We all know the saying \u201cKnowledge is Power.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when it comes to a patient\u2019s health and healing journey, the power of knowledge is profound. But what is knowledge in patient care?<\/p>\n
And how can you help to cultivate both patient power<\/em> and empowerment<\/em>?<\/p>\n First let\u2019s identify what knowledge is for a patient. To do so, I\u2019ll turn to one of my favorite books by the journalist Maya Dusenbury.<\/p>\n In her pivotal book, Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick<\/em>, Dusenbury speaks to a number of GAPS in our medical system\u2014GAPS that leave women in the predicaments stated in the subtitle of her book\u2026<\/p>\n Dismissed, Misdiagnosed and Sick<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the primary GAPS Dusenbury identified is what she calls the Knowledge GAP.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a GAP that can and should be addressed, both in our understanding, and in our care, to help avoid the frustrating situations that millions of patients face today. And it\u2019s a GAP that I know<\/em> Functional Nutrition Counselors and properly trained clinicians dedicated to the science and art of the Functional Nutrition practice can fill!<\/p>\n This is why I do what I do\u2014training thousands of practitioners each year to step in where nobody else has, and do the work to upgrade patient knowledge. After all, knowledge is<\/em> power.<\/p>\n We live in the Information Age. We carry powerful computers in our pockets that can answer any question we have.<\/p>\n Patients now search for answers to even their most intimate and embarrassing questions, because they can do so in private. (Out of curiosity, I just searched for \u201cbest remedies for constipation\u201d and Google retrieved over 38,100,000 results in 0.94 seconds.)<\/p>\n We are not<\/em> starved for information.<\/p>\n In fact, patients and practitioners alike can easily fall into what I\u2019ve deemed the Information Trap\u2014spending hours searching for data on a condition in theory<\/em> without understanding how that information applies to the individual\u2019s unique needs.<\/p>\n So if information is a trap, what is knowledge?<\/strong><\/p>\n If knowledge is power, then knowledge, as it pertains to the empowerment of the patient, is 3-fold:<\/p>\nKnowledge vs. Information<\/h2>\n