Someone asked me this the other night.

"Well why don't you become a doctor then?!"

It was in response to a social post I made that was critical of the health system.

If you know me, you know that I am hypercritical of the healthcare system, and doctors in general.

Why?

Because I believe Doctors have the best capability to actually drive change within the system, yet many remain bystanders and keep making it worse by feeding pills to our population, and ultimately even the "doctors" live unhealthy lifestyles themselves.

Want to know what my response to that person was?

I am already a doctor.

If you laughed at the above, you are a part of the problem. You may want to reconsider and hear me out.

I don't need a degree or piece of paper to understand human anatomy and learn root cause analysis. In fact, I went to school for Engineering...which is basically the study of how to build something up from the "root" so that it never breaks down...or rarely does if you take care of it.

Beyond this, I was an engineer even before the "degree." Which is why you never even hear me talk about it. Degrees and certificates are bullshit. I look for a passion of learning in people. That is what determines their knowledge base.

In fact, I have been fascinated since my youth with analyzing the world and how to build things from scratch, while also making the current reality "better."

In theory that is what a doctor is SUPPOSED to do.

Sadly though, "medicine" was introduced to the world of healthcare...and that medicine has a large $$$ sign attached to it.

Think of it this way, if I built a bridge as an engineer, instead of building it well...I built it so that it cracks every year. The kicker is...I also own the bridge repair company. So now not only are you paying me to build the bridge in the first place, you would pay me to repair it every year with my magic "medicine." And you never even think to analyze "hmmmm maybe if we solved the root cause we wouldn't need repairs every year on this bridge."

Here is the difference though, if the bridge broke, and people died, I would be SUED and probably put in jail.

Yet doctors...when their patient dies after years of "medication," we all turn a blind eye and go "well that person just wasn't healthy to begin with."

Why isn't the healthcare system held to the same regard as Engineers? Imagine my scenario with Aerospace engineers and those dealing with airplanes every day. They don't get to just throw band aids on things. That would be disastrous. They have to find the ROOT CAUSE AND FIX IT.

Here is another issue, if you look up what a doctor is..."medicine" always seems to enter the conversation. What if we took "medicine" out of the convo though? Wouldn't it force doctors to learn more about patients eating habits, sleeping habits, lifestyle habits? Then they would have to go about coaching a change in those habits rather than throwing a pill (medicine) at it?

What is the role of a doctor?

Here is the issue with the above statement.

The first sentence has the word medicine in it, while the last sentence has the word prevent/cure in it, in my eyes that is contradictory.

In today's world, most modern medicine doesn't "cure" anything. In fact, most comes laced with side effects that actually makes people's lives worse.

We never discuss mental health.

We never discuss nutrition.

We never discuss stress.

We never discuss our relationships with our family and friends.

We never discuss the things that actually LEAD TO THE PROBLEMS WE FACE WITH OUR HEALTH...yet we trust this magical person who gives us roughly 5-7 minutes of their time on average to solve all our issues with some magical pills.

LMAO.

It sounds crazy right? NOPEEE this is reality.

Before I end, I must say that I believe in science. Medicine does have a need in this world. It has saved and will save billions/trillions+ lives over the next however long earth is alive. My stance is that medicine should not be tied to a $$$ and it should be used to advance the quality of life of humans/animals/organisms on our earth. And sadly I have witnessed in my family, my wife's family, and myself that the medicinal/medical system is completely fucked and most people sadly don't do anything about it because they don't believe that they are being sold snake oil.

If you have read this far, thank you. No matter your stance on the matter it shows you care enough to learn one person's (my) side of it. Feel free to combat my view points, I actually encourage it. Tell me I am wrong and give me scientific proof! That is what true science is...a constant debate to prove things wrong. And I would love to be proven wrong about this. I am confident that is not the case though.

Because of the broken system I talk about above, I have become my own doctor.

I take my own blood tests at anylabtestnow.com and spectracell.com and I have learned to read my own results with books like Blood Chemistry and CBC analysis.

I am ruthless with testing what I eat to see how it effects my gut.

Every single day I track my exertion and my sleep with my Oura ring and WHOOP wrist band.

(Fun fact, my latest science experiment helped me discern that eating too close to my bedtime has a much larger negative impact on my sleep than I first thought. I am now tracing back a lot of my issues over the years to eating the wrong foods for myself too close to my sleep time. This lack of sleep due to poor food timing definitely caused some of my inflammation and gut issues over the years. A DOCTOR NEVER ONCE ASKED ME ANYTHING LIKE THIS).

Moral of this entire story is that YOU NEED TO BE YOUR OWN DOCTOR....and then you need to go help other people around you do the same. We have enough technology today to learn anything we want (YouTube and Google University) and we can connect with experts across the world (Social Media). You and your entire family's long term health is not predicated on how "good" your family doctor is anymore. It is predicated on how willing you are to be the solution to your own problems. And I want to be a driving factor in you starting to take action down that path!

Happy Friday!

#thriveon

CJ

p.s. I am taking today "off." It is a rare occasion for me, but I am leaning into my health more than ever. And I need a mental and physical health day. If you haven't taken one in awhile, here is your chance to sign yourself up and do the same!