Doctor Save Me!

Years ago, I sat across from a doctor and we smoked cigarettes together and discussed my medical status.  Today, smoking is not permitted in public places, and the Surgeon General posts a warning to this deadly habit on every pack of cigarettes.  The Surgeon General does not smoke, and has prided herself in many positive medical changes for people everywhere, but she is overweight. What is this all about?

 Some medical professionals in our hospitals, doctor offices and other medical establishments, are telling us to lose weight, start exercising and make a lifestyle change, while they earn a living being overweight, eating unhealthy and telling us what to do. Taking the attitude, “Do as I say, and not as I do,” is not helping any of us. 

One time when I was invited to speak at a local hospital, the director was on the phone discussing how upset he was about his overweight staff.  He was afraid that if there was ever a power outage his staff would not be physically fit enough to go up and down flights of stairs to service sick people without the use of elevators.  Is this fair to any of us that people in the health profession who are taking care of us are this unhealthy?

 In the past, many professional people told me to lose weight when they themselves needed to lose weight and I had to write a check and thank them for their advice.  Often I would walk away and wonder if they looked in a mirror that day.

It is difficult for someone to be sent to a nutritionist for advice on how to eat after heart surgery and be given advice on portion control while listening to that advice from another overweight individual; often heavier than the one receiving the advice.

On the flip side of this, some people have told me that they are not going to be patients of “thin” doctors anymore because they nag them to lose weight.  Patients will switch doctors so that they don’t have to hear what they already know: they need to lose weight.   So is this the way it is going to be now:  Find a fat doctor who might ignore your weight problem because of his/her own weight problem, or seek a thin one if you are the right size? Are we willing to surrender that much of our health because we can’t face hearing the truth?

How much does the medical profession owe us maintaining a healthier lifestyle?   Do they understand that not only are they representing the institution of health, but they are cast as role models for us to follow?  

Every once in a while I will ask a medical professional how much exercising they do.  Most will tell me how busy they are, and that they have a schedule that does not have any time for that.  I remain respectfully silent while thinking of the many people I know with  work schedules at least the same as theirs, but they manage to find the time to go to the gym at least twice a week to be healthy.   

Losing weight and changing your life is not easy. It is hard work, and revolves around a lot of ups and downs, and learning not to fall apart when things get out of sync in our lives.   If medical professionals became prime examples of health & fitness, their words might ignite different results from the many of us that look up to them.  For now, many of their messages fall on deaf ears.