On top of that, even most doctors won’t, by default, order tests to ensure all of your nutritional needs are met, and unless you have a symptom resulting in a significant deficiency of something, you would never know if you’re behind or not getting enough of something.
This makes me really appreciate my doctor. I emailed her and let her know I’ve been eating a vegetarian diet for the past two years and wanted to see if there were any gaps in my nutritional intake. She happily ordered a nutritional panel for me right away.
Oh, they’ll order it for you when you ask, but I don’t know of any test that doctors run without being promoted that will examine the nutritional state of a person. Once you ask for it, then you’ll very likely get what you ask for, but the doctor isn’t going to go out of their way to order it without being asked first.
So if you don’t think about it, or it’s just not something that you’re looking into, then your doctor doesn’t bother unless you report a complaint or symptom that may be related to some kind of malnourishment.
I get it, I don’t blame doctors, assume it’s fine unless there’s a problem… Nobody wants to waste lab time on tests when everything appears fine and there’s no complaints. But it’s kind of a disservice to the health of the general public. There’s a number of symptoms that go unreported simply because people have experienced them for so long and/or they’re so mild that they can’t be bothered… Some people just think it’s normal to have that symptom, just a part of every day life, when it’s not and it can take years or more before it’s discovered. By that time, permanent damage may have already occurred.
I would still blame the education system for the primary issue, since there’s so much we learn from primary/secondary education that we never use, and so many things we need to know every day, which isn’t even mentioned in schools.
I don’t have a vendetta against the school system, I just think they’re teaching the wrong things for everyone to know. There’s a lot of things that are taught that are only useful to a handful of professions, meanwhile being able to balance your chequebook, or vote, or feed yourself in a way that will maintain your health and nutrition are often not even offered and if they are, they’re electives. But no, you need to be able to calculate the hypotenuse of a right angle triangle. Everyone needs algebra, despite the fact that not all jobs need any understanding of it. You have to read and understand the complete works of Shakespeare, and a handful of dusty old books and form a literary analysis of them because reasons… But doing your own damn taxes? Get gud noob.
This makes me really appreciate my doctor. I emailed her and let her know I’ve been eating a vegetarian diet for the past two years and wanted to see if there were any gaps in my nutritional intake. She happily ordered a nutritional panel for me right away.
Oh, they’ll order it for you when you ask, but I don’t know of any test that doctors run without being promoted that will examine the nutritional state of a person. Once you ask for it, then you’ll very likely get what you ask for, but the doctor isn’t going to go out of their way to order it without being asked first.
So if you don’t think about it, or it’s just not something that you’re looking into, then your doctor doesn’t bother unless you report a complaint or symptom that may be related to some kind of malnourishment.
I get it, I don’t blame doctors, assume it’s fine unless there’s a problem… Nobody wants to waste lab time on tests when everything appears fine and there’s no complaints. But it’s kind of a disservice to the health of the general public. There’s a number of symptoms that go unreported simply because people have experienced them for so long and/or they’re so mild that they can’t be bothered… Some people just think it’s normal to have that symptom, just a part of every day life, when it’s not and it can take years or more before it’s discovered. By that time, permanent damage may have already occurred.
I would still blame the education system for the primary issue, since there’s so much we learn from primary/secondary education that we never use, and so many things we need to know every day, which isn’t even mentioned in schools.
I don’t have a vendetta against the school system, I just think they’re teaching the wrong things for everyone to know. There’s a lot of things that are taught that are only useful to a handful of professions, meanwhile being able to balance your chequebook, or vote, or feed yourself in a way that will maintain your health and nutrition are often not even offered and if they are, they’re electives. But no, you need to be able to calculate the hypotenuse of a right angle triangle. Everyone needs algebra, despite the fact that not all jobs need any understanding of it. You have to read and understand the complete works of Shakespeare, and a handful of dusty old books and form a literary analysis of them because reasons… But doing your own damn taxes? Get gud noob.