Does your Dr. know you're vegan?

[my3labs]

I'm curious if your doctor knows you're vegan and if so, how he/she feels about it.
Personally, my doctor does not know. I think I will mention it next year when I go for my pap. More than anything, I want to have all my blood work done so I can compare it to three years ago (pre vegan).
I hadn't brought it up before because I just don't want the hassle of dealing with any stupid negative comments.

[Oracl]

I go to doctors so rarely and we seem to move so often :rolleyes: that it never seems worth bothering to tell them! ;)

[Caprita]

Hi!

Yes, my doctor knows, and my parents talk to her quite a lot, but that's only because she's also a good friend of theirs. She's supportive indeed, as she knows all about the negative effects animal products can have on our health.

According to my dad, I "might get along with her well", as she promotes the importance of vegetables in human diet to all her patients. She also treats whatever she can with plant-based remedies. Unfortunately I haven't been much in contact with her, except when she phoned to wish me luck with my exams. But now that I have more time I will definitely enjoy a talk about veganism with my doctor.

She'll be so surprised that I haven't been experiencing chest pains anymore, and my overall health has improved, and I've only been vegan for four months. (My veganiversary was on the 28th.)

Nice idea for a thread, by the way! :agree:

[xwitchymagicx]

He knows, but I wouldn't say he was supportive, when I first told him he just asked me what I eat. :rolleyes: He seemed a bit surprised that being vegan I still ate sweets and stuff! Duh, just because I'm vegan doesn't mean I'm going to eat lettuce all day or whatever. :excited:

[my3labs]

My doctor is prescrption happy so I don't know how she would react. Maybe I underestimate her.

[Tiggerwoos]

I don't visit docs anymore, just the naturopath and she knows and encourages it!

[Gliondrach]

Mine must know though I haven't said that I am. I have been there two or three times to have blood samples taken as part of the EPIC thing. The last time I went the nurse asked me if I had only recently joined their GP practice. I said that I had been a registered patient there for years. She peered at her computer screen and said that they didn't seem to have much information about me. I said that would be because I am healthy.

[paul]

not sure,
my last doctor did. ive just changed docs a few months ago, hardly see the doctor.

[Phoenix]

The last time I went the nurse asked me if I had only recently joined their GP practice. I said that I had been a registered patient there for years. She peered at her computer screen and said that they didn't seem to have much information about me. I said that would be because I am healthy.
:yea: :yea: :yea: Love it.

My GP knows I was a vegetarian and is supportive. I went vegan in January this year and I haven't seen her (the doctor) for a long time.

[dreamer]

I just go for check-ups and told him last year (my first time going to the doc after becoming vegan). He went on and on mainly about iron, so I told him I probably get plenty of iron, that it's B12 that would be my main concern. He said, "well, you can only eat so much spinach and where do you get your B12?" I told him that spinach is actually not a good source of iron (due to oxalates which bind with the iron) and B12 I get from fortified cereals, soy milk, and supplements. He said, "OK" and looked at me like I'd jumped all over him and was full of it. Then when I went by to get my blood test results, he was drooling over my cholesterol levels and I reminded him of my veganism, so he immediately looked at some other values to see if my B12 and iron were low:no: I am going to another doc in the same practice for this year's physical, so we'll see what she says to me...

[Tigerlily]

My doctor doesn't know and I don't feel the need to tell him any time soon.

[thevegantwins]

I'm switching docs primarily because I'm sick of his over-reliance on prescribing medication even after he claims to be a holistic doctor. He's listed as holistic in several publications and claims to support a nutritional approach to healing but the first thing about of his mouth when I've seen him is to prescribe me weight-loss drugs and statin drugs. He's not vegan-friendly either though he's a board member of a local renowned vegan-friendly co-op.

[Rainbow]

They seem to think vegans are an alien species but they're polite nevertheless! :rofl:

[IndyVegan]

No, I don't have a Doctor. I choose not to buy health insurace at this point. My work dosen't offer a great package. It runs a good $70.00 per month and if you visit a doctor it's like $30.00 per visit. If I need to go somewhere for some reason, I'd go to a "doc in the box" facility.

[forthebirds]

In fact, she's a vegetarian. I leave lots of vegan literature in her waiting room. :whistle:

[RawVegan]

In fact, she's a vegetarian. I leave lots of vegan literature in her waiting room. :whistle: Hey; good for you, forthebirds!!! :thumbsup:

Mine are supportive of it; my general practitioner and the cardiologist i've seen over the last year, both.....they can't argue with the fact that i'm in excellent health, despite/due to my raw vegan diet, and have both told me they're sure i'm the healthiest patient they've ever seen! :) I was born with a congenital defect ('prolapse') in my mitral valve, which caused a 'murmur' all my life, and meant the valve was 'loose' and not closing sufficiently, as it should each time. This hasn't bothered or caused me any problems, for most of my life (i've been dancing ballet with it since early childhood), but it had started to cause me some noticable and rather disconcerting symptoms over the last few years, gradually getting worse, for which i finally needed a fairly 'minor' repair (which i had this past winter); but i wasn't in poor health, by any means.....and due to my over all condition (and being athletically fit, as a ballet dancer), i came through the surgery very well. ;)

What was *interesting*, was that when i was in the hospital, and starting to get mobile again a couple days after the surgery.....taking short little walks, shuffling out of my room and up and down the corridor a little bit and so on.....i noticed some pamphlets in these little holders on the walls out there; and so, being bored out of my mind at times, i grabbed a few to read, out of general interest......there was one there about the mitral valve repair surgery i'd had, and some about other heart surgeries, and being a cardiac ward, well.....many of them were about diseases/ailments of the heart and related surgeries; including coronary artery disease and bypass surgery. I was very interested and somewhat surprised to read in one such pamphlet, that the medical establishment now recognises the direct cause of coronary artery blockages; ie, the consumption of saturated fats, and where these fats are obtained from in one's diet.....it explained that 'saturated fats' are the fats that are solid at room temperature, and that saturated fats are 'found in all animal products', it said!!! Wow; i thought, this is great.....*finally*, doctors are realising this, and will hopefully be sharing this information with all their patients.....but boy; was i wrong! :(

There was a little 'class' held in the lounge on my ward a few days after my surgery, for all of us newly post-operative heart patients, to explain how we should manage with various tasks, once we were released from the hospital, and back at home.....mainly just about 'aftercare'; but also, the nurse hosting this little meeting had a 'nutritionist' come in to talk to us all about 'proper diet', too.....oh man; right away, i knew this was going to be 'fun'. :rolleyes:

I don't think the nurse and nutritionist liked me very much by the end of that meeting; not when i explained the harm of consuming *any* animal products, which causes the very condition so many patients were in there having serious surgery (coronary bypasses) to correct, and told them i was absolutely *astonished* at the lack of knowledge and recognition of this the medical establishment has, regarding this.....considering they were trying to tell us all to eat lean meat and fish! :( I also explained the more than obvious reasons we're not built to consume meat and dairy, etc; not to mention pointing out the information printed right in their pamphlets, about saturated fat! Ja; i think the hospital was probably only too happy to see me go, when i was released 5 days after my sugery, but i hope i left at least some people there (especially the 'nutritionist' and bypass patients) with some seeds planted, giving them some 'food for thought' to chew on for a while, anyhow.

Incidentally, i never ate *any* of the hospital food, other than what my family and friends would bring up for me from the cafeteria; they had lovely fresh salads and fruit down there, surprisingly enough.....my family also brought me in fresh raw fruit, nuts, seeds and containers of various salad meals, including tabouli; which has to be my all-time *favourite* meal! :)

[dreamer]

Mine are supportive of it; my general practitioner and the cardiologist i've seen over the last year, both.....they can't argue with the fact that i'm in excellent health, despite/due to my raw vegan diet, and have both told me they're sure i'm the healthiest patient they've ever seen! :) I am so glad! My mom had bypass surgery a bit over a year ago and her cardiologist actually poo-pooed the idea of her going on the McDougal or Ornish diet...it really made me mad because his response was basically that older sickly patients should "enjoy" all life's "pleasures" regardless of the health consequences (he seemed to imply it's too late to start). While she was in the hospital recovering, they kept giving her food choked full of salt and lots of beef...the hospital nutritionist must have been a freaking idiot (even worse than yours I bet). Now she has started back-sliding about eating meat at home--she didn't even have meat in the house for most of the last year--and she uses others as an excuse to do so...like tonight she's making vegetable-beef soup and when I chided her about it, she said, "well, your brother's family has to have meat," but I pointed out that I have been there numerous times and we ate meat-free to which they didn't say a negative word, as well as one time recently my sister-in-law said that they were going to start having at least one vegetarian meal a week, so my mom just said, "well, that's just your sister-in-law":no:

[Raven]

Yes mine does and he always been great. My midwives were fantastic to and never thaough it was a problem :)

[RawVegan]

Hi, dreamer; i'm afraid i'm not familiar with those names.....i have no idea what the 'McDougal' or 'Ornish' diets might be? Ja; that really infuriates me too; what an attitude.....it's like, who cares what it's doing to their health, even though eating a biologically *appropriate* diet might help their bodies to cleanse, correct, heal and balance, extending their lives by several more years? Good grief; giving salty foods to bypass patients, when doctors *know* that high sodium diets are harmful to them??? :(

Wow; at least in the hospital i was in, they gave special low sodium meals to those patients.....not that i'd eat any of their food! :blecch: I arranged to have my surgery done back home in Ontario, Canada (where i was born and raised after my parents emmigrated from Deutschland here and England), so i could be with my immediate family while going through all of that.....so, Heinrich and i flew over there for the winter, spending 3 months in total at my family home, while i underwent my initial surgery, recovered for 6 weeks, then had an elective 2nd procedure done by the same surgeon (who's the best in his field, and closed me with that 'glue' they use now, so my scar is very thin, and barely noticable) to remove the metal sternotomy brackets, as i didn't want to risk leaving them in permanently. My best friend Elaine's mom was in the same hospital at the same time as me, both times; although i was in and out in a week, she had complications (being an older woman and of a weaker constitution) and stayed for many weeks.....she had a heart attack a few weeks before my surgery, so she had her bypass not that long before i went in for my valve repair operation. When i was in, we were in the same ward, so i was able to shuffle down to her room in my jammies, robe and slippers, when i was up and about again a few days after my op.....and i saw some of the meals she was being served; none of which made Elaine and i (who are both vegans) very happy, 'cos they served them meat with their dinners! :(

We both talked to Elaine's mom about what meat does to the human body; how all animal products *cause* the problem that resulted in her surgery, etc. She listened, but her husband would get mad at *both* of us; saying she just needed to eat anything she fancied, to get her strength back.....that meat was 'good protein', and all that. :( Oh ja, sure; 'good protein' it is, for a carnivore.....which we are clearly *not*.....carnivores and true natural omnivores don't even get plaque building up in their coronary arteries as a result of consuming animal products, 'cos they're *built* to require and thrive on them.....if we were, we wouldn't either; but do you think that man would *listen*??? :( Oh hell no; he 'listened' about as well as sadly, most health care professionals do.

Hmm; 'well, your brother's family has to have meat'.....ok; i'd tell your mom, 'nobody has to have meat, or should have meat', stating the reasons it's so harmful to our bodies; which are many.....including the clogging of the coronary arteries that resulted in her having a bypass surgery, d'oh! I think i may still have the pamphlet from the hospital that talks about saturated fats; how they're the direct cause of that, and are *only* found in animal products.....in *all* animal products! If i find it, i will try and scan it, or something, and post it online. Ja; i should post some links to really good articles re: 'animal products' here, maybe; let me find some for you, and do that.....i'm thinking maybe you could print them, and show them to her?

Actually, here; got some of the links from my old 'Raw Vegan And Fruitarian' group on the 'tickle.com' network.....i'll paste them in this message for you:

--

Got Meat? Too Bad!

(text quoted below from
Joseph Keon's Whole Health, 1997)

"We are not carnivores and have never been carnivores,
and that should be remembered."
Dr. Richard Leakey, Paleoanthropologist

http://www.gentlebirth.org/nwnm.org/Got_Meat_Too_Bad.htm

--

MEAT is bad for you!

Keep watching this space, your life depends on it.

http://www.juiceguy.com/Meat-toxic-substance-hard-to-digest.shtml

--

Anatomy of Eating

The scientific, common sense reasons for consuming the only truly biologically appropriate diet for the human body; and so, for optimal health and vitality.

http://www.eatveg.com/anatomy.htm

--

Volume 4, Issue 4, April 2003

Are We Natural Vegetarians?

http://www.alternative-healthzine.com/html/are_we_natural_vegetarians_.html

--

PCRM--Health--Milk: No Longer Recommended or Required.

Describing the serious health risks involved in the consumption of dairy products by human beings, which is completely inappropriate for any herbivore; us included, of course. Research findings as outlined by the Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine.

http://www.pcrm.org/health/Info_on_Veg_Diets/milk.html

--

PCRM--Health--What's Wrong with Dairy Products?

Describing the serious health risks involved in the consumption of dairy products by human beings, which is completely inappropriate for any herbivore; us included, of course. Research findings as outlined by the Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine.

http://www.pcrm.org/health/Info_on_Veg_Diets/dairy.html

--

MilkSucks.com: Got Osteoporosis?

Why dairy products won't help you maintain healthy bones; but, building strong bones and keeping them that way is easier than you may have thought.

http://www.milksucks.com/osteo.html

--

The Herbal Collective: Cowless/Dairy-Free Calcium

All the correct/appropriate [dairy-free] calcium sources for the natural herbivore human body.

http://www.herbalcollective.ca/calcium.html

--

Well; those articles should be good, for a start, anyhow.....i'll be posting more links soon, in the raw foods thread, so watch for them! ;)

[dreamer]

Yes, the hospital she was in was horrible when it came to diet for heart patients...and my dad also argues against animal products being the problem (as your friend's dad did), as well as my brother's family not believing it totally. I have already given her MANY printed out bits of information on how diet is involved in not only her heart condition, but also her diabetes and high cholesterol (not to mention dad's osteoporosis, high cholesterol, and recent cancer), and she even believes it (I think--but dad doesn't totally), but she just says she's too old to change. Maybe I would believe that if she hadn't been "good" for almost a year and now she's heading back toward her old pattern of behavior. The McDougall diet is pretty much vegan (except he does seem OK with honey and says it's "OK" to occasionally eat meat--like at Thanksgiving) and the Ornish diet is low-fat lacto-ovo. I've given her cookbooks with a small portion of their (M & O) philosophy and research proof of the diets working, but she just says that she can't be that "extreme"--with her cardiologist backing her up it's an uphill battle. Obviously I agree with you that animal products are not only not necessary, but are probably the cause of many problems!

[thevegantwins]

You're fortunate, RawVegan, that the hospital even had salads and fruit. The hospital I had the kids at has a renowned cardiac unit yet there was McDonald's in the lobby and the dietary department couldn't find hardly any vegan food for me. Just horrible peanut butter full of hydrogenated oil, dry whole wheat toast and steamed potato, broccoli, green beans and spinach. Even the marinara sauce for spaghetti contained chicken broth. Fortunately, they were kind enough to bring a refrigerator to my room so my husband was able to bring vegan food from local veg restaurants. I ate falafel and lots of vegan Chinese food plus had my own soymilk supply, cereal, organic peanut butter and snacks.

[my3labs]

Upon request, my doctor sent me my lab results from last year. The blood and urine samples were taken one week after I went vegan so I am really excited to get back in and have them redone.

Back then, my calcium levels were a bit low: 8.1 (with a normal range of 8.2 - 10.2)

Cholesterol was: 162 (normal range of 150-200) I'm willing to bet that this has gone down a bit.
Protein: 7.2 (range of 6.4-8.4) I'm very curious to see where this is now.

I almost want to go back in for my annual pap so she can check them all again!

[dreamer]

Well, I just went for my physical and saw the woman doc in the same practice this time. I told her I was vegan when she asked about my diet. She said protein is the main concern and I pointed out the true concerns (i.e., B12, iron, calcium) for me, mainly thanks to a med I'm taking. She asked me why I cut out dairy and I told her (first after reading about the health probs, but more about animal suffering once I read up on that--as that's why I was vegetarian beforehand). She didn't give me any "grief" about it, but when she mentioned that I needed to get a flu shot (as I have asthma), I didn't point out that those shots are egg-based...besides I haven't gotten the flu in years!

[dreamer]

Well, just got my blood test results back from the aforementioned physical...my total cholesterol was 132 and my HDL ("good") cholesterol was 54! The CBC also showed that I'm getting enough iron and B12, so good news all around...not that I'm surprised;)

[Keykeypie]

That's great Dreamer......only problem is, we're all so healthy we might live to be very old.....I mean......REALLY REALLY......old....like look at Martin...he's 92? 93?.....or is that Fuzzy?

[dreamer]

That's what I tried to tell my mom...if she'd just go vegan, she'd not only live longer, but feel better while doing it:agree: (She keeps saying that she wishes she wouldn't live so long and feel so crummy:( )

[Gliondrach]

That's great Dreamer......only problem is, we're all so healthy we might live to be very old.....I mean......REALLY REALLY......old....like look at Martin...he's 92? 93?.....or is that Fuzzy?

Fuzzy is thousands of years old. Don't forget, his kind, cave bears, officially became extinct 10 thousand years ago.


Glad you are in tip top form, Dreamer.

[Gliondrach]

Just in case these physicians are biased against vegans I wouldn't tell them until they realised that you are healthy. And then spring it on them. Otherwise they might start off thinking that you're bound to be unhealthy and will think they are right if you go in with a cold or a cough.

But this might be because I am naturally devious.

[Cherie]

I don't have a family doctor right now, but I have been to a clinic where the sheet asked me what my diet was, and I wrote "vegan" and also that I would not accept gelatin in pills if I was to be prescribed medication (nowadays, I probably wouldn't take meds, anyway).
I had a conversation with my OB/GYN about being vegan because she asked me how I stayed so fit. I told her exercise and being vegan. She asked some questions. But this is the same doctor who was shocked when I told her that it wasn't natural to be on birth control pills and that it increased my cancer risk. LOL She probably figured no one really read up on those things. And claimed that giving people extra hormones was "natural." Whatever. I'm not on those damn things anymore.