Recombobulating What I Learned in Medical School

Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D.

Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnfriedman/10794737615

I recently visited my daughter who lives in Milwaukee (follow her on IG @alliesfashionally for fashion, financial, and health advice.)

There is a sign as you pass through the TSA security checkpoint at the Milwaukee airport that reads “RECOMBOBULATION AREA” where you can put back on your shoes and belt, and gather yourself before heading to the gate to catch your plane.

I don’t think Recombobulation is actually a word but I do think it is apropos to my approach to health. We have all been taught so much that is wrong about health that I have half-jokingly told my patients that I have needed to unlearn much of what I learned in medical school: primarily the disease model of medicine which says there isn’t a symptom that can’t be treated with a pharmaceutical product. Of course I am being hyperbolic but you will get the idea. 

Upon my daughter’s recommendation I read the book, The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Of particular interest to me was chapter 11 that discussed the emotional aspect to investing. Sometimes we make decisions that feel good but don’t do good. They used a medical analogy and sighted several studies showing the clear medical benefit to fever in fighting infection and reducing the duration of illness. But like the psychology of money, where people are influenced by feelings over data, the psychology of healing is such that being uncomfortable to a patient and alleviating pain to a doctor is more powerful than the empiric data of science.

Fever is now almost universally seen as a bad thing despite evidence to the contrary. Let it burn, in most cases, should be the advice of doctors. When I tell patients to not treat their fever, it often takes a lot of explaining to make that advice stick. Recombobulation is needed!

Another example of how we have been duped by emotional pleasure and convenience over health is in the food industry. On top of my daughter’s kitchen counter are 3 oils she uses for cooking: olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil. Nowhere to be seen are any of the processed seed or vegetable oils. These processed seed and vegetable oils enhance taste and improve shelf life at the expense of your health - they are very inflammatory and unhealthy despite what the companies that make these products tell you. Tastes good, but in this case, it is bad for our health.

My goal is to “recombobulate” my patients' health knowledge, by teaching that which I was not taught in medical school and that which most of my patients were never taught either. The problem is not that we know so little about health, rather, it is that what we do know is mostly wrong. Follow me on IG @RxForLiberty to learn more about healthy living. What are some other health untruths you have learned?