Our health is one of the most important things in our lives that can be overlooked or mismanaged, even by professionals. Mistakes can often be made, and important ailments may be completely missed even by the most stringent of doctors. Despite this, we have to keep on top of things in order to make sure that we properly maintain our health.
However, though medical mishaps are fairly common, we don’t have to completely rely on our doctors to keep us healthy. We can take matters into our own hands to avoid mistakes and misdiagnoses by maintaining our own health before it becomes a real issue. After all, we are ultimately responsible for our own bodies and our health in general.
Mistakes Happen
It is an unfortunate fact of life, but everyone makes mistakes, even medical professionals. The main difference between your regular Joe forgetting to take the laundry out of the wash and a doctor forgetting to check for certain cancers can be life or death. Even when doctors seem to know exactly what they’re doing, they are not infallible. They can often misdiagnose ailments even when you are as specific as possible about your symptoms.
Even the most basic and routine of doctor’s visits can result in harm to you and a malpractice suit for the doctor in question. If doctors fail to recommend certain tests that may shed light on a patient’s illness or simply misread test results, it can have dire consequences for the patient. Though malpractice suits give us some measure of solace in these situations, a doctor’s failure to diagnose a serious illness can overshadow any monetary benefit ten-fold.
In the worst situations, these instances in which a doctor either misdiagnoses or outright fails to diagnose a serious problem can result in further injury, or sometimes even death. While this is obviously the worst-case scenario, if you or a family member dies due to medical negligence on the part of your physician, filing a wrongful death lawsuit is possible and can bring some small amount of closure. Hopefully, however, this isn’t a situation you or your family will have to face, and that your primary physician is skilled enough that such outcomes are avoided.
Take Charge Of Your Own Health
One of the best ways to avoid mishaps at the doctor’s office is to decrease the frequency in which you actually go in for visits. No, you shouldn’t outright avoid going to the doctor when you have serious problems, but if you engage in at-home preventative healthcare, there will be less need overall. While most preventative healthcare like immunizations and cancer screenings are generally taken care of at a doctors office, there are still options available to take charge of your health at home.
Engaging in mindfulness practices like meditation and yoga helps to relieve stress, and stress is one of the major health risks we can exert some direct control over. Seeing a therapist regularly to discuss the issues you face in your day-to-day life can also help to significantly reduce stress, and seeking help instead of letting stress compound is seen in a much better light in modern times. While a doctor can help you to deal with depression, excessive weight gain, and substance abuse, you have the ability to get ahead of these things with a bit of at-home preventative measures.
While it is important to take charge of your own health, professional preventative medicine is still very important when it comes to disease prevention. For example, doctors are still essential in screening for sexually transmitted diseases like HIV and AIDS, which can disproportionately affect certain segments of the population, so it is important to recognize that not all preventative healthcare can be achieved at home on your own — particularly if you are part of an at-risk group. Immunizations for major diseases as well as seasonal flu vaccines are important because they not only protect you as an individual from harmful illnesses but help to improve the overall health of society at large.
Try Some Natural Treatments
While you can’t administer vaccinations against deadly diseases at home, there are still many effective natural cures for common ailments that might plague you. Whether you’re concerned about an expanding midsection, heart health, or managing liver and kidney health, there are time-tested herbal substances that can help to relieve and manage negative effects. Though natural cures may seem relegated to dealing with issues like fatigue, sleeplessness, or nausea, they can also help to prevent serious medical issues like Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
In the past, marijuana has been consistently vilified by the U.S. government as a plant with little to no medical value. However, in recent years the social and legal view of marijuana as an effective at-home treatment for a variety of issues has become much friendlier. Many marijuana users swear by its ability to help to relieve and manage anxiety, overall stress, and chronic pain. Though it is still illegal at the national level and can still result in massive criminal penalties, many states have recognized marijuana’s medicinal value and have legalized it as a prescribed medicine, while a handful of states have gone even further to legalize it for recreational use by anyone of legal age.
Medical and recreational marijuana can effectively treat many common diseases and is generally less expensive and harmful than many of the prescription drugs that treat the same ailments. Everything from stress, anorexia, insomnia, and depression have been effectively treated with medical marijuana, and even more serious diseases can be successfully managed with its use. Epilepsy, glaucoma, and even multiple sclerosis have been shown to be treatable with medicinal marijuana.
The chronic pain associated with cancer treatment, Crohn’s Disease, and the treatment of HIV/AIDS has been made manageable by marijuana. It is especially helpful for those suffering from chronic pain, as it is far less dangerous than other prescribed painkillers derived from opiates, which can result in addiction and even lead to death if misused.
Though you shouldn’t totally eschew seeing a doctor every once in a while, you should also note that many of the issues that you might be suffering from are treatable and preventable on your own. Doctors will always be there to help administer vaccinations and important cancer and disease screenings, but it doesn’t mean that you have to rely on them completely.