patients. A doctor who simply follows outdated society treatment guidelines that relies on a simple laboratory test and ignores the clinical aspects of a patient is not practicing evidence-based medicine. (1-7). Such doctors may be adequate as lab technicians, but as doctors and clinicians they fall short (1-7). This method of practice is consistently rebuked as improper and poor medicine, but has become the standard used by a large percentage of endocrinologists and physicians who feel medicine can be related to simply reading "normal" or "abnormal" in a laboratory column."
