“Thanks so much for your wonderful newsletters, books, and web site. I am a Nurse Practitioner and have learned so much from you. I’ve copied the 10 top screw-up lists from your book and keep it for reference to help me prevent making some of those same mistakes.
“It’s wonderful to be able to suggest more natural benign, often topical remedies for common complaints instead of heavy duty medications with the potential for serious side effects.” –Carla
PEOPLE’S PHARMACY RESPONSE:
Dear Carla,
We always love hearing from health professionals such as yourself. We are so pleased that you found our book, Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them, of value.
Here is our list of the Top 10 Screwups you refer to above:
1. Not listening to patients
2. Misdiagnosing
3. Providing too little information
4. Not dealing with side effects
5. Undertreating or ignoring the evidence
6. Overreacting or being seduced by numbers
7. Overlooking drug interactions
8. Failing to revise the plan
9. Overlooking lab results
10. Not addressing lifesty le issues
For those who would like to learn more about the most common mistakes that are made in doctors’ offices, hospitals and pharmacies, we offer our book just out in paperback. You can also learn how to implement our:
Top 10 Tips to Stopping Screwups in Hospitals (page 22)
Top 10 Questions to Reduce Diagnostic Disasters (page 69)
Top 10 Questions to Ask Your Doctor When You Get a Prescription (page 95)
Top 11 Tips for Preventing Dangerous Drug Interactions (page 108)
Top 10 Tips for Taking Generic Drugs (page 139)
Top 10 Tips to Surviving Old Age (page 176)
Questions to Ask your Doctor Before Agreeing to Surgery (page 177)
Here is just one story to illustrate why it is essential to take a proactive stance to protect yourself or someone you love:
“Two years ago, I slowly began to develop aches and pains in my hands and feet, forearms and calves. These aches grew progressively more painful, with tingling sensations in my fingers and toes. After a month of this, I saw my doctor, and we ran lots and lots of tests, and tried all sorts of different painkillers. All the tests were negative, none of the painkillers worked. The pain continued to escalate until I was honestly contemplating suicide. The second neurologist I saw had the sense to put me on Neurontin (Gabapentin), an anti-seizure medicine that also works quite well on neuropathies. This reduced my pain to a tolerable (and live-able) level, but no-one could tell me what was causing the neuropathy to begin with. Test after test (including one very painful nerve conduction test) showed that nothing appeared to be wrong with me!
“Then I listened to your radio show about Celiac Disease! My doctor wasn’t impressed with this new insight, but agreed to test me. Of course the results were inconclusive, and so he wanted to get a small bowel biopsy. I politely declined. I figured, I can try eliminating gluten, and see what happens. I had read enough by then to know even if my neuropathy was caused by gluten intolerance, that the damage might be irreversible. But the prospect of taking Neurontin for life was a bit daunting, and so I tried the gluten-free diet.
“I won’t lie and say it was easy. Boy I miss bread! To this day the smell of garlic bread makes me a little crazy! But in 9 months I was completely off Neurontin and 95% pain-free!! I can’t tell you how WONDERFUL this is :) Two years after it all began I’m still mostly pain-free. Not only that, but I feel like a million bucks. I’ve lost 15 pounds, and walk nearly 5 miles a day! I guess in my 40s, I was resigned to the fact that this is what getting older means – gaining weight, irritable bowel, less energy. I have awakened to the flaw in my facts, and the magic of diet.
“THANK YOU SO MUCH!!” –Jamie
In Chapter 13 of the book you will learn about the top screwups in diagnosing and treating common conditions like celiac disease, Alzheimer’s disease, ADD, back pain, fibromyalgia, heartburn, hypothyroidism and osteoporosis, to name just a few.
Can you think of a better way to protect someone you love than a practical guide to avoiding health care harm and medical mishaps? It’s all there is Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them.
