Today’s Phenomenon of Preferred Ignorance

Ignorance is no longer just for the blissful, it’s also for the sane.

For those who haven’t read my introductory post, I’m a receptionist at a small family practice clinic. Recently, I seem to lead a double life: one as an under-spoken secretary who knows her place and makes the damn coffee with a smile, the other as a hungry student looking for knowledge and truth that even my most highest authorities have not yet grasped.

I encountered something strange today as I opened my big mouth (something I sometimes do when I foolishly, momentarily believe someone might listen to the girl who answers the phones). Despite my better judgment, I proceeded to tell a nurse about the statistics I have found on the W.H.O website while doing a simple search regarding silver dental fillings and mercury (see previous post). The response I got was less than favorable as she told me to “calm down, Katie. You don’t want to be like Suzy Johnson.” * She later continued the conversation by telling me I was acting “weird” and “obsessive” – all because I was concerned about one of the world’s leading health organizations admitting people were getting metal poisoning from one of the most common health practices: dental fillings.

Suzy is a patient who belongs in a psych ward much more so than at a family doctor, always insisting the air itself is made of nickel and poisons her body. She gets heir hair strands regularly tested. On top of that, she’s a witch.

Despite the nurse telling me she was “totally joking,” I know only half of her meant it. The office manager is another woman guilty of telling me I read too much and need to stop before I become obsessive. “You read some sad stuff,” she says. “Why don’t you read some Twilight?”

I don’t know when education and knowledge became something to be embarrassed of, but it desperately needs to stop. As a biology student who plans to go into medicine, I’m proud of my desire to know the truth. I’m proud of the amount of books I read, and I’m proud of the energy and time I spend trying to educate myself. I’ll be a better doctor for it. My future patients will be healthier because of it. It isn’t only that I’m not receiving words of encouragement from my co-workers; I’m being torn in the opposite direction and being blatantly told that I’m going overboard. And, of all people, by medical professionals. Medical professionals are telling me to stop reading so much about the medical profession. Isn’t there something wrong with that?

I’m sick of keeping my mouth shut, and the next time my co-worker tells me to put down the books, I won’t be so nice. Ignorance isn’t “cool,” and it should not be accepted by people as the norm, or interpreted as sanity. It’s time people realize that doctors are people just like the rest of us who only repeat what a higher authority deemed as fact. They only know that which they were exposed to, which isn’t always the truth. It’s time we stop putting some of the most toxic elements into our body – completely voluntarily – because our doctor insists it’s okay. You don’t have to have a medical degree to know that putting the most toxic metals into your system isn’t okay, and you don’t have to have passed medical school to be able to grasp that metal’s toxicity. Don’t feel intimidated by the information or the degrees on their walls. Be your own health advocate, because you are smart enough. You are capable of knowing something your doctor doesn’t. It is absolutely possible (as a matter of fact, common place) that your doctor may promote a practice that is hazardous to your health. Let’s keep in mind that although most doctors truly have every intention of supporting your health and overall well-being, they’re just as capable of being gullibly convinced of something that isn’t true as we are. It happens every day.

Don’t take my word for any of this, for Christ’s sake, read! Find information from both sides of the debate and go where your common sense leads you – not where “public opinion” leads you.

* name has been changed.

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