Your doctor is not your principal

Patients have nothing to lose but their ignorance by asking doctors questions

- Puja Awasthi

So, you have lined your kitchen with organic food and whole grains; you're hooked to yoga; your persistent new year resolution is to walk more and drink less; and you turn to the internet for every little health niggle that comes your way. But, how medically literate are you?

Scientifically: dismal.

According to a 2018 paper in the Indian Journal of Community Medicine, while studies on medical awareness are many and diverse, poor medical mindfulness cuts across regions and classes, thus keeping the lifespan of Indians shorter than what it could be.

One such study in Karnataka, for instance, found out that only a third of mothers, across two generations, had knowledge about breast feeding. Another concluded that while more than four in five respondents in Kerala knew about oral cancer, fewer than three could pinpoint the exact cause. Yet another one, which covered Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, revealed that less than half of the sample population knew anything about diabetes.

What makes us so poorly informed? While inadequate access to health care, deficient manpower and the cost of quality health care are reasons beyond us, a huge role in this knowledge lag also results from our dithering in questioning doctors, our surrendered acceptance of what they tell us.

Look around, someone you know might have been pushed into surgery that a second opinion concluded was not needed. Someone might be on medication prescribed years ago by a doctor, unaware that age, hormones, changing lifestyles, comorbidities and the like require a change in medication or dosage. A third someone might only consult the neighbourhood chemist for ailments.