MAGAZINES IN MY OFFICE?
NO WAY!
Although I try to keep it to a minimum, the truth is that sometimes people have to wait while in my office. Waiting is never fun, no one enjoys it, and it is not my intention to ever make you wait. Because I certainly do not want people sitting in the lobby bored to tears, I used to do what every other doctor’s office in America did. I put out great numbers of magazines.
For years I had many of the same office magazines that everyone else had in their clinics. I had SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Field & Stream, World Magazine, Time, Golf Digest (even though I rarely play), Outdoors, Readers Digest, a vast array of Women’s magazines, and even some specialty magazines like Country and Arizona Highways (these always seemed to come up missing). Believe it or not, for awhile I even got Oprah’s magazine.
One day, several years ago, a female patient came up to me and asked me about a medication that was being touted in Woman’s Day, Redbook, or some other women’s magazine, as the greatest thing for OSTEOPOROSIS since sliced bread. The drug was called Fosomax. This patient wanted to know whether or not I would recommend Fosomax to her over one of the other supposed “bone building” drugs on the market (Boniva, Evista, etc).
Needless to say, I was floored. It became obvious to me right then and there that I was not doing nearly enough to educate my patients about the dangers of taking certain drugs. You see, for years I had been warning as many people as I knew to warn, about the problems associated with taking the so-called “Osteoporosis” drugs. It seems that not only do these drugs not do what they are touted to do (strengthen brittle bones and decrease one’s chances of fracture), they actually do the opposite —- they cause Osteoporosis (HERE). Right then and there I decided to do something about this mess that I had helped create.
After sitting down and thumbing through some of my magazines and noticing the absurd numbers of drug ads found throughout, I cancelled all of my office subscriptions (except WORLD MAGAZINE) and took the magazines currently in my office to the Recycle Center. I began writing articles, booklets, and short “Coffee Table Books” on various topics.
I also ran off many of DR. TIM O’SHEA’S articles, as well as putting out several years worth of Dr. Bruce West’s monthly publication on WHOLE FOOD SUPPLEMENTS and natural health called “Health Alert“. I had a very talented patient make two beautiful oak magazine racks, and put them in the middle of my lobby. This gave people easy access to at least 40 or 50 different things to read.
What has the response been like over the past several years? Oh sure, I had a couple of men ask where their deer hunting magazines were. I even had a little old lady that has been a patient for twenty years (she comes in about twice a year) tell me that she wants her magazines back because she has read every single thing I put out —- twice (a feat that would take a week of reading around the clock). When I gently confronted her about this, she said, “Oh, I already know all that stuff anyway“. I learned a long time ago that you are never going to please everyone.
The truth is, however, that the response to this change in reading material has been overwhelmingly positive. People are floored to learn that their immune system is directly related to their intestinal health (HERE). They are excited to find out why avoiding both sugar and MSG will help them with weight loss (HERE). Or they are shocked to realize that hard-hitting diseases like Heart Disease and Type II Diabetes can actually be reversed with simple changes in the diet (HERE).
Bottom line; despite the fact that most people enjoy reading about SPORTS, GUNS, CELEBRITIES, the latest fads, MOTORCYCLING, the 12 secrets to applying MAKEUP, BETTER SEX, or whatever else there is to bide time with, the reading material in our lobby is truly making a difference in our patient’s health, and has been for several years.
