Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey everybody, what's going on? Doctor Chad Woolner here and Dr Buddy Alan and this is episode 16 of the Health Fundamentals podcast and on today's episode we're going to be talking about one of the greatest disservices that doctors do to their patients. So let's get started.

Speaker 2: (00:13)
You're listening to the health fundamentals podcast. I'm Dr Chad Woolner and I'm Dr Buddy Alan. And this show is about giving you the simple but powerful cutting edge tools you need to change your health and your life. So sit back and enjoy the show as we show you the path to your best life down to a science.

Speaker 1: (00:33)
So hey everybody on today's episode we've got a great topic that we wanted to discuss. This comes on the heels of an experience we had done it add a few experiences, actually a recent patient and then a doctor friend of mine that I actually just learned her story and it's something that just drives me crazy. That's right. Drives me crazy. First of all, it was your patient actually. Yeah. So this is going to be a little bit of a rant, but hopefully you'll, you'll, you'll pay attention because it's important. We wouldn't be ranting and it wasn't something important. So yeah. Continue. So had a patient, so yeah, in fact, I want to say it was you and I were talking about was your patient and he, uh, he's a younger fellow in his thirties. That's right. Yes. Yes, yes. He is. When he was in high school, I got an injury playing football in his back and his doctor told him, you'll never be able to play football again and likely never viewed, it'll play sports.

Speaker 1: (01:28)
Exactly. Set. And so pretty much this guy has done a bunch of nothing ever since then because the, the, the fear of the doctor put in his, in his mind was, if you do this, the only thing I can do for you is surgery. It's going to be surgery. It's going to be bad. Yeah. We'll, and number one, he's not even close to a surgical candidate, nodding collection calls. He's got significant problems for sure. Um, and he's, he's in the middle of a program that we're doing and, uh, he's doing great. He's responding very, very well. But, um, you're exactly right. Like nothing would warrant, um, that type of a diagnosis and that type of a prognosis. And so what are we talking about in terms of prognosis here? What's the, what's the disservice we're talking about here? The prognosis is when these doctors, they tell patients, and we, I'm telling you, we hear this all the time and you likely have heard it yourself as you'll never be able to do blank veganic right.

Speaker 1: (02:24)
All right. We would refer to this as an absolute prognosis. Yes. And absolutely. More often than not, we'll put it this way. More often than not, when you are given a, an absolute prognosis, um, the first thing I think, and the best thing you could do is seek a second, a third, a fourth opinion on that. Because, uh, absolute prognoses that are given are rarely that. They're rarely absolute, even in very serious and, and seemingly like hopeless scenarios. I mean there are that do tremendous, uh, tremendous and almost miraculous things despite the odds. Right? And, but, and the reason I hate that diagnosis or that, that prognosis, when doctors say you'll never be able to do, or it's likely you'll never be able to do this again. All right. And the reason I hate it is because it is, it completely underestimate our body's amazing ability to heal, especially given the correct attention, the, the right training, the right, it may be hard, okay.

Speaker 1: (03:31)
Even with very serious accidents where there's, you know, you may even lose a limb and you may not be able to, but I'm telling you, you can get on the Internet and again and again and again, see, people do miraculous things completely despite the odds. But the, the sad part is, is we have patients come in that have been told you'll never be able to do this again. And in their mind, this is a terminal diagnosis, right? And they've given up any chance of hope of actually ever being able to go in and do what they used to love doing ever again. Right. Well, and the thing that I would say is, uh, if you've ever read the book or heard of a book called suggestible you, it's a great book. You should read it. But one of the things that they discuss in depth in that book is the research and the science behind the power of the mind.

Speaker 1: (04:21)
Um, oftentimes people have heard the term used. And I would say more often than not, it's almost used in a negative connotation, is this idea of the placebo effect. Um, but the truth is, when you look at the reality of what's happening out there, so much of what goes on in terms of healthcare, uh, is placebo. It's, we're, we're, we're completely unable to remove that entirely from the scenario just because it is so intimately connected with everything that happens. You know, our perception and our belief is, is tied in everything that we do and everything that happens to us. And so it's, it's almost impossible to entirely remove placebo from out of the equation. And so if that's the case and if you look at what the science and the research says, placebo isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, in many instances it's a great thing.

Speaker 1: (05:14)
But the interesting thing is if you look at the science as well, there is a, an ugly side to that what we call the no CBO effect. It's the opposite. If you just look at the research by and that our mind is capable of, of either healing ourselves, you know, healing the body, healing in, in terms of controlling that. But it's also, uh, we have the capacity to literally make ourselves sick and, and, uh, you know, have our health, uh, dramatically decline and that that is what we call the no CBO effect. It's literally the complete opposite, the ugly cousin of, of the, of the placebo effect. Right? And so, um, that book, if you, if you want to read more about that in the science on it, look at, look at the book, suggestible you and he goes into it in great, great detail.

Speaker 1: (06:05)
But, but that's the problem there is that is that people like it or not all of us are highly suggestible. Um, especially with regard to authoritative figures, not just not just doctors, but just experts in general. We, we hear certain things. I mean look at it today online. I mean why, and this is why the, the, the media has taken such a beating over the past. Um, I would say past few years is because, um, they have I think to a large extent abuse that position of authority that they've had. And so, um, w the, the issues we're talking about here don't just necessarily pertain to the doctor patient relationship. I think what we're talking about is more of a, uh, a human issue here in the sense that the way we, um, receive and, and more importantly perceive information that's given to us from authoritative sources.

Speaker 1: (07:00)
Right? And so when a doctor tells you, uh, very definitively, like a stamp or a label on you that you, you are never going to be able to, um, do blank. Yeah. Well, and, and I would just say the whole reason this drives me crazy is because we, we have seen and regularly see people do just truly amazing things. If someone ever tells you you can or cannot do something, you know, it's like, it's like you can do whatever you want. You will be amazed. It may be hard, it may take a fair amount of effort. You may require someone to, to, you know, to help you achieve what you're going after. But please don't ever let someone tell you like, you're never going to do this again because they completely miss the mark with our ability, our body's ability to heal and to improve and to get better.

Speaker 1: (07:55)
You may not be 100%. I'm not saying that you can have your lose an arm or a leg and you're going to be 100% yeah. But what I'm saying is there's a, you can do things. I promise you you'll be able to do things that, and I in fact, um, that, that show, uh, what's that? Rock climbing one. We just watched it recently. The Dawn Wall. Dawn Wall. Amazing. Okay. So here's, here's this climber he gets, he cuts his finger off. One of the most critical females use. Yeah. It's your aside from your thumb. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. And, and all the best. Or like, Yep. He's done. Yeah. Because you're never going to be able to rock climb again. And you know what I mean? If you haven't seen the dawn wall, it's fantastic. Yeah. H very inspiring. But you know what I mean? It's like I'm telling you, there's, there's nothing you can't do if you put a little bit of energy into it.

Speaker 1: (08:43)
Yeah. And, and, and I think the other thing too that you pointed out there that you kind of hinted at is that we're not saying that you shouldn't be realistic with expectations, you know, um, but at the same token, you shouldn't be pessimistic either. Pessimism doesn't really serve much of a purpose. Right. And so, um, you know, I think, I think there's a balance that can be struck there in terms of approaching, uh, w if you're dealing and struggling with a health problem up, approaching it through an optimistic lens, approaching it with this attitude that anything is possible, um, with the right environment, with the right approach. Um, and you know, again that that kind of healing equation, doing the right things in the right order for the right amount item, the right amount of time. Um, miracles are possible. They really are. I mean, truly the fact that we are a living, breathing, doing what we do on a regular moment by moment, day to day basis.

Speaker 1: (09:39)
It's a miracle life. I know it's a cliche statement, cliche statement to, to say, but life is truly miraculous. I mean, you look at it, um, even the greatest, most brilliant minds still can't fully understand why life is, you know, how, what it is that makes us, us, you know, in terms of the, the energy of life, you know, we can, we can spout off all sorts of fancy words and you know, technical, you know, you know, speak in terms of our physiology, but at the end of the day, when you peel back all those things, there gets to be a certain point where we just can't fully appreciate it other than it's just miraculous, you know? Yeah. What, what is it about our body that allows our brain to moment by moment, second by second, communicate with our body so that our heart is, is beating and pumping blood.

Speaker 1: (10:30)
We don't even have to think about that when we eat food. We don't have to think about the fact that our body exactly knows how to digest it in most instances, right? In the vast majority of instances, uh, our, our body, barring a few rare exceptions, our body was designed to be able to take care of itself, heal itself, do what it needs to do. And so, um, the, the point of this episode is to help people feel a little bit more empowered if you've been told by a doctor, um, that you would never be able to do blank or that you, you know, you'll always be stuck with blank or whatever. That kind of absolute prognosis is, uh, take courage and take heart and understand, you know, because the, the problem with that and I think we kind of already addressed this is, um, is that those types of labels are extremely difficult to break through, to peel away, you know, because those, those have such a very permanent impact on us in terms of our psychology, in terms of our beliefs, in terms of our perceptions.

Speaker 1: (11:26)
These are, uh, such common, uh, causes for limiting beliefs with people. Um, and, and again, we're not talking about just kind of pie in the sky Koombaya you know, you know, happy thoughts. Um, W W we're also talking about doing the work, putting in the work and making that effort. I think we've made that abundantly clear, but it's important because, uh, this is something that we find ourselves oftentimes having to help patients undo. Is some of that negative programming that they come in with some of that negative baggage as a result of, uh, comments that I think oftentimes docs don't think twice about it. It's not like they're intentionally trying to sabotage people. I don't think in most instances. But I would say the term that I would use to describe it is it's, it's careless. I think a lot of times it's very careless and I think the intent behind it sometimes is good.

Speaker 1: (12:18)
It comes from a good place. You know, we don't want to, you know, set the bar too high for this person and have their hopes dashed. But I think that's rarely the case. I don't, I don't think, uh, I think the caution is that if docs set the bar too low and people live according to that new standard, that new low standard, I think is the issue there. So any other thoughts? No, just uh, you know, just live your best life and don't let anyone tell you you, you can or can't. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Do your best. Yeah, absolutely. So, all right guys, we'll hopefully this has been valuable for you and we will talk to you guys on the next episode. Have a good one.

Speaker 2: (12:58)
Thanks for listening to the health fund, the middles podcast. Be sure to subscribe so that you stay in the loop. And in the note with all of the cutting edge health information that we share, if you know other people that could benefit from this information, please share it with them as well. Also, be sure to give us a review. These really help us to ultimately help more people. Last but not least, if you have questions that you want answered live on the show, or if you have ideas for topics that you would like us to cover, please shoot us an email and let us know at info@thehealthfundamentals.com.