Tag Archive for: Stephen Devries

Physicians as Teachers

As the interview in JAMA continued, Dr. Devries continued talking about the lack of training and why it was a problem in his mind. He cited a study published in 2013 by the U.S. Burden of Disease Collaborators which concluded that the leading risk factor for degenerative disease and mortality was a poor diet. A poor diet! He suggests that because physicians are so poorly trained in nutrition—meaning not at all—their patients are suffering the consequences.

Dr. Devries became frustrated and together with others formed the Gaples Institute for Integrative Cardiology, a non-profit that aims to teach the public and physicians about diet, exercise, and the mind-body approach to heart health.

For the rest, it’s not just giving a patient a couple of handouts with healthy diet guidelines. Physicians have to somehow become the teachers. For that, they need training. But even before training can be addressed, insurance companies must be willing to pay for this type of physician-patient time—or any time beyond the 15-minute consultation limit imposed by many healthcare businesses. While the insurance companies may provide websites and materials and even some training with dieticians, it doesn’t carry the power the physician would have.

No real nutrition training of physicians, no hands-on nutrition training by physicians, yet what physicians say resonates with their patients in ways they don’t realize. On Saturday I’ll tell you the four most powerful words I hear about health.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

P.S. The fiber drink recipe I talked about last week is now available on the Health Info page at DrChet.com.

 

References:
1. Arch Intern Med. 2011;171(14):1251-57.
2. JAMA. 2013;310(6):591-606. doi:10.1001/jama.2013.13805.

 

A Doctor’s Nutrition Training

“Essentially zero.” That’s the answer a physician gave in an interview when asked how much nutrition he received in medical school. The lack of substantive training continued all through his internal medicine residency and specialty training. His expertise? Cardiology. What’s worse is that he said that nothing has changed since.

The interview with Dr. Stephen Devries was recently published in JAMA. He goes on to talk about how he was well-trained to deal with cardiac events when they happened. His frustration came with his inability to do much to help his patients. They would return with the same serious cardiac problems. Why? Because nothing changed in their lifestyle to help prevent reoccurrence. They didn’t learn anything because he didn’t teach them anything about how to do that.

I’m going to talk more about this interview, but here’s a challenge for you. The next time you have a doctor’s appointment, whether general practitioner or specialists, ask them what type of nutrition training they had when they were in medical school or in their residency. It will be interesting to find out their answers.

Reminder to all Insiders: the monthly Conference Call is tomorrow night. If you’re not an Insider yet, there’s time to join before the call.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet
Reference: JAMA Online. 4/11/2018.