If we learn more than the doctor in areas of value to our health, it is our duty to apply this knowledge to the betterment of ourselves and our families.

If you are not highly educated, you will need to abandon your anxiety and fear of reading and doing research.

Use vitamins in place of drugs. This takes some moxie to do, for we have been taught to be consumers of medicine. We have been taught that anything cheap and safe cannot possibly be effective.

Modern medicine has created more co-dependents even than co-pays. We've learned to hold out for a magic bullet such as a new miracle drug, breakthrough surgical procedure or new organ transplant. What rubbish.

Medicine is aptly described as an art, not a science. To this end, four different doctors may have up to four different diagnoses or prescriptions.

he very word "patient" implies passivity and powerlessness. Me-teacher-you-dumbbell, or me-doctor-you-patient, or me-politician-you-voter, or any other paternalistic or maternalistic stay-in-your-place tradition will not pass muster with me.

It is possible to learn more than your doctor knows, particularly in key areas that specifically apply to you. In fact, you may discover material that your doctor never saw, or did see and never investigated.