The Internet Health Consultants

I tend to be fairly critical of self-proclaimed medical experts that claim to treat Fluoroquinolone Toxicity.  One could say that I am a but jaded or cynical.  The reason for this is not because I have sold out to mainstream medical methods, on the contrary.  I equally spread my praise or disdain for practitioners of all modes of medical treatment.  However, the truth is that over the years I have received an over abundance of negative reports about practitioners that have claim to treat Fluoroquinolone toxicity. My goal with this article is just to make sure that everyone seeks the best medical care for their particular needs without being victimized.

Dismal Track Record

In the past, when I was first floxed, I was foolhardy and patronized a few Internet health consultants.  It seems for many newly floxed individuals to be a right of passage. Now after talking to lots of floxed individuals spanning the last fourteen years, it is my humble and medically unqualified opinion that these practitioners have a very dismal track record when it comes to treating floxed individuals.    I know that may opinion may ruffle some feathers, since there are some proponents of these practitioners whose strongly believe (note the word ‘belief’) in the sentence.  Unfortunately for many of the practitioners the facts do not line up with the beliefs.  Despite having compiled quite a list of opinions from many floxies who have actually doled out a lot of money to patronize these practitioners, some of them have a few die-hard fans. 

Whether they are engineers or lawyers turned health consultants, chiropractors turned genetic experts, dietitians turned nutri-genomic experts, the list reads like a menu at an all-night smorgasbord. Many of these individuals self-proclaim their talents on various Facebook pages, blogs, attractive websites, or Google search result ads.  They often make self-aggrandizing claims that tacitly implies their unique knowledge on certain aspects of health related issues, namely treating Fluoroquinolone toxicity. 

I have noticed a pattern for some of these “health consultants,” they will befriend certain visible people in the community and may even treat a few individuals pro-bono, in exchange for word of mouth advertising. They are often categorized as ‘nice’ and ‘acknowledging’ of the Fluoroquinolone situation, but when one digs below the surface by interviewing many who have patronized these individuals, one will uncover a very dismal track record for successful treatment.

Now this dismal track record is reflective of the complexities of Fluoroquinolone Toxicity. Dr. Noble, one of the smartest men I know,  told me that Fluoroquinolone toxicity exhibits patterns of damage much more complex than those often seen in standard chemotherapy. Dr. Noble, who is is a pioneering researcher in the fields of stem cell biology and stem cell medicine who currently holds professorships in Genetics, Neurology, Neurobiology and Anatomy at U of Rochester School of Medicine believes that Fluoroquinolone Toxicity is very complex (and he is just one of several). 

Obviously, there are some health conditions that can and do become good at spotting the obvious, but in those cases even an arm chair consultant can make a good call. Heck, I could coach you on how to eat right, optimize your vitamin intake based on your genetics, or modify your current lifestyle to help mediate your symptoms.  It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to learn the basic health information.

However, depending on how you look at it, many of these consultants DO have a good track record of separating already victimized people from their hard earned money. 

Expensive

I believe the definition of successful treatment from one of these health consultants is very subjective indeed.  For instance, what I would describe as a complete failure in treatment, one of these health consultants might describe as a partial success.  Unfortunately, and more often than not, I have seen a cash strapped floxies pay out thousands or in consulting fees and tens of thousands in proprietary treatments, and walk away no healthier than they were when they started out, but usually many times more frustrated, confused, and definitely lighter in the pocketbook.

Now I want to throw in the caveat that if a person wants to pay these individuals for acknowledgement of their condition, more power to you.  However, I consider the exorbitant fees for unproven treatments a bit outrageous.  I have said before, for myself, if I want acknowledgement of my condition, I will pay a psychologist for that, and get a professional opinion that carries about as much weight in the medical world, but usually paying a lot less.  Also, because of the unapologetically high prices charged by some of these ‘consultants’ I have disassociated myself from advertising or recommending them. 

Too Critical?

Am I being too hard on these Internet health consultants? Well actually maybe not hard enough, since I have a boatload of stories, that range from; charging for appointments that did not occur, forgetting about the patient’s medical condition, unresponsive to emails, lost emails, misplaced medical records, bad mouthing other health consultants, talking about non-related information during the consult and charging for the time, and the list goes on and on.

Again, I know that these same problems plague traditional medical providers as well.  I just want people to know that this is definitely not the panacea that is often painted by some folks.  Floxies have told me stories about pressuring tactics used such as “you do want to get well don’t you?”, when questioning the pricey cost of consultation.  One of the biggest complaints was the feeling that the provider did not do their homework on follow up appointments and totally forget about the recommendations from previous consultation sessions.

One person relayed to me this conversation, provider: “Ok what did we talk about last time?”, patient: “You mean you don’t have it written down?”, provider “I’ve got a lot of patients so I want to make sure I have everything correct.”, patient, “You mean I paid $350 dollars and you cant remember what we talked about, don’t you take notes?”,  at this point the patient hung up.  And to add insult to injury, the patient received a bill for the phone consult!

In all fairness, like I implied before, some do seem to have good success with easy or more obvious cases.  Again, I know that this definition is very subjective but in this instance I will describe ‘easy’ as a case where it involves changing noticeable health patterns via obvious suggestions in dietary or lifestyle modifications.   However it seems that many floxed folks, which have very complex medical needs, are simply either dropped, dismissed, passed off to another health consultant, or milked for seemingly endless consults that seem to go nowhere.

Red Flags

I have many cautions but here are some of the red flags I would look for:

• He/she want you to sign or engage in a long term contract.
• He/she wants you to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
• He/she won’t tell you what is in a proprietary supplement their selling. 
• He/she does not define clear cut goals or plans for your treatment.
• He/she does not respect your time.
• He/she seems unorganized or cannot remember previously given advice.
• He/she is unreachable or has to be pestered for contact.
• He/she has an office that is unresponsive, disorganized, or rude.
• He/she is interested in selling or pushes expensive products or services.
• The practitioner claiming to be able to heal you back to 100%.
• The practitioner is willing to allow you to go into extreme debt even though you do not have the means to pay it back.

The area of Health Consultants is a vast one.  I do know for a fact that there are some genuinely legitimate well-meaning individuals that have a fairly good track record in the world of Internet health consulting.  But, in my opinion, the good ones are greatly outweighed by those operating in the margins.  If I were to patronize any of these individuals in the future, I would talk to several previous patients, and I would probably want to meet the practitioner in person and make sure that I get my money’s worth.

It’s a jungle out there folks, so be careful and if your money is tight, be real careful.

Agree? or Disagree?  Weigh in and let me know what you think.