Chapter 1: Take Ownership of Your Health

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Excerpted pages 3 -5

You are in charge of your health. No one else should do it for you. No one else can feel what you feel when your energy is soaring, your sense of joy is boundless, your bones and muscles are vibrant as you stand erect and move gracefully through your days, and your immune system is strong enough to fight off the never-ending bombardment of pathogens. Don't accept less than what is best for you.... Let's start with the first decision you make: your choice of physicians.

Your Choice of Physician

You need and deserve a relationship with a compassionate physician who respects your intelligence, your dignity, and your time. If a doctor keeps you sitting in the waiting room for an hour past your appointment, without explanation or apology, this is disrespectful. Find a doctor who respects you.

Most doctors simply do not have time to read all of the scientific papers I explain in this book. As a scientist, I have studied more than three thousand peer-reviewed, published papers, and I cite nearly nine hundred here as references.173 Your physician will appreciate the rigorous research that this book clarifies for both of you.

Media Need Catchy Sound Bites

Have you read the article titled “Estrogen Replacement Therapy Triples Risk of Breast Cancer” This statement is more false than true and is definitely misleading. The “triple” actually meant an increase from 1 woman in 10,000 to 3 women! And the statistic applied only to a group of women taking a regimen of synthetic progestin every day with a horse-derived oral estrogen, a regimen I believe you should avoid. Don’t be misled by catchy headlines that are designed in part to sell newspapers.

Alternative natural therapies abound. The FDA, however, does not evaluate herbal or other alternative remedies. Do not trust advertisements for such products and services that claim to “cure” serious diseases “with no side effects.”

Your Power as a Health Consumer

As a patient, did you know that competition for your business is real? Consider the inherent conflicts when you get medical advice. Your doctor can help you only within his skill set. Will he or she refer you to another physician who can offer you a less-invasive treatment? 543 No law says that a doctor must do this.698