"The mysterious placebo effect..." 'James "Kimo" Rosen' (Kimo's world #341)

 

James "Kimo" Rosen is a retired professional photographer  

amongst other things is a humorist writer.

Rosen currently resides on the tropical island of Kaua'i

                                                 with his best friend and spiritual adviser,                                  

                                             Ivanka "Costco" Obama, The bipartisan Dog!

                    Sunrise/Weather Photos, October- 2022

           These photos appeared on Hawaii News Now

   Blog #2095~Kimo's world #341                                          

The mysterious placebo effect

 Your mind can

be a very powerful healing tool when given the chance. The idea that your brain can convince your body of a fake treatment is a real thing called the placebo effect.  Believe it or not, science has found that under the right circumstances, a placebo can be just as effective as traditional treatments of medicine.

My Doctor is concerned

my hypochondria is getting worse so he put me on more potent placebos!  I'm addicted to placebos. I could quit but it wouldn't matter. (LOL)

Jokes aside, most doctors know it's the prescription pad and what they write on it that is

the special sauce or hidden ingredient for healing. Pharmaceuticals are not always necessary, however belief in recovery is, and therefore a doctor may prescribe a placebo in lieu of a name-brand or generic drug taken three times a day.

There is an interesting study by Beecher and Lasagna, a group of patients who had just

undergone surgery and were alternately given morphine and placebos. Those who took morphine immediately after surgery registered a 52% relief factor; those who took the placebo first had 40%. the group also discovered the more severe the pain, the more effective the placebo.

There is much to be said about the placebo effect. It works best when you don’t know you’re

the victim. You could be in a test group where ten people are given the actual test pill and another group of ten is given sugar pills believed to help cure them of their disease or ailment.

People on the streets who buy fake drugs may purchase baby laxatives mixed with

other ingredients and are told it is cocaine and will experience a cocaine high because they believe it's cocaine. The same with pakalolo, those who purchase a blend of oregano and other legal herbs and are told its marijuana might get high through the placebo effect.

I remember when I was a kid watching a hypnotist on TV hypnotizing a person

eating onion and telling them it was an apple and the person honestly believed they were eating an apple.

The human mind works in mysterious ways, mind over matter has always intrigued me. If you believe in something strong enough it can work!

The witch doctor succeeds for the same reason all of the rest of us succeed.  Because according

to Dr. Schweitzer in the book Anatomy of an illness, "Each patient carries his own doctor inside him."They come to us not knowing the truth."We are at our best  when we give the  doctor who resides within each patient to go to work."

The placebo is the doctor who resides within.

The bottom line, medicine is young and what we know now is nothing to what we will know in a hundred years.

It’s funny the

way the Garden Island news always continues my Wellness column over to the obituary page.  I guess it’s better than starting on the obituary page. As my father always said, "it's a good day when you wake up and you're not on the obituary page."

Hana Hou!(Encore)

"Dr. Google and multiple medical opinions..." 'James "Kimo" Rosen' (Kimo's world #340)

 

James "Kimo" Rosen is a retired professional photographer  

amongst other things is a humorist writer.

Rosen currently resides on the tropical island of Kaua'i

                                         with his best friend and spiritual adviser,                                  

                                   Ivanka "Costco" Obama, The bipartisan Dog!

                       Sunrise/Weather Photos, September- 2022

               These photos appeared on Hawaii News Now

   Blog #2094~Kimo's world #340                                          Dr. Google and multiple medical opinions

 Everyone has heard

to always get a second opinion.

I’m here to tell you the more opinions you get the more confused you will be when concerning your health or that surgery you're contemplating.

I recently not only had a second opinion, but a third opinion then decided to go one step further with alternative medicine and was even more confused. Every opinion I got was conflicting.

Where do I turn? Dr. Google? Most PCPs and specialists dislike when their patients turn to Google.

Your doctor may have graduated and interned 20 years ago whereas Google is updated 24-7 seven days a week on all kinds of information from celebrity gossip, sports, and vital medical information. 

Why do doctors frown on Google? They want your business, and your money and do not

want to be outsmarted by a search engine after spending thousands of dollars and time on med school. The doctors will tell you much of the info is false and listed by quacks. This may be true, but it is there for us to decipher. There are also doctors that are great and those that are quacks, it is for us to interpret.

Just a reminder, it's easy, simple, and costs nothing to type into the Google search engine

and ask any question you would ask a doctor.

Whenever I have a question about my medical health I turn to Dr. Google, and sometimes I even ask Siri.

Another thing to remember it's like changing your answer on a final exam. When confused,

they say 95% of the time your first answer was the correct answer. Therefore I have found my first doctor in almost every case I have gotten multiple opinions wound up being my final choice and even more trusted than Google.

The main thing is to stay healthy; a healthy diet is essential.

The current trend these

days is to have plant-based food. Fast food restaurants even have plant-based burgers and chicken.  Panda Express now has its famous orange chicken in a plant-based veggie style format made out of beets called "Beyond Chicken"  and Burger King has its world-famous Whopper called the "Impossible Whopper" made out of soy protein. 

This got me thinking why

Impossible Whopper!

not invent meats that taste like vegetables? A hamburger that tastes like mushrooms and calls it "Impossible mushrooms" or chicken that tastes like Kayle and call it "Beyond Kayle?"(LOL)

Bottom line;

Follow your gut,

Beyond Chicken!

follow your instinct, and as the expression goes;

“Grasshopper heal thyself.”

Getting old may not be fun, but keeps you on your toes and sure is funny that is if you can remember what you've done!

This blog also appeared as a regular column in the Wellness section 

of the Garden Island News on 09-28-22!

https://www.thegardenisland.com/2022/09/28/lifestyles/rosen-dr-google-and-multiple-medical-opinions/

Hana Hou!

"The waiting room and the doctors' handwriting..." 'James "Kimo" Rosen' (Kimo's world #339)

 

James "Kimo" Rosen is a retired professional photographer  

amongst other things is a humorist writer.

Rosen currently resides on the tropical island of Kaua'i

                                         with his best friend and spiritual adviser,                                  

                                   Ivanka "Costco" Obama, The bipartisan Dog!

                     Sunrise/Weather Photos, September- 2022

                These photos appeared on Hawaii News Now

                   Blog #2093~Kimo's world #339

The waiting room and  the doctors' handwriting

 The doctor's waiting room has changed in recent years. There's no longer the magazine

and newspaper rack to keep you busy while awaiting your visit. Patients are now glued to their smartphones in the waiting rooms even though you see signs saying no cell phone usage.

I am not a patient person.

  Although I am a patient of many doctors and wait prolonged periods of time in their waiting rooms. This drives me bonkers even if I have nowhere else to go. 

When they finally call your name, like in a "Seinfeld" episode, your all smiles and gloat

to the others in the waiting room only to find they are putting you in another private waiting room. This makes you feel like your wait is over and you'll be seeing the doctor any minute, but yet have another 30-45 minute wait.

The old waiting room is my least favorite part of any doctor's visit. I never understood how all these intelligent people that go through years of schooling,

residency and internships cannot manage time. How can they get one to two hours behind schedule?  Aren't they taught in medical school to get to the point, be polite and limit the small talk, and respect people's time?   The only doctors that seem to manage time properly are the psychiatrists. When your hour is up you're out of there, that timer goes off, the shrink looks at his watch and says, "say time next week?" 

There is an exception, there is one waiting room I don’t mind waiting in.  When I have

virtual telemedicine appointments and the doctor is late I can hang out in the comforts of my home and watch TV, use the computer and raid the frig. That waiting room was designed with the patient in mind! LOL

The other pet peeve I have is the doctor's handwriting, again these folks of high intellect

and high IQ  can barely write. I know people with a sixth education that have beautiful penmanship, yet when I transferred medical records from one clinic to another, the new clinic could not decipher the handwritten notes from my former provider. 

I believe all people that go into health care and medicine and especially those

becoming medical doctors need to have classes in both how to handwrite and how to manage time so people aren't in the waiting room half the day.  I've talked to a couple of pharmacists that have such a hard time reading some doctors' handwriting that they must call their respective offices to find out the prescription. This becomes a waste of the pharmacist's and doctors' limited staff's precious time.

On my last doctor visit, I told my doc “Getting old is really tough!  I get up in the morning, go to the bathroom and stand for 20-25 minutes before I

can urinate, an hour later I go back to the bathroom and sit for 30-35 minutes before I have a bowel movement.”

Then the Doc tells me don't feel bad,  "I get up in the morning, pee, take a dump and in no time get out of bed, shower, eat breakfast, and by the time I get to my office I'm an hour late and there's already 5 patients in the waiting room. (LOL)

Growing older may not be fun, but sure is funny! 

This blog appeared in the 'Wellness section of the Garden news

on Wednesday 09-21--22!

https://www.thegardenisland.com/2022/09/21/lifestyles/rosen-the-waiting-room-and-the-doctors-handwriting/

Hana Hou (Encore)