Considering CVD and cancer are the top leading causes of death in the USA, it's a serious issue that most of our physicians no little to nothing about nutrition. What could be proposed to medical schools so that they benefit from making a change to their curriculum? Saving human lives (although the reality of such a change) won't be motivating enough. There's got to be funding. And not from drug companies.
The incentive ($) for drug companies is to continue to have people dependent on the use of their drugs--so that's a definite conflict of interest.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4696316
I agree that nutrition education is important: along with a series of other topics, like understanding how social circumstances affect health and illness, the opiod epidemic, old issues like lead poisoning, reducing deaths form gunshot wounds etc.The urgent, especially what presents in major hospitals tends to take priority. To add new material to an overcrowded curriculum, something else must come out: what? And those who currently teach that must agree with you and give way. Or the curriculum time must be extended. And what gets learned is influenced most by what is in the exams. How do you get nutrition into the exams? Good luck with that!
Thanks for your thoughts, James. I don' t think extending the time in medical school would be helpful. I see where you're coming from; there are many valuable courses that would be helpful for physicians. Getting nutrition on the board exams definitely could happen, but it might take some time :). We did see changes to the MCAT in 2015 which lead to pre-med students focusing more on the social aspects of medicine (psychology, sociology subjects added), which is extremely helpful. It's unfortunate that only the urgent takes priority, because many urgent problems can be prevented or at least reduced if spotted and treated early. If every physician focused a little more on preventative medicine (if there were an incentive for this), then we could stop a lot of problems before they become serious. In the end, each of us is responsible for our own health, but if the physicians we see focus more on prescribing medication then encouraging and urging needed lifestyle changes, it's a little disconcerting. And, I get it. Many physicians are expected to do way too much in too little time. It's more about the system. The system we've created for our healthcare. We're not rewarding the behavior that would be most helpful.
I guess a little more on nutrition even at the cost of some very detailed anatomy, physiology & certain other subjects will be valuable. Even 30 credit hours over years can do more help than what Medicines can provide.
Fantastic research article here:Article The State of Nutrition Education at US Medical Schools
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