There is a statement going around amongst some health professionals, which is ‘we don’t guess, we test,’ and the second part that often accompanies is ‘we don’t to be shooting in the dark and wasting time trying different things.’ I would like to discuss some limiting factors to these statements.
No matter how many tests someone may run on you, they are still kind of shooting in the dark because this is 2023 and not 2050. Just like we have more tests than 1970, there will be more in 2050 that give us better information than we have today. So yes you’re still kind of in the dark, just not as much in the dark. Healthcare professionals are always learning, so when someone tries to give you the 100% confidence that they are going to get it right, that is not true. There are no absolutes. The point of testing is to gain a better understanding of what is going on and to better target the therapy, so there is a higher chance that they will get it right. But that’s really just what it is, a higher chance.
No matter how many tests doctors run, there is always some level of ‘trying’ to see what works. Doctors are always waiting to find out at your follow up visit if what they gave you to do or take actually worked.
When doctors try to belittle other health professionals who do not test as much, I think that is sometimes problematic. As someone who has gone to multiple Eastern minded holistic practitioners who don’t do $1000s of testing and still get amazing results, I know that the training of the practitioner matters in terms of what they think is important. Eastern medicine has been around for 1000s of years and it is still here. Why? Because those who use these methods often get results. They may have other tests they do, such as looking at the shape and coating of your tongue, looking at your ears, etc. For them, based on their training, they may still find those analyses helpful.
Is a blend of Eastern, Western, holistic, and conventional medicine methods helpful? Yes, of course. That is what Naturopathic doctors are trained to do, to blend various modalities as needed to reach the goal of healing for each individual.
Another limiting factor is the client’s budget. I could suggest $1000s of testing. The question is are you going to do all of that? Is your budget ready for all of that? Or are you going to ask me which ones do I think are more important, because you have a limit on how much you are willing to spend on just testing? So when someone says ‘we don’t guess we test,’ it ultimately comes down to what each client is willing to do.
I have seen a number of cases where a lot of testing didn’t matter. Depending on the therapy being used, sometimes certain testing didn’t matter. There is often more than one way to reach the same result. That is why you see different Naturopathic doctors using different modalities.
The point is to not always take the ‘we don’t guess, we test’ as gold standard. It is a great standard, can be very important and worth it (especially depending on the condition), but it is not always as golden as you may think. I have seen some amazing results without $1000s of testing.
To conclude, the factors I have presented for you to keep in mind: 1) Timing, 2) Client’s budget, 3) More than one road to your destination, and 4) Training of the health professional.
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