Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

The culture of medicine forces us to ignore our health

Vybhav Jetty, MD
Physician
August 3, 2020
159 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share

It’s the first day of fellowship, and everyone’s getting to know each other.

“Oh, you won’t have time to work out here.”

I’m not the small, scrawny kid I was back in high school anymore, even if that’s the person I still see in the mirror. I’ve added roughly 50 pounds since college, and it shows with the things people say. Being told I won’t have time to work out has been a common chorus throughout my training.

What always amuses me is that these are physicians. The exact people that are supposed to be safeguarding, encouraging, and promoting health. Yet, here, outside of the confines of a clinic, when the white coat is off, they are actively opposing a universally agreed upon healthy habit, trying to take care of my health. I couldn’t wrap my head around this behavior until I came to one critical revelation: Doctors don’t care about health, doctors care about disease.

Not that doctors don’t care about their patients, because we do. But health is an ambiguous concept and is more than just “the absence of disease.” As the medical field becomes more and more specialized, physicians are turned into the proverbial hammer. If there are no nails, what is a hammer to do?

I was a freshman in college when I realized that life is short and that I need to start taking care of myself and my body. As one of the many kids in my class that pledged to be premed, it made logical sense (to me, at least) that I should take care of my body before even attempting to take care of someone else’s. It didn’t make sense to pay for so much education (average is ~$300K) to help other people find their health and lose mine along the way.

Because I bought into this so strongly and put time and effort into working out and healthy eating, I was floored when doctors and aspiring doctors alike would turn around and tell me that I shouldn’t be working out or that I work out too much, that I should be doing something more productive with my time (i.e., studying).

But eventually, it started to make sense. The medical system cares more about the medicines they can prescribe, the surgeries they can perform, other things the system can bill for. We care more about preventing death than we do about making life better. The acute issues are more pressing than long-term chronic issues.

In a way, disease is easy. It’s more concrete in our minds. The profession of medicine was born out of treating illness and disease. As healers, we develop clot busters to treat strokes. We produce stents to keep blood vessels open to stop chest pain. Antibiotics were created to kill infection-causing bugs. If there is a virus and we research vaccines. The pattern is simple. There is a problem, and we fix it. This is the foundation of medicine, and it worked. The physicians that have come before us have eradicated polio, tamed AIDS, and fixed dysentery.

In a sense, medicine is easy. And medicine is what most people want. All you have to do is take a pill, grit your teeth through a shot, or get nervous about a surgery. It’s a relatively quick, painless fix. At least, in theory, it is easy. Somehow patients still forget to take their medicines. It’s hard enough to get people to take their meds. Sometimes it feels like we spend a lot of time begging and pleading patients to take their meds. After giving patients another lecture about the medicines they have to take, we have enough bandwidth for like one other thing, which is usually getting people to quit smoking or vaping or doing other hard drugs. With the rest of the time in our mandated fifteen-minute visits, when do we have time to build and praise healthy behaviors?

Being healthy, on the other hand, is much more abstract, and we have difficulty thinking about the abstract. In medical school, we are not taught much about what to do for the healthy patient. Other than asking about eating “healthy,” exercise, and cancer screening, we are not taught much else. These few things that we are taught are often neglected under the mountains of diseases, Latin phrases, unpronounceable drug names, convoluted drug mechanisms of actions, and other buzzwords that we have to memorize.

Part of why we can’t talk about a good diet and exercise is because physicians don’t eat healthily and rarely exercise.

Physicians are steeped in a noxious culture that seems to be averse to creating healthy physicians. We ignore mountains of evidence that show exercise, sleep, and healthy eating is beneficial for cognitive function, learning, and performance — all aspects that physicians should optimize. But the current medical training system pushes physicians, residents, and students to the brink of their physical, emotional, and mental capabilities and leaves little room for much else other than work. The culture of medicine forces us to ignore our health. I’ve done it too, but it’s time to focus more on our health, not just patients’.

Vybhav Jetty is a cardiology fellow.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

4 ways to break the COVID-19 compassion walls

August 3, 2020 Kevin 0
…
Next

The case for compassionate communication

August 3, 2020 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Cardiology

Post navigation

< Previous Post
4 ways to break the COVID-19 compassion walls
Next Post >
The case for compassionate communication

More by Vybhav Jetty, MD

  • We keep our sleep-deprived physicians in hospitals full of calorie-dense food

    Vybhav Jetty, MD
  • Unconventional residency interview tips

    Vybhav Jetty, MD
  • Medicine will make you sick if you don’t sleep

    Vybhav Jetty, MD

Related Posts

  • Are negative news cycles and social media injurious to our health?

    Rabia Jalal, MD
  • The culture of permission in medicine

    Lauren Joseph
  • How social media can help or hurt your health care career

    Health eCareers
  • Sharing mental health issues on social media

    Tarena Lofton
  • The culture of perfection in medicine is a disease

    Andy Cruz, MD
  • Family medicine and the fight for the soul of health care

    Timothy Hoff, PhD

More in Physician

  • The harmful effects of shaming patients for self-education

    Maryanna Barrett, MD
  • The power of self-appreciation: Why physicians need to start acknowledging their own contributions

    Wendy Schofer, MD
  • Skydiving and surgery: How one doctor translates high-stress training to saving lives

    Alexandra Kharazi, MD
  • Don’t be caught off guard: Read your malpractice policy today

    Aaron Morgenstein, MD & Laura Fortner, MD
  • The dark side of medicine: an urgent call to action against greed

    Don Gaede, MD
  • Dr. Glaucomflecken for president!

    Aaron Morgenstein, MD & Amy Bissada, DO & Corinne Sundar Rao, MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • The real cause of America’s opioid crisis: Doctors are not to blame

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Meds
    • Healing the damaged nurse-physician dynamic

      Angel J. Mena, MD and Ali Morin, MSN, RN | Policy
    • The struggle to fill emergency medicine residency spots: Exploring the factors behind the unfilled match

      Katrina Gipson, MD, MPH | Physician
    • What is driving physicians to the edge of despair?

      Edward T. Creagan, MD | Physician
    • Deaths of despair: an urgent call for a collective response to the crisis in U.S. life expectancy

      Mohammed Umer Waris, MD | Policy
    • Beyond the disease: the power of empathy in health care

      Nana Dadzie Ghansah, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • The hidden dangers of the Nebraska Heartbeat Act

      Meghan Sheehan, MD | Policy
    • The real cause of America’s opioid crisis: Doctors are not to blame

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Meds
    • The vital importance of climate change education in medical schools

      Helen Kim, MD | Policy
    • The fight for reproductive health: Why medication abortion matters

      Catherine Hennessey, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • The harmful effects of shaming patients for self-education

      Maryanna Barrett, MD | Physician
    • The power of self-appreciation: Why physicians need to start acknowledging their own contributions

      Wendy Schofer, MD | Physician
    • The endless waves of chronic illness

      Michele Luckenbaugh | Conditions
    • Skydiving and surgery: How one doctor translates high-stress training to saving lives

      Alexandra Kharazi, MD | Physician
    • Telemedicine in the opioid crisis: a game-changer threatened by DEA regulations

      Julie Craig, MD | Meds
    • How this doctor found her passion in ballroom dancing [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 1 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

CME Spotlights

From MedPage Today

Latest News

  • Are We Losing the Personal Touch Because of the Way We Staff?
  • Orismilast Clears Skin in Moderate-to-Severe Psoriasis
  • Pediatric ICU Cases Becoming More Complex in Recent Years
  • New Combinations Promising in Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma
  • Embryo Development Delayed in Pregnancies Ending in Miscarriage

Meeting Coverage

  • Orismilast Clears Skin in Moderate-to-Severe Psoriasis
  • New Combinations Promising in Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma
  • No Survival Benefit With CRT Versus Chemo for Locally Advanced Endometrial Cancer
  • Ankle Sprain Physical Therapy Doesn't Shift the Pain Elsewhere
  • Use of EMR Directive Tied to Reduced Opioid Prescribing After Spine Surgery
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • The real cause of America’s opioid crisis: Doctors are not to blame

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Meds
    • Healing the damaged nurse-physician dynamic

      Angel J. Mena, MD and Ali Morin, MSN, RN | Policy
    • The struggle to fill emergency medicine residency spots: Exploring the factors behind the unfilled match

      Katrina Gipson, MD, MPH | Physician
    • What is driving physicians to the edge of despair?

      Edward T. Creagan, MD | Physician
    • Deaths of despair: an urgent call for a collective response to the crisis in U.S. life expectancy

      Mohammed Umer Waris, MD | Policy
    • Beyond the disease: the power of empathy in health care

      Nana Dadzie Ghansah, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • The hidden dangers of the Nebraska Heartbeat Act

      Meghan Sheehan, MD | Policy
    • The real cause of America’s opioid crisis: Doctors are not to blame

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Meds
    • The vital importance of climate change education in medical schools

      Helen Kim, MD | Policy
    • The fight for reproductive health: Why medication abortion matters

      Catherine Hennessey, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • The harmful effects of shaming patients for self-education

      Maryanna Barrett, MD | Physician
    • The power of self-appreciation: Why physicians need to start acknowledging their own contributions

      Wendy Schofer, MD | Physician
    • The endless waves of chronic illness

      Michele Luckenbaugh | Conditions
    • Skydiving and surgery: How one doctor translates high-stress training to saving lives

      Alexandra Kharazi, MD | Physician
    • Telemedicine in the opioid crisis: a game-changer threatened by DEA regulations

      Julie Craig, MD | Meds
    • How this doctor found her passion in ballroom dancing [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today iMedicalApps
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

The culture of medicine forces us to ignore our health
1 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...