I was with a group of friends listening to Jazz Thursday evening, under large oak trees strung with outdoor lights, at Central Market North in Austin. Kids were dancing, dogs were yelping, and the sun was setting. Good to get outside and breathe.
We started to chat with folks at a table next to us.
A lawyer that had worked all his career for the Texas government in insurance law was explaining insurance companies can never get sued. So when they do bad stuff or go bankrupt, it was his job to try to protect the insured. I didn’t know that, wow!
He asked me what I do. Turns out he had never heard of functional medicine. He said I’ve gone to my docs all my life and never thought to question anything. He has friends that have suffered for example with severe MS and docs can’t help her so he raised his eyebrows when I mentioned that functional medicine might hold some answers that regular approaches don’t.
By the end of the conversation, he was shocked that he had never heard of any of this.
He has been very busy with a very busy career, and when you are constantly distracted by what you are working on and carry on your shoulders, you can tend to accept what you are told by professionals.
Being a professional in your own field, you may never question professionals in other fields.
We live in a democracy (as challenged as it is so far, we do still live in a democratic society). We get to think and talk and debate for ourselves.
We need to think.
With texting being the new talking (a few Substacks back you heard about glasses that now help you talk as so many people no longer have a great skill at this) and folks looking stuff up on Google etc. more and more folks think for themselves less and less.
Agile thinking means you dive into the details. You learn both sides. You make decisions based on information from both sides and then run it by “professionals’ and your own “gut” sense of what seems best for you.
Agile thinking is not learned helplessness, to do whatever others say you should do, without taking time to learn some of the details and understand what was recommended versus other sides and opinions.,
Thinking is becoming a lost art.
That is what I hope to share with you: Smart + Heart, agile thinking, and informed decisions.
Safe futures.
No one can guarantee anything but armed with more information, you have a better chance of not getting professionally and sadly “screwed” (excuse my ole’ fart language, as you get older it’s harder and harder to have a filter).
Also, the more you see go wrong, the more you see people who are not helped as they should be, and the more frustrating it gets, the more my mouth has a hard time being more polite.
Knowledge is power, let’s all get buffed and more resilient together.
Dr. B.
💯let’s get resilient together!!! So very grateful for your work.
Dear dr B,i am going to write a long comment that you will probably never read,but i would really like for you to know that your words have reached as far as Romania and that myself and a small group of friends who follow you are very greatfull for your posts on health and especially hormone replacement since it is a non existent topic in our country.You complained many times about the flaws of the american healthcare system and about America being a polluted country and it may be so.But pollutants come in many forms as i am sure you know and although you can probably still find in Romania some soil ,water ,vegetables,etc. that are almost as pure as they were in the middle ages,i must tell you that the air here is poisoned with ignorance when it comes to everything concerning women s health and wellbeing.As a woman entering peri menopause and starting to develop some nasty symptoms i realised that there is literally no one i can turn to for help.Doctors here are completely ignorant and have no interest on a woman s quality of life (even women doctors) and society sees women only as breeding cattle and working force,women themselves take pride in not complaining and swallowing as much shit from this life as possible without even thinking about changing something.As i said,living in the Middle Ages(although i should probably say The Stone Age),though chemically cleaner ,really sucks when you are a woman and when you were cursed with a brain that thinks,with a heart that longs for better things and a body that sabotages you every day.Not to mention that should a woman wish to remain a woman and be sexually active beyond reproduction is seen as a terrible sin here(it is an extremely religious country).When as a cosmetologist i perform waxing i see intimate parts that are completely ruined by the lack of estrogen especially in clients that have had breast cancer and women in their 40 s that have completely lost any will or posibility to be intimate with a man again and i find that so sad.A couple of times i just couldn t take it anymore and i sugested the use of at least vaginal estrogen to some women in terrible condition,which their doctors have noticed and were aware of ,but they dissmised them and told them to tell me mind my own business.I also want to tell you that even if one should find a doctor that knows something about hormone replacement(which is unlikely) she could probably not find the medication in pharmacies.So ,thinking ,and also feeling,are sad things to do.Especially when your own mother is telling you that this is what being a woman is all about and you should take it as it is.I always thought that a parent s job was to give a massage of hope,of never giving up,of trying to change the things that hurt you.But i have never personally seen a parent like that.In a world that offers women so little, to have even your own mother telling you that there s nothing you can do is terrible.But your message is one of hope and never giving up.Your personal story is inspiring.When i look at how beautiful and vibrant you are ,when i hear that a woman your age is still dancing i wish i was a citizen of that planet too.But for most of us women life is only about pain and struggle,bitter disappointment,endless duties but no rights at all.Please stay young at heart and healthy for all of us who do not share your well deserved and hard
earned good fortune and keep posting on hrt.