Misinformation in Health

First and foremost, I feel I need to share this blog due to the mass amount of misinformation I constantly hear. From the gym, to social media, to in person, it’s just getting out of hand. I’m going to share my view and opinions on misinformation on health.

I’m a big believer in health, wellness, and fitness. At 14 years old I started working out and changing my diet. I probably know more about nutrition/working out than the average person from years of bodybuilding (not shows), powerlifting, CrossFit, working with coaches, macro counting, and overcoming multiple eating disorders. I’ve done it all in the last 18 years.

I like to live a more “natural” lifestyle and choose food/wellness options that are probably “healthier” than SOME. This does not make me an expert in these areas though! For instance, I’ve chose to make my own bread the last few years because it has less ingredients and I like to bake. I also choose not to drink because I personally don’t feel it does anything good for society or my body and that’s just my personal opinion. Plus, there is now factual evidence that alcohol is a class one carcinogen. I don’t take medication often, but I do use probiotics. I also workout four to five days a week. In addition, I use purifiers in my whole house because I feel it makes the air cleaner. My daughter and I have bad allergies and it helps us, but scientifically I don’t know what they actually do. I’ve devoted my life to slinging hotdogs and being a mom, which gets me to my point.

Many people believe everything they see from wellness coaches on social media, bullshit on tv, or anything they can find on Google. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t make you an expert on the topic of health. There are actual doctors and scientists that have devoted their lives to helping people and have spent years going to school. There are scientists that spend their lives in labs studying vaccines, illnesses, and other stuff to help make other peoples lives BETTER! I feel it’s kind of degrading to these individuals that have spent their whole lives trying to help others to constantly hear they’re wrong. I also feel it’s kind of degrading to these doctors and scientists to have people spread misinformation when they’ve spent so much of their life trying to get factual evidence! Again, just because you’ve dealt with shitty doctors doesn’t mean they are all bad.

Don’t come at me with the argument that they do it for the money either because that’s bullshit. I know a lot of people that make more money than doctors. However, I do believe doctors deserve what they are paid because they spend a hell of a lot of time in school learning everything they need to know. I'm sure as hell not going to do that.

Also, don’t come at me with the “well you’ve never had a doctor that didn’t care”. Yes, yes, I have! I'm a cancer survivor that had an “aggressive” type of cancer with a 94% chance that’s it came from an organ and not the mass itself. My oncologist told me they couldn’t find the source, but I was cancer free. He said I could get an annual scan for 3 years and then I’d be good to go. I didn’t feel comfortable with that diagnosis. I asked him to refer me to a different oncologist. I now have a great oncologist within the UW system who has informed me that my cancer most likely came from my liver. It’s very slow growing and there is a chance of it coming back. I am now on year 6 of 10-year scans.

I know firsthand, that there are shitty, untrustworthy doctors out there that just don’t care or are too busy for us. I also know there are a lot of good ones out there because I have good ones. I have switched doctors multiple times, just so that I could heard. Just because you found a bad egg doesn’t mean they will all be like that. Sometimes you have to keep looking until you find one that you can trust and be heard from. The same goes for any profession though. If you love hotdogs, but my hotdogs taste like shit then you’ll probably go elsewhere. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to stop eating hotdogs.

Next, I don’t care to hear the “do your own research”. I have and my surfing of the internet is never going to be the equivalent of years of schooling and research and neither is you’re. I’m sorry, but that’s just a fact! If you want to do your own research, then go back to school and become a health professional. I’m sure they could use the help!

As a mother of a two-year-old, I will do whatever is going to keep my child safe and healthy. That includes mentally, emotionally, and physically! My husband calls us the “safe” family. For me, this includes taking advice from people who are professionals in these fields. If something works for your family that’s great, but for the love of God please stop trying to convince people that things like vaccines are bad children when you have no professional evidence or degree to back what you’re saying.

My last argument on health is that appearance does not equal health. I was in the greatest shape of my life. I worked out 5 days a week, counted my macronutrients, weighed 145 pounds, had no negative health symptoms, and I could pull a 300# deadlift. I was in great shape based off of my appearance. Guess what, I had cancer and I had it for years! Here’s another personal example I have. Right now in my life I eat healthy the majority of the time. I work out 4-5 times a week doing weight training and cardio. My mental health is better than it’s ever been and I’m happy. I now have a hormonal imbalance where I struggle to lose even an ounce of body fat. The advice of “eating clean” to get my hormones back in check does work. Stating that maybe if I ate better I would not have got cancer does not make sense. I already did and do eat healthy and I did and do work. I do believe three abdominal surgeries, three pregnancies with one being an ectopic, medication for my ectopic, early menopause in my family, and 13 months of breastfeeding with the equivalent of almost two years of milk produced may have something to do with my hormonal Imbalance. Nonetheless, I’m going to leave that to my NEW doctors to help figure out. In addition, according to my MULTIPLE (my cancer was discussed with a board of doctors) oncologists my cancer has nothing to do with the way I ate. Years ago, this actually was a concern of mine because I like pasta!

Everyone’s so quick to judge that a person is overweight because of the way they eat, but sometime being overweight is a medical issue that needs medical attention. I can say that as someone who lives a pretty “natural” lifestyle, sometimes modern medicine is needed. Giving your unprofessional advice on your natural and holistic ways to cure a problem that actually needs medical attention is not beneficial for many people.

Watch out who you take advice from because half of the people you might be taking your medical advice from are not healthy themselves. They may “look” healthy, but a large sum of them don’t give a shit about their mental health and drink enough alcohol for a fish in the sea! Their concern is their imagine, not their actual health.

Remember, your internet research is not the equivalent of a doctor or scientists' degree and or research! In my political post when I said to educate yourself, it is this exact type of people that you SHOULD be educating yourself from, people with evidence-based knowledge. If you want to get your information from social media, there are plenty of reputable doctors and scientists that have social media platforms. I’m all for living a healthy or “natural” lifestyle, but please stop spreading misinformation on topics you have no education on. Again, I’m sure these professionals as a whole get sick of being told that everything that they’ve worked for their whole life is wrong, just as I’m sure you’d get sick of hearing about how you suck at your job every day. Now don’t get me wrong, some doctors or scientists may not be a good fit for you just as some people think my hotdogs are shit compared to someone else’s. Thankfully, we have the luxury to go elsewhere and choose different. Do what’s best your family but remember there is no need to spread nonfactual information on a topic you have no actual education on!

Picture posted is me living with cancer and not knowing.