The healthcare system is not designed to keep you well, and I am done pretending that is okay. In this episode, I am breaking from the usual format to talk honestly about why I believe healthcare in the United States has become so reactive instead of preventative, and how that approach is leaving people sick, frustrated, and without answers.
I share my perspective as both a patient and a provider, including the ways insurance companies, healthcare systems, limited appointment times, and a diagnosis-by-diagnosis approach can keep providers from looking at the whole person. I also explain why symptoms and lab results cannot always be viewed in isolation, because our bodies do not operate in silos.
Then, I walk through three patient scenarios that I see repeatedly in my practice: a 19-year-old struggling with PCOS symptoms and insulin resistance, a woman in her 30s dealing with fatigue, weight gain, sleep issues and brain fog who was told her labs were normal, and a woman in her 40s experiencing perimenopausal symptoms who was told she was too young for hormones. These stories reveal just how much can be missed when we only look at whether a number falls inside a laboratory's "normal" range instead of asking whether it actually makes sense for the person sitting in front of us. Most importantly, I want you to leave this episode knowing that you are not crazy, your symptoms matter, and you can become your own best advocate when the system isn't listening.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
Why "normal" lab results may not tell the whole story
The connection between symptoms that seem completely unrelated
What three very different patients had in common
Why the approach to preventative care needs to change
The piece of the puzzle that can be missed when diseases are treated separately
Why some women are told they are fine when they know something isn't right
What it really means to become your own best health advocate
Why waiting until something is completely broken may be costing you years
Resources & Links
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