Some like their medicine strong,

Doctors are just like any other people. There are those who are dedicated. There are those in the business to help the disadvantage have opportunities at health just like anyone else. There are those who treat the profession as a step towards wealth, it is just a job with chances to earn a lot. And for this last group of doctors, there are some who would resort to any means to ensure they would be popular and so have many clients to provide the cash they want.

Very often we hear of friends who claim that such and such a doctor is very good. Why would they say that? Well, the friend would explain that this doctor can cure you in just one or two days with his medicine. Apparently, it is true that the dosage or the medicine is so strong that most of the bacteria causing the problem is vanquished. Furthermore, as the aim of a patient going to see a doctor is to have the sickness removed and everything be fine again, apparently the doctor is good. Of course, for such people, the other doctor who takes more days perhaps five or six days is considered to be not as good.

However, do these people actually have sufficient knowledge to judge a good doctor from a bad one? Do these people understand that the dosage of the first doctor may be too strong and therefore is not good as in future, a less strong or a just as strong medicine may not be effective any more. The same principle applies to steroids. Steroids are too strong and therefore appears to be very effective but doctors do not use steroids unless they really have to simply because it is too strong. Once steroids are used to cure something, it would be difficult for less stronger medicine to be effective at a future date.

Why is that so? Well, according to medical people who have explained this, when there are sufficient bacteria in our body to cause an illness, our immune system may find it difficult to overcome all that bacteria and the activity of our white blood cells attempting to overcome the bacteria causes excess heat and that is when we get fever. So, a doctor, from the symptoms given or seen or known through examination diagnoses the problem and prescribes medicine to kill the bacteria in our body. If the doctor prescribes a medicine which is too strong, the present problem will be solved very quickly but sometimes not all bacteria are killed every time and this is the reason we ought to finish all the antibiotic tablets given us so as to ensure as many as possible of the bacteria are killed, if not all. Now, this too small a number of bacteria, although not presenting a problem at the moment, will in time be stronger and possibly immune to the same medicine already given. So the next time the same illness present itself, the same medicine may not be effective.

So those doctors who give medicine which is just strong enough are doing the right thing. Only when the medicine given is not strong enough to solve the problem, do they give a stronger medicine or a higher dosage. Sometimes we wrong the wrong people because we have not been told about this. It is because of this understanding that we should not change to another doctor just because it has taken him/her a little longer to solve the problem. Furthermore, if he/she has our medical record, it will be easier for him/her to diagnose and prescribe better.

However, if it is a serious sickness which may require specialist attention, we could go for a second opinion or until we are satisfied especially when an operation is necessary. Listen to the best professional medical advice at all times although layman’s advice may come in useful at times, especially when the layman concerned has had experience concerning a particular sickness. Sometimes alternative treatments do work.