Posted on 11/14/2018 7:19:09 AM PST by rktman
A conversation about how much you drink might be part of your next doctor’s visit.
The United States Preventative Services Task Force is advising that all adults, not just pregnant women, be screened for unhealthy alcohol use by their primary care providers, CNN reports.
Doctors should provide brief counseling to patients they find are drinking above the recommended limits, according to a new statement published in the medical journal JAMA on Tuesday (Nov. 13).
In an editorial accompanying the statement, Angela Bazzi and Dr. Richard Saitz of the Boston University School of Public Health wrote that implementation of screening and brief intervention remains quite low among doctors – only 1 in 6 patients in the United States report having discussed alcohol with their physician.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Doctors should not be arms of the government busy-bodies. They should “doctor”. Maybe if they did that there wouldn’t be hundreds of thousands of patients dieing from doctor errors every year. I guess the answer is to lie to your doctor when asked intrusive, inappropriate questions.
Yup, and we know which categories of unhealthy behaviour are politically protected, and which are not, don’t we?
Doctors should provide brief counseling to patients they find are drinking above the recommended limits ... right after they “counsel” you about gun ownership ... Oops, i’m sorry, but your time is up .... sorry i didn’t have time to discuss diagnosing that fatal cancer you think you might have ... maybe next time ... i can see you again in six months ...
I developed a case of acute pancreatitis about 12 years ago. I was admitted to the hospital for 4-5 days to get rid of the inflammation in my abdominal cavity.
I was asked by the house doctor about my alcohol use. How much did I drink, she asked. None I replied.
Well, that set off an attack on my character and veracity because, you see, 99.95% of all acute pancreatitis cases are caused from binge drinking alcohol. College kids and middle-aged drunks. The doctor and the nurse would not believe me when I told them I didn't drink.
Paraphrasing, "Come on, sir, you can be honest with us. We're here to help you. You can tell us how much you drink. We know it can be embarrassing to admit to others how much you really drink. But, trust us, we know what's best for you." Or words to those effect.
I had to have my wife to come in and vouch for me. She told the doctor the same thing. I did not drink alcohol, at all, none.
This didn't sit well with them. They just knew I was lying about my drinking habits.
So, after I was discharged, I researched online what the other .05% of cases of acute pancreatitis were caused from. It turns out, a very small number of cases were caused by a certain heart medicine. And guess, what? I was taking that very medicine, prescribed by my cardiologist. He changed my meds and I haven't had the problem again.
The medical community is not perfect and, in this case, they got it all wrong. They focused on my non-existent drinking as the cause instead of looking further. But the point is, they didn't believe me when I told them I didn't indulge.
I had an old high school classmate of mine recently tell me his story about going to the VA for his intake physical and they asked about his alcohol use. They asked him how much he drank each day. He replied, "I drink when I'm awake."
True story.
Big Brother needs to know if you are imbibing more Victory gin than your ration allows.
Who is going to screen the doctors?
Absolutely, And they could also be used to deny care or adjust individual rates by health insurance companies.
See my comment #64 below on this thread.
Telling the truth to your doctor doesn't always work either.
The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.
G. K.Chesterton
My 8 year olds teacher sent the class home with the assignment of telling parents that cigarettes and beer were drugs. They were then to report the reaction. I told her to tell the teacher my answer verbatim. “Mind your own G-D business”. She was sent home with a note. I rewarded her with hugs and a trip to pizza and ice cream that night.
Not enough people tell the truth, and tell it loudly. If you are afraid of being on a list, you don’t have the right to call yourself an American.
hmmmm...by definition, an alcoholic is in denial about their SOCIAL problem-and hence most of they will admit to about their drinking is not reliable or accurate-
The contingent of Liberal Patch Adams/Hawkeye Pierce doctors will eagerly sign-up for the Nanny Inquisition.
Good for you! Most people don’t have the guts to do that out of fear that the school will spend the next decade extracting revenge from the kid.
The issue is that thanks to Obamacare the federal government monitors all your medical records and what is in them.
And they’re not doing it for your benefit.
I prefer to attack from the shadows.
I guess it was the sniper training I received in Vietnam, where I guess I served despite not being an American (according to you).
Doctors need to be counseled on the dangers of socialism.
“Almost never” is the truthful and politically safe response for me. They can interpret that any way they like. Only a fool would believe this question is about improving health care.
This isn’t about health. It’s about social engineering. It’s about control. It’s about creating pretexts for denial of rights.
Doctors don’t usually even ask if you take vitamin d! But they re happy to treat you for all the viruses you get if your blood level is too low in D!
Elevated blood pressure is a dead give away to excessive alcohol consumption.
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