When it comes to your health, are you a maximalist or a minimalist? A believer or a doubter? Do you lean towards naturalism or technology? These are all key aspects of your medical mind – your own prescription for making medical decisions.
Between our doctors, the internet, friends and family we’re deluged with medical advice. How do we choose which path to take? Do you rely on statistics, seek out new therapies, shy away from side effects? Do you trust your grandmother’s remedies over the latest drug-of-the-moment? In their new book, Drs. Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband share the stories of people making big decisions – options for battling cancer, choosing between statins or lifestyle changes to treat high cholesterol, interpreting their loved ones’ end-of-life preferences – and explore the belief systems and experiences that shaped their choices.
The decision to watch and wait, rather than have a new type of surgery, may have more to do with your own tolerance for risk than your confidence in the surgeon. This book doesn’t tell you what medical decisions to make. But it does offer some insight into how and why you make those decisions, and that knowledge, the authors say, may help you to have more confidence in your choices.
WEIGH IN:
Do you trust your medical mind? Could understanding the medical choices you make improve your health - even save your life?
Guests:
Jerome Groopman, M.D. and Pamela Hartzband, M.D., authors of “Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What is Right for You”