Advanced Mediterranean Diet

One of my frustrations with office-based medical practice is the lack of time available for patient education.  “Doctor,” after all, is derived from the Latin word for “teacher.”

The U.S. healthcare system (”non-system” would be more like it) pays physicians to do procedures and handle acute medical problems.  So that’s what you get.

There’s not much pay for thoughtful reflection, in-depth analysis, preventive care, or advice on nutrition, exercise, and healthy lifestyles.  These are called “cognitive services.”  Doctors who do too much of this either go out of business or make a very poor living.  You can’t feed a family simply on the personal satisfaction of a job well done.

When it comes to medical information, the Internet is an absolute fire hose of nonsense.  It’s a quagmire of crass commercialism and quackery.  Sure, there are scattered islands of reliable information.  But you must be careful and consider the source.

Speaking of reliable sources . . .

Dr. James Hubbard publishes a magazine, My Family Doctor: The Magazine That Makes Housecalls.  Dr. Hubbard’s mission for the magazine is . . .

. . . to help empower you to live your healthiest life.  Within these pages you’ll gain in-depth knowledge about how your body works, advice to help you make informed decisions about your well-being, and solid information based on proven evidence, not fickle fads.

I read Dr. Hubbard’s My Family Doctor blog regularly and have read a few issues of his magazine.  You can depend on his team of healthcare professional writers to provide science-based information.  Highly recommended.  A subscription to the magazine is only $28/year.  If not for yourself, why not send it to someone you care about?

Steve Parker, M.D.

Full disclosure:  This is not a paid advertisement.  Dr. Hubbard and I have no financial ties.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 9:27 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.