Hello all! I spent most of the week getting ready for my Family Medicine Board exam and spent most of Friday taking it. I feel quite confident I passed and will get the official word in a couple weeks.
There is a bit of common phrasing that has always stood out to me on standardized medical exams. For example, a test question will start off by telling the test taker all about a 65 year old patient with diabetes and extremely high blood sugars, then it will ask the test taker something like, “In addition to talking to the patient about diet and exercise, which of the following medications should you start?”
This italicized phrase is fascinating to me as a test taker and doctor because as a test taker, I skip right over that phrase and jump to the real meat of the question, which is all about medication. But as an actual doctor, not just a test taker, there is nothing more important or more powerful than talking to patients about what they eat and how they are exercising.
We have hundreds and hundreds of medications to choose from as physicians when trying to help our patients deal with any number of illnesses and conditions. Much of medical school and residency is spent learning the ins and outs of those medications. And that’s important. But when we crunch the numbers and compare the power of those medications to treat specific conditions like diabetes or heart disease versus the power of patients eating differently and starting to exercise, the numbers could not be more clear:
Eating well and exercising regularly are the most potent tools we have to improve (or even reverse!) conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and many others.
I’ve seen reversal of conditions like diabetes happen and it’s honestly incredible. I went into direct primary care (DPC) because I wanted time with my patients to talk with them about these types of changes rather than just throwing a quicker but less effective treatment (like medication) at them. (Did you know our appointments are usually twice as long or longer than appointments at a typical non-DPC practice?)
Also, it’s far more affordable to change the way you are eating and start moving your body on a regular basis than it is to pay for a boatload of medications. One of the favorite medications for diabetes care these days is a once a day or once a week injectable medication (that I love in the right circumstances), whose cash-pay price is $1200+ per month. You could get quite the personal trainer for a fraction of that cost!
If you are interested in becoming one of my patients so that I can help you be your healthiest and happiest self please reach out to us by phone, email, text, or the website. I would be honored to be your doctor. I have the best job in the world.
