David Sherer - What Your Doctor Wont Tell You: The Real Reasons You Dont Feel Good and What YOU Can Do About It

What Your
Doctor Wont
Tell You

What Your Doctor Wont Tell You

The Real Reasons You Dont Feel Good and What You Can Do About It

DAVID SHERER, M.D.

WHAT YOUR DOCTOR WONT TELL YOU

Copyright 2021 by David Sherer

All rights reserved

Humanix Books, P.O. Box 20989, West Palm Beach, FL 33416, USA

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any other information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Humanix Books is a division of Humanix Publishing, LLC. Its trademark, consisting of the words Humanix Books, is registered in the Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries.

Disclaimer: The information presented in this book is not specific medical advice for any individual and should not substitute medical advice from a health professional. If you have (or think you may have) a medical problem, speak to your doctor or a health professional immediately about your risk and possible treatments. Do not engage in any care or treatment without consulting a medical professional.

ISBN: 978-1-63006-163-0 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 978-1-63006-164-7 (E-book)

Printed in the United States of America

10987654321

This book is dedicated to all my medical mentors:

William F. McNary, MD

John OConner, MD

John McCahan, MD

S. Howard Wittels, MD

Mark Behr, MD

Howard Greenfield, MD

Ronald Kotler, MD

Christopher Tirotta, MD

James J. McDonald, DDS

Samuel Peretsman, MD

Talal Munasifi, MD

Alan Wise, MD

Gordon Avery, MD

John McConnell, MD

Jeff Elliot, MD

Pete Conrad, MD

Arthur Burgerman, MD

John Eng, MD

Stephen Dejter, MD

Neil Stern, MD

Stu Katz, MD

Andrew Astrove, MD

Jean Gilles Tchabo, MD

Emanuel Papper, MD

Robert Gallo, MD

Pam Alexander, MD

and, of course, Max G. Sherer, MD

Contents

Preface

I n the late winter of 2017, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer of Bottom Line Inc. Marjory Abrams approached me about the prospect of writing a monthly blog on health and medicine for their publication. I had been a friend of the organization for years, offering my expert opinions on a range of related topics, and I was fully in tune to their goal of offering expert-vetted information that would assist their readers. I agreed to the offer and have been writing for them ever since. Marjory and I decided on a concise description of what I had hoped to achieve in my writing and she came up with this:

Dr. David Sherer is bold enough to tell you what others in the medical profession havent the courage to say, with inside information on health, healthcare, related public policy and the latest in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.

When she sent me that blurb, I was satisfied about the theme and goals of the blog. Ever since then, I have strived to craft my messages in ways bold enough to get people to think carefully about their health habits and to consider changing them for the better. I pride myself in trying to bring new and different approaches to my topics. I hope that after reading this book you will share a similar point of view.

And please note: The material in this book is presented for informational purposes only and should never be used as a substitute for your own personalized medical care. Always consult your personal physician or other healthcare provider when considering any aspect of your medical care, particularly regarding medications, supplements, a change in health habits, and any planned treatments for any ailment. The opinions expressed in this work are just thatopinionsand are not a substitute for personalized medical care.

Introduction

A Perfect Storm

T he people of America now stand at a crossroads. Whether they realize it or not, there is a perfect storm brewing that will, within a decade or two, sweep them up in a maelstrom of turbulence related both to their health and their ability to protect that most precious of assets. It is no exaggeration to say that, if the present trends continue, the people of this country will face choices that will either compel them to change their behaviors or doom them to suffer the whims of a broken system.

In my almost 40 years in medicine, I have learned a lot about human biology, human frailty, and human nature. The changes related to so many aspects of health that have emerged in those four decades are discouraging to me as a scientist and a healer, from both a theoretical and practical standpoint. The forces behind those changes are abundantly evident to me as I look back on my vigorous schooling in physiology and pathology. The practical side of the changes are revealed in what I and physicians like me see every day in the clinical setting: a population virtually hell-bent on making themselves sick through the scourge of obesity, the curse of drug and substance abuse, or the nurturing of behaviors that subject us all to a great enemyexcess cortisol.

The great medical writer and physician Siddhartha Mukherjee wrote a best-selling book in which he referred to cancer as the emperor of all maladies. Along similar lines, I like to refer to obesity as the mother of all maladies, a condition that, like her offspring hypertension, diabetes, degenerative joint disease, gastrointestinal disease, and a host of others, now riddles our population with infirmity, pain, and untold suffering. It is telling in this regard that in the 1960s in the United States, the average adult male weighed 150 pounds. Today, that number is 200 pounds. Sadly, the consequence of that increase in girth has led to predictable results. A full one-third of American adults are pre-diabetic. The number of prescription drugs the average person in our nation takes keeps growing. It is well-known by medical professionals that although Americans spend more per capita on healthcare than any other nation, their outcomes lag behind many other countries who spend far less. And these statistics appear to worsen with each passing year.

We are an affluent nation, but a sick one. The reasons behind this are complex and daunting. Much of it has to do with a cultural shift in how we see ourselves as living beings trying to function in an ever more stressful and competitive world. But there are other forces at work as well. Madison Avenue and the ad industry have, for the better part of a century, contributed much to the decline in the general health of the nation. This is no mere conspiracy theory babble. The things that companies try to sell usthe fat, sugar, and refined carbohydrateladen fast-food we eat, the 140 pounds per annum per person of sugar we consume, the foodie culture that places food as circus side-show entertainment (with gut-busting eating contests and the like)all have a shameful place in the pantheon of health-destroyers. But it goes beyond that. We have, as behavioral science has proven, become literally rewired. Our brains are not the same brains as people who lived even a few decades before us. Our instant world becomes ever more instant with the release of the newest smartphone, operating system, or gadget. Our ability to pull ourselves off of machines has become so challenging as to be almost impossible. In prior days, smoking was the habit doctors were trying to get their patients to beat. Now, sadly, it is electronics, and the doctors themselves are as seriously addicted as their patients.