The biggest mistake patients make when it comes to functional medical care
The white knight fallacy
"One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicines."
- William Osler
Without medicine, what exactly does the doctor do?
"Physicians are men who pour drugs of which they know little, into patients of whom they know less, to treat diseases of which they know nothing."
- Voltaire
The number one mistake patients make when it comes to functional medicine is the same mistake they make when it comes to conventional medicine.
I call this, "the white knight fallacy."
Once upon a time, in a far away land, there was a very strong, powerful knight who made his living slaying dragons. The land was riddled with dragons and he was working overtime. He barely had time to change out of his armor. He was celebrated throughout the land. He had a harem of women to attend to his every need, an army of footmen to help him vanquish dragons, and he lived in a castle.
In a neighboring land, where there were no dragons, there lived a wizened old man who made his living hunting dragon eggs and selling them at farmer's markets. He was considered eccentric, because he did things like rail against technology and processed foods, he said that knights were overblown and just didn't know how to nip things in the bud or see things in the seed. He had one very devoted wife who seemed to understand him, despite his eccentricities. He couldn't afford employees, despite often working long hours snatching dragon eggs. He sometimes struggled to pay the rent, because, let's be honest, it's a lot cheaper to farm chicken and duck eggs than it is to scavenge dragon eggs. And the dragon eggs are big and hard to crack. He lived in a small hut in the middle of the woods.
Are you picking up what I'm putting down?
"To see things in the seed, that is genius."
- Lao Tzu
A similar story is told by Chinese medicine doctors. The Emperor of China called to his physician and said, "Who is the greatest physician in the land?"
His physician said, "my brother."
The emperor, surprised that he was being treated by (at least) the second greatest physician in the land, immediately asked, "then how is it that he is not as famous and well known as you are?"
His physician replied, "Because my brother sees illnesses before they occur. He sees them in the seed, and treats them before they arise."
Hippocrates said, "the greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it."
That’s what I’m all about.
So what happened to medicine, and why aren’t more doctors obsessed with this quote from the founder of medicine in ancient Greece?
“The greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it.”
-Hippocrates
This is the highest aspiration of the physician, but, sadly, the doctors winning Nobel prizes, endowed professorships, and retiring in the lap of luxury are the ones pushing medicines, because modern medicine is big business. As I write in my book, the modern pharmaceutical industry is insanely profitable and practically above the law.
I became a physician to help people feel better, but moreover, I have a passion for doing it all as efficiently as possible. I actually work very hard to keep what I do affordable, which surprises some people, because I do charge a premium for what I do.
The terrible mistake most patients make is in thinking that the physician's opinion, expertise, or guidance is the LEAST valuable thing they are getting when they pursue functional medicine.
Remember, we are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference. Aristotle was right about that. Therefore, the wisest physicians can identify your habits and choices that are undermining your health, and this makes their advice invaluable.
White knight fallacy consists of thinking that someone who knows how to slay dragons is inherently more valuable to society than the man who recognizes the dragons before they have hatched. You may think your Lyme disease, mold toxicity, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, or inflammatory bowel disease are dragons that you need to slay, but the reality is that they grew up within you over time, because you did not understand their causes. That's not your fault - after all, God didn't give you an owner's manual. You're figuring it out "on the fly."
This is why the number one thing I offer patients is my time, and then lab testing and supplements. The truth is that I can get results for a few hundred dollars in supplements per month that other physicians struggle to get despite thousands of dollars of supplements per month.
So why do I not flaunt this opinion beyond the safety of the paywall of this blog? Because I have enough people mad at me over my heretical notions about things like vaccines, fluoride, and EMFs (read my book, Dying to Be Free for more info), without ALSO taking the functional medicine community to task for how they are practicing. Too many clinics have fallen into the trap of over-prescribing tests, supplements, and procedures, rather than taking the time to focus on the fundamentals.
This is what most functional medicine doctors and clinics get wrong - the value of physician time and the importance of taking a proper history.
But that's a story for another day.
Until next time, be well,
Dr. Stillman