Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jonfw 2162 days ago
You've also got to look at how doctors are being incentivized. Medicine funnels more money into the medical system- and kickbacks or 'rewards' programs from pharmaceutical companies are common.

Outside of that- people like their doctors to do things. Everybody knows that they could use a better diet and more exercise- a doctor who says that and nothing else may not make people feel like they're getting their money's worth.

2 comments

I am not even sure the incentives matter, compliance rates from patients are horrendous in medicine.

Incentives or not, suggesting a lifestyle change (go from SAD to extreme low carb) might be the best course of action but how many patients will follow through? does medicine even know how to handle this transition? Of course they don't. Advising this lifestyle change might work for 1% but what about the other 99%?

Dr's are also incredibly uninformed about Keto, Carnivore, low carb in general.

The response I've received from my Dr friends regarding nutritional intervention vs drugs, is that "diets don't work".

They have no clue as to recent research being done. Changes to medical "best" practice are generational and take a long time.

I wouldn't say that they are uninformed, just that they are informed by the literature. And unfortunately the literature surrounding diet is awash with special interest groups, small sample sizes and dodgy statistics. While clinical trials involving pharmaceuticals are often more rigorous. It's near impossible to do randomised double blind controls for diet, and energy levels and feeling great aren't as easy to measure empirically
Of course “diets” don’t work. People consider diets as something you get on for some results or changes and then abandon them or give up later. So what actually works is making it a lifestyle change, which isn’t easy either, but is at least honest in what it means to people when they hear the word. Lifestyle changes are hard. Diets are what people usually see celebrities doing before an awards ceremony.