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9 White Lies You Need to Stop Telling Your DocsIf you're not telling the whole truth (and nothing but the truth), you could be harming your health |
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Why you should 'fess up: Your doctor may inadvertently overprescribe or take you off a medication because they think it's not working, when in reality, you're just not taking it correctly. Instead of digging yourself a deeper, potentially life-threatening hole, you need to admit your poor pill-taking habits.
"When cholesterol numbers are still high and the blood pressure is not improving on therapy, my first question is often "Are you taking the medication as prescribed?" Many people are ashamed to tell you they forget and miss pills regularly, so rather than fessing up they just lie," says Smith. Ironically, this attempt to save face often leads to patients being unnecessarily over-medicated. "If a low dose of the medication does not work, most doctors will increase to a higher dose, which may not be necessary if someone is not taking the medication regularly."
Omitting other medications you are taking regularly because they may seem unrelated to the specialty can be just as dangerous. You're probably OK letting your OBGYN know that you're birth control, but what about everything else? You may be embarrassed to admit that you're anti-depressants, but Dr. Hal Danzer, co-founder of Southern California Reproductive Center, says these are especially important to bring up because when taken during pregnancy, selective serontonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) such as Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa and Lexapro can increase the likelihood that a baby is born with septal heart defects.
SEE NEXT PAGE: The lie: "I don't have any piercings."
