why I don't trust dermatologists

[ellenrr]

While I was living in Houston I developed psoriasis. I went to a highly recommended dermatologist who diagnosed it, and pronounced: you'll never get rid of that, best we can do is control the symptoms.
So I went to another highly recommended dermatologist who diagnosed psoriasis, and said the same thing.

A guy who worked in a health food store referred to a book and recommended several natural treatments - I don't remember all of them, I think flax seed oil was one.
The psoriasis immediately started to improve. After 3 weeks it was better, but still there, and nothing was happening, so I went back to him. He suggested some different natural treatments and in some time it was gone.

That was 30 years ago and haven't had it since.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Good that you found natural alternative treatments for your psoriasis.

I go back and forth between my naturopath and conventional medicine. My physician is a doctor of osteopathy and she works in conjunction with my naturopath.

As for the dermatologist, I go twice a year for mole examinations because she caught a Stage I melanoma three years ago.

[trotsky]

2. Totally responsible to disparage an entire profession...

based on your limited experience with just one individual. To heck with them all!

[crikkett]

3. Not one, two.

:hi:

[trotsky]

5. Whoa, my mistake. TOTALLY different.

Two of them? They're ALL bad!!!

[get the red out]

4. I'm glad you found a solution

It pays off to be proactive when seeking health care, leave no stone unturned if at all possible.

[Ian David]

6. I don't trust people who work in health food stores. One of them gave me the crabs. n/t

[MineralMan]

7. Your anecdotal evidence is actually evidence of nothing.

I had psoriasis, too, as a teenager. I went to dermatologists. Their treatments did not work for me, either. The condition went away on its own when I was 17. I did not use any "natural" treatments.

Psoriasis is a very difficult condition to treat. In many cases, it goes away on its own. In other cases, it's a lifetime thing. Damning dermatologists as a group is irresponsible. Thirty years ago, treatment options were not the same as they are today, either. Your thread really is meaningless.

[snagglepuss]

8. About 30 years ago my GP told me that nothing could be done for tiny red bum

bumps on my upper arms. 15 years ago I started taking flax when I was doing an extremely low fat diet and I began to have insominia as I wasn't getting enough essential fatty acids. Withing a few weeks to my utter amazement the tiny red bumps that had plagued me for years disappeared as did the insomnia. I have since read that flax is terrific for skin.

[astral]

9. I, too had the 'no cause, no cure' diagnosis from a dermatologist

as well as an allergist. I had a horrible sudden onset skin condition which started in the hands as the leprosy-looking-rash-from-hell, moved up the arms in what looked like mosquito bites that I had been scratching to the point of bleeding, moved to the chest and around the ears (having totally left the hands, by this point) and finally ended up in the skin around my eyes, staying there for three years. My eyes had crusty wrinkled skin and cracked eyelids, loss of eyelashes and eyebrows, and they watered horribly when I walked outside and all kinds of thick gunk came out of them all the time especially in the morning.

I was told I had adult-onset exema. No cause, no cure, we can only treat the symptoms with some very expensive creams and maybe pills to take. Well, I found out it was mold from a chronically leaking ceiling at work that was making me sick and I did not learn this from a doctor. I had been in the building for 5 years before the symptoms became apparent to me starting with the hands, and it was a good (baaad~!) two years later I got smart enough to leave, figuring out (a) there was nothing they could to make the building safe for me, and (b) they were not even admitting the building was making me sick, claiming I had 'pre-existing allergies.'

I am not even allergic to mold! But it took, a little over 12 months for my eyes to BEGIN to look normal again, and, by the Grace of God, I appear to have pretty much totally recovered from the nightmare.

There are things I did, I am not sure what helped me and what didn't but I am sure I did something right. I took clay and psyllium husks (been talking about that stuff here on this forum) and iodine, turmeric, oregano, cayenne, resveratol, hyaluronic acid, and I am forgetting what all else, oh yes, and vinegar. I looked up whatever was supposed to be 'antifungal.'

I did not even know I would recover, oh yes I went ot a 'regular doctor,' who I asked to diagnose me for mold-sickness, she said no. She said "if it was mold you would have a completely different set of symptoms." I then asked her to do a blood test, which I ended up having to pay for in full to the tune of $600 b/c I asked for it myself. I came up with elevated antibodies to several kinds of mold including stachybotris and aspergillus and chladysporum (sp?). She then told me that since we live in a wet part of the world, EVERYONE can have elevated antibodies towards mold, it means nothing at all.

Maybe in some parts of the country the medical is more advanced than it is here but they couldn't help me when my life depended upon it. And yes, back to the topic of dermatologists / allergists, these two guys cost me several thousand dollars put together, most of which was covered by my medical insurance.

Many cases of exema are in fact caused by mold exposure.

[ellenrr]

11. that sounds awful. glad you managed to heal yourself n/t

[The Philosopher]

10. That is an irresponsible post

Those who have psoriasis know, unless they aren't paying attention, that psoriasis affects each person differently. Some have very mild cases while others have severe cases, including different types of psoriasis. Some have tried everything to even get their psoriasis under control, but it never works. Others simply give up on any sort of medical treatment and find that their symptoms improve. It depends on the person.

Now, you do more in your statement than advocate not listening to one's doctor, you attempt to destroy the dialogue that should exist between doctor and patient. Doctors are not magic, despite what that British television show keeps telling you. This dialogue is important and wherever it does not exist, no treatment can be made. You're forcing a doctor to work blind. That's unfair to your doctor and unfair to any patient who reads your statement.

Are there bad doctors? Are their incompetent doctors? Are there doctors whose ego comes before the patient? Yes. But they only harm if one approaches them with the attitude that they are magical and god-like. It's as bad as a patient putting their own ego in the way of the doctor's training. They spent years studying an accumulation of medical knowledge that spans far longer than both of us have lived. They deserve to be listened to and treated with more respect than you would show a minimum wage earner who only devoted a few hours to training and left the rest to on-the-job experience. I was one of those Health Food store workers. I saw customers coming in thinking I had a special knowledge that doctors didn't. That science somehow decided to skip over what was supposed to be the medicine that kept humanity alive before the creation of penicillin. Guess what. I wasn't there to be a holder of special knowledge or to even have your welfare in mind. A customer who enters a health food store is entering a business. The people there telling you what black cherry or dandelion can do for you are employees. Their job isn't to make you well. It's to sell you a product. And further, it's to convince you that the product would work.

Now, let's not overlook something else in your post: you've been cured of your psoriasis (and if you understand what psoriasis is, you'll understand that you're not actually cured) by using such and such product(s); but then you don't mention what those products could be. If those products worked like you say they did (and I'm not saying they didn't have any value), why do you keep it from fellow sufferers?

I use a steroid-based cream (Amcinonide) that works for me. I've used stuff that other family members use and while it works for them, they don't work for me. I can use a little of it and within a week I look normal. And that can last me a long time without another outbreak. Do I think my relatives are stupid for not using this cream? No, because I came by the cream when it was passed to me by a relative who found it didn't work for her. But it does me. Over-the-counter stuff works for her. Does she scoff at her doctor because of that? No, because she knows better. And her doctor knows better, too. Because psoriasis affects everyone different. It can also kill. So no one in my family treats it lightly nor do our doctors (those who have them, anyway).

[astral]

12. If you meant me talking about 'cured,' (a) I didn't have psoriasis,

and (b) I know I am not 'cured' but I do have my health back. If my skin symptoms do not return, I do not know if that is 4-ever or not, and after what had happened I try to never take anything for granted anymore, most especially my health.

I did not find a doctor that could help me, perhaps other people will have more luck with their doctors.

I did my best to list all of the things I did from memory. I wasn't always consistent, I changed more than one thing at a time, I wasn't doing a scientific study on myself, I was simply groping and grasping at whatever information I heard that made sense enough to try -- and nothing I did was in the least bit harmful or dangerous to recommend. Except possibly the iodine, as a person can easily take too much of that, do it carefully and don't push the envelope.

I also had to be away from the mold-infested workplace (and also found out I had a nasty mold growth in a bathroom closet in my apartment and moved from there too), and I was away for well over 12 months before I could really see the improvement in the face skin-around-the-eyes part, and the excema on the ears. The hands / arms / chest stuff all had disappeared and never came back, just as it was before it ever appeared for the first time.

Some doctors know more about cause and effect than others. I felt like posting about my experience in case others can learn from what I said, and maybe learn more about what they need to learn than what I know, I really think it can be helpful. But I'm only saying this is what I did and this is what happened, I can't prove anything. Maybe I would have recovered anyway in time just getting away from the mold, all by itself.

[trotsky]

13. Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

The principle on which all sound science is based, of course.

[golfguru]

14. Doctors will go out of business if you can stay healthy

with natural, non-prescription cures. It is as simple
as that. They are in the business to make you dependent on them for variety of medications and procedures.

I have marginally high blood pressure and 90% of doctors
I have seen never told me to cut down on sodium drastically, and increase exercise substantially. Those two items have helped me tremendously, to the point where I now require the smallest possible dose of meds. All doctors have been too quick to put me on HBP meds to be taken for ever!

[laconicsax]

15. Good grief!

:eyes:

[HuckleB]

16. In other words, you probably wasted money on a condition that would have improved on its own.

It's not wise to advertise the fact that you were scammed by the old "health food clerk" routine.