I definitely wasn’t referring to anything hocus pocus or to wacky when I said alternative. I just meant an alternative career. I have been thinking something along the lines of clinical nutrition, then I could still approach treating disease and dysfunction.

I’d love it if you let us know what you decide to do!

I think if I had to do it over again, I would be better off if I’d skipped college completely and become a real estate agent in Aspen, CO.

Seriously, though, I’ll tell you what I think, I’m not sure it’s wise for me to even try to tell you what I think you should do, so I’ll try not to!

I enjoyed medical school because I felt like we were all part of “team science” and there was a big enough bunch of us that I could find several like minded friends who weren’t in it all for the money or the prestige (we all went into primary care, naturally) but for the connection to deeper truths about the world and wanted to really be able to help people. All of them have become extraordinary doctors.

I’m sure you would meet people like that in medical school, too, but now since you (and maybe even several of them) would have this background of deeper knowledge I think you could do more with your careers.

The alternative practices do not have access to insurance payments. If that changes and they do get access, I think it is likely the reimbursement will be like what the massage therapists tell me: Not often worthwhile.

Alternative therapies have fewer standardized ways of making diagnoses, which impairs the communication process between practitioners, which can stall the progress of moving the science forward, and their therapies cannot be standardized as readily: how do you tell a flower to make exactly 10ng/ml of it’s active ingredient? I know what side effects drugs can cause. I have no way of knowing what side effects many supplements can cause. As a scientist, this makes medicine more appealing for me personally, warts and all.

Any science can be corrupted by greed. Any job can become a daily grind. But the more people doing the same thing are on the same page, the more fun it will be and the more good we can do. So come on in and join the party!

I was accepted to medical school and granted a year deferral. During this time, and the times I spent previously shadowing doctors, working in practices, etc, the less I have been excited about going to medical school. I am just completely turned off by the lack of knowledge of proper nutrition, and the way doctors just seem to treat symptoms and push pills.

I am questioning whether going to medical school would be he right thing. I realize you teach alternative approaches and traditional nutrition in your practice, but do you think if you could go back in time would you do anything different career wise knowing what you know now, and possibly being able to save the trouble of going through 4 years of med school, residency, accumulating lots of debt, etc? Would I be better off just doing something like becoming a certified clinical nutritionist, or should I stay the course and slug out med school and residency so I can work in some kind of alternative practice afterwards. Who knows, maybe they will start having more alternative and holistic residencies in the future.

Thanks.

John

P.S. MY GRANDPA’S A DOCTOR AND IF HE WAS STILL ALIVE HE WOULD HATE THIS GUY!

My relationship with my doctor is based on trust. And I trust that he’ll tell me what he believes is the best course of action, whether or not some algorithm tells him to do something different. I trust that he’s aware of the algorithm and has considered it before advising me.

What’s next? Before you know it, they’ll be bribing doctors to prescribe more of the drugs they tell them to, or cut their pay whenever their “deviant.” This all makes me so angry!