Good morning friends
I wrote an article on the power of thoughts and how they can affect our health a few days ago. As is true with every thing else, this power can be harnessed to good use, to improve our health. However, if a person persists in looking at the complications of any disease that they are suffering from or to focus on the side-effects of the drugs ( which are necessary to treat this condition ),it can lead to disasters.
These days, many doctors are plagued by internet savvy patients, who have already googled their symptoms and come to a diagnosis on their own and now they just want the confirmation of the diagnosis from the doctor and of course, the prescription handed out by the doctor. Once that is accomplished, they are ready to argue about the side-effects of the prescribed medicines, the potential complications of the illness, and so it goes on and on.
As more and more people are getting access to internet, doctors are bound to experience these problems more and more.
Actually, having an access to information on various health problems and their treatments is very good, but only if this information is used rationally, and of course, if the information is scientific and based on scientific studies.
Unfortunately though, most of the times this information is not scientific as I talked about in my article yesterday.
Apart from the dangers on your health, of following unscientific advice, there is a real danger of googling too much and getting influenced by the negative aspects of any health problems.
Let me give you an example : if you Google for the side-effects of a very safe drug like paracetamol which has been in use for decades, you may find a long list of side-effects, including major side-effects like liver toxicity. However, as we doctors know from our experience for many years, if paracetamol is used in the right dosage and for the right indication, it rarely has any major side-effects. Most of the side-effects are seen when you exceed the recommended dosages or when you use the drug for prolonged periods, especially when the usage is not indicated.
Nowadays, whenever doctors prescribe any drug, the first thing that the patient or the patient’s family does is to go on the net and Google for the side-effects. More often than not, the side-effects mentioned on the net are not very common, but still the patients have firm belief in what they read on the internet. ( and not on what the doctor says )
So two things can happen ; one: The family askes the doctor to stop or to change the medication or two: if a change is not possible, because this is the only safest drug which is available for that particular ailment, then the patient and the family start worrying unnecessarily and excessively about the possibility of incurring side-effects.
As we talked earlier, our thoughts have a major influence on our bodies, on ourselves, on the functioning of our liver and kidneys and other organs. So, when somebody keeps giving a message to himself that this particular drug is going to cause a lot of side-effects, there is every likelihood that the side-effects will happen. It is almost like inviting the side-effects by constantly thinking about them, by constantly worrying about them, by constantly arguing with the doctor about the drug.
This phenomenon would not matter so much in minor ailments because most of the times our bodies are capable of healing themselves, even without medicines or in spite of the medicines !!
In serious problems however, when these drugs have to be administered, when there is no alternative for a particular drug, either because of nonavailability or the cost factor or any other factors, then this negative messaging to our body can create a lot of problems for the patient.
We often see that those who google their symptoms or their medicines too much, all the time, are more likely to have side-effects, than those who have complete trust in the doctor and accept the medicines unconditionally.
Of course, I do not mean that you should stop searching for information about any serious problems. I just mean that it’s better to focus on the positives rather than the negatives. Because if you keep focusing on the negatives, you are creating the thoughts which send negative signals to the body and complications are seen more often.
In the context of this, I will share my own experience tomorrow.
Love,
Anjali Bhatawdekar
