Honesty – A True Story

This is a true story and all of my true stories are true but this one will seem a stretch for a moment.  You will nod your head (or shake it) as you either agree with it’s honesty or become shocked when the words this man said to me settle into your consciousness.  This all took place in an elevator in my hotel.

I prefer the ground floor.  I really don’t like elevators because of the close space I endure with strangers.  I think several movies have been made about trapped people in these moving boxes.  Once the doors were almost closed and the button box started to smoke with the noxious stench of burning wires searing my lungs with pain for almost a day.  I learned then that the automatic doors won’t cut off your foot as they close.  

It is strange, though, that when I stay in the hotels with high floors, I ask for the top floor.  I just love the view but hate the climb. For this reason I will endure lung damage and small talk with strangers.  On this day a man with doctor scrubs, a shouldered briefcase and a name badge shared the ride with me.  My go-to entrance phrase starts with, “Going down?”  We are at the lobby with no floors below.  This really confuses people but breaks the ice

My next question was simply, “What do you do?” as I pointed to his scrubs.  He proudly but with a slight condescending tone said that he worked for such-and-such company as if I should know it.  I didn’t.  He explained that his company owned doctor offices throughout the state and it was his job to go to each one to audit their procedures and books.  

He was an undercover cop in his business dressed like a doctor or a nurse but in reality he was a bean counter watching over the working flock.  I didn’t like him and I countered his tone with, “I’m a doctor.”  That got his attention.  Then I asked what the leading disease was in his company’s practice.  He said diabetes.  I already knew that because diabetes and heart disease are the two leading human diseases.  Then I asked if he had ever heard of Carbohydrate Dependency.

At this point the elevator doors opened and we both got out.  His room was in the same direction as mine which forced us to continue the conversation.  He replied that he had not heard of this carbo whatever.  I burst into my elevator pitch thinking he might be interested in helping the patients.  

Carbohydrate Dependency is when people (and horses) ingest excessive amounts of carbohydrates daily without rest for the winter months when carbohydrates are limited in the environment.  This leads to mitochondrial exhaustion, cell dysfunction and the destruction of protein as muscles becomes the fuel for the person (horse).

Then my punch line came.  “If you taught your patients about carbohydrate dependency you would prevent insulin resistance and diabetes in them.”  I was NOT prepared for his response.

He replied without even blinking, “I would never do that.  If we did that we would all be out of a job!”

Sometimes “honesty” to one is a lie to others.  

I stood with my mouth open then mumbled to him to look up the subject if he was interested.  He mumbled back that he would.  I entered my room and thought hard about what I had just heard.  Did he really say that?  Are human doctors, or at least the companies they work for, really only interested in the business of medicine?  As I tell this story to people, they all agree that this is the case but if I hadn’t heard it with my own ears I wouldn’t have believed it.