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<\/a>By Diane Batshaw Eisman, MD FAAFP<\/strong><\/p>\nYE GADS!<\/p>\n
That part of me that is a scientist quivers when I hear a certain phrase on TV or read it in the newspapers: someone “is battling” an illness.<\/p>\n
Congressman Whozamjigger is “fighting” Graves’ disease. So how does he do this?<\/p>\n
Does he put up his fists?<\/p>\n
Does he get in a ring and fight with his immune system?<\/p>\n
Does he remove his sword from its scabbard?<\/p>\n
Or maybe, he just takes up a cudgel and waves it menacingly<\/p>\n
And then Ms. Grammarian, the award willing novelist, reveals her lifelong battle with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.<\/p>\n
Does she just shoot it out at high noon? Does she aim one of her stiletto heels at her colon?<\/p>\n
And which diseases do you fight? Do you fight Acne?<\/p>\n
I guess you fight off a cold with chicken soup (or vegetable soup).<\/p>\n
Do you fight off appendicitis?<\/p>\n
Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae is not anti the concept of “fighting off a disease.” But this term gives an impression that the patient can just sit back and “do battle”. There is an implication that survival is solely in the hands of the patient. You alone, can win or lose this” battle.”
\nDoctor Curmudgeon\u00ae does believe in a holistic approach where mind and body combine for the best possible outcomes when someone is ill. What annoys this curmudgeon is another instance when the training, experience and compassion of the physician are undervalued…when the time, energy and caring of the doctor goes unnoted.
\nIt is time for the media to focus their reporting on the approach that all parties must be engaged to work together when a human being is ill: physician, patient, loved ones. A holistic approach for health.<\/p>\n
Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.<\/p>\n