Heather Bedard, C.H.E.
Informed consent seems to be out of vogue these days. Doctors don’t generally give it and patients don’t demand it. The word, information, means - knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction. You might hope that your doctor will provide you with the instruction, studies or information based on his own investigation, but chances are that he doesn’t have the time or will to do that.
A 2011 survey by Wolters Kluwer Health showed that 46% of doctors used Google or Yahoo as a source to diagnose and treat patients. (1) Additionally, many doctors are quick to accept information given to them by drug reps and utilize these practices in their patient care without much research or they use the research that drug reps supply to them. It doesn’t take a genius to know that this information might be skewed just a little. That means that the ball is in your court to do your own research and take a little bit of time to understand the basics of how your body works.
One thing I’ve learned is that it doesn’t have to take a ton of time to do this either! I’ve curated many articles with references and short videos and courses with information on how you can do this yourself and give yourself a kick start. You don’t have to have a medical background, be an expert, or professional researcher. You just need to know how to suss out the truth. It’s often there in plain sight when you know where to look.
So, informed consent means that you give your approval for any procedure, drug, or treatment knowing both the pro’s AND the con’s of the prospective option. This entails knowing not only the symptoms of your diagnosed disease or condition BUT the reason WHY this is happening. When you know the WHY, and not just what to do to mask symptoms, you can make decisions way easier. Remember, our goal is health CARE – to take care of our health for the long-term.
Some questions you can ask are, what causes this disease or condition? What other symptoms do I have that relate to this disease or condition? Remember, our bodies are just one piece of the puzzle. There is also an emotional and spiritual component. We can also ask ourselves questions like, what big life changes happened before I noticed symptoms? Do I have any unresolved emotional trauma or unforgiveness? Where am I at spiritually? Once we understand these things, we will have a better understanding of where to start to initiate healing.
Now, we can look at our treatment options. There are many questions we can ask ourselves to begin with. (If you can’t tell already, asking questions is often the key to not getting caught up in the medical mill.)
What is the doctor telling us and does this align with our goal to have long-term health and deal with the root of the problem? We can also ask questions about the procedure, drug, or treatment like, “What does this do to my body? What are the side effects? What are the short-term effects? What are the long-term effects? Is there any treatment that is less invasive? Will this treatment support my body or damage it?” The best treatments are those that help your body to attack and/or heal rather than take the place of this function. Another good thing to research are the studies that support this treatment and whether or not those treatments are funded by industry.
It's a good idea to make a document where you can track the links of where you find your information so that you can take that to the doctor, or print the studies out yourself. Take it from me, it’s hard to remember all the links and websites once you get going down the rabbit trail! Check out the article titled, “Do Your Research!” for tips and guidelines on analyzing scientific studies.
I hope that this helps to give you some resolve and confidence when it comes to making informed medical decisions. The power is in your hand! You deserve to have informed consent. Your consent should only be given based on knowledge after you have educated yourself on the topic and investigated studies for yourself.
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