Why I Don’t Trust Dermatologists

In my high school days I had acne. A lot of it. (like many kids in the US) I would come downstairs in the morning and my mom would say the following:

“You need to wash your face! It looks terrible!”

She bought me one of those Neutrogena acne washes and told me that I need to be using it twice per day.

Of course I didn’t want acne on my face either, so I’d use this cream loaded with a bunch of chemicals to wash my face on a daily basis. But … I still had acne. Washing my face with this cream wasn’t doing it for me.

So, my mom took the next step.

“I made you an appointment with a dermatologist next week. It’s time we take care of this once and for all”.

My mom, like many parents in her generation, always trusted that the medical system could fix anything. Any health problems? See a doctor – they’ll help you.

Time to see a Dermatologist

A week later I went to a dermatologist with acne on my face. The Dr walked in, saw the acne, asked what I was doing to get rid of it (washing with the Neutrogena cream), and told me I needed some steroids. He would prescribe me Retin-a, a topical steroid used to get rid of acne.

My mom said that sounds great, and we went and picked up the prescription later that day.

Finally, this acne is finally gonna go away!

Using Retin-a

Retin-a is a steroid with a bunch of ingredients in it that I’d never heard of. While it did help my acne a little – it took a massive toll on my skin.

The cream would sting my skin upon applying for a good 30 minutes time. It would also dry out my skin. etc. etc. Using this cream was a nightmare and I eventually stopped after a few months because of the pain and irritation. My mom eventually gave up as well.

The Problem with a Dermatologist Approach

I was 16 years old at the time – I didn’t know any better. But the dermatologist should have. When I walked into his office and told him I was having problems with acne, not once did he ask me anything about how I was living my life.

• What kind of foods are you eating?
• How much sunlight are you getting?
• What kind of stresses do you have in your life right now?
• What products are you putting on your face?

He didn’t care about any of these things. He saw that I had acne, and told me that I needed a topical steroid, as if acne is some genetic defect that can’t be avoided, but only dealt with after it shows up.

He was trying to fix the symptoms, instead of dealing with the root cause. (like 99% of doctors)

This line of thinking is insane. How do I know this? Acne is correlated with the Westernization of societies. Also, the urbanization of societies. How could the default state of my genetics be to have acne during my teenage years?

What Should He Have Done

Any responsible doctor should have asked me a bunch of lifestyle questions before prescribing a TOPICAL STEROID! How the hell is that your FIRST approach?! If this doctor would have asked a few basic questions about my diet and lifestyle how would have found out the following:

1. I was consuming a TON of ultraprocessed foods with a bunch of chemicals in them like Doritos, Cheez-itz, Pringles, etc.
2. I was drinking sugary drinks with high fructose corn syrup in them daily.
3. I was using toxic shampoo (Pantene) and soap on my body when I showered daily.
4. I was getting almost no direct sunlight on my skin.
5. I was spending hours upon hours of time playing video games every day.
6. I was getting less than 6 hours of sleep per night.
7. etc etc ect

You get the point.

Any competent doctor would have realized that a lot of the fundamentals for human health were not being met.

Maybe we should work on fixing these before we prescribe a 16 year old kid a topical steroid for his skin and make him think he has a genetic defect??

What Actually Happened

I tried using the cream for a few months – it worked a little but it definitely wasn’t worth the pain and hassle on my skin. So, I resigned to the fact that I was doomed to suffer from acne for the foreseeable future.

Not once did I ever think about the chemicals I was putting in my body. Or the lack of sunlight. Or the lack of sleep. Not once.

This is Why I Don’t Trust Doctors

In my opinion, that dermatologist should be prosecuted as a criminal. He didn’t even consider the root causes of my acne. He just went straight to handling the symptoms. And because I was raised in a household/school system that trusted doctors, credentials, the establishment … I never once considered that maybe this doctor did not have my best interest at heart.

It wasn’t until 10 years later when I started doing my own research and listening to other people with similar stories that I started to realize that the medical system was responding to incentives.

This doctor was trained in an American medical school, which probably received a good amount of its funding from pharmaceutical companies. In medical school, future doctors are taught how to treat symptoms, not to determine the root cause. Treating symptoms makes money indefinitely, fixing the root cause does not.

This doctor was just doing what he was trained to do.

Doctors Aren’t as smart as we think they are

What I’ve realized over the last few years is that doctors aren’t as smart as we think they are. Anyone can become a doctor if they’re willing to memorize a bunch of information from a textbook.

Doctors have never had to formulate opinions on things, and to be honest, they’re not incentivized to. They’re incentivized to regurgitate the stuff that’s in the textbooks. Do that, and they’ll get they’re inflated paychecks and live a nice life. Dissent from this info and you risk losing your medical license and your cushy lifestyle.

Summary – How I Approach Medical Problems

Because of how dumb most doctors are, its important to think for yourself. Whenever you have a problem, think about it like this –

“Why do I have this problem? Would humans have faced this problem 200 years ago? Everything in humans evolved for a reason over 100s of thousands of years – does this problem make sense?”

Once you’ve answered these questions, evaluate how you’re living your life.

• What am I eating? Drinking?
• Am I getting enough sunlight?
• How much time am I spending outside?
• What kind of chemicals am I putting on my body?

If you start to think of things in this way – there’s no way your health won’t improve. Before seeking “treatment”, try to figure out the root cause and go from there.

That dermatologist taught me a lot that day. And it took me years to realize it.

Sam