When you Injure yourself during Marathon Running Training, would a Doctor who was a Marathon Runner be Better?
You've probably noticed how the women often prefer women doctors; people who are obese, prefer doctors were either obese themselves, or have a reputation for empathy for fat people; could you count marathoners as a special group too? If they are a group with special needs, how much better would they feel if they got to consult with doctors who were marathon runners themselves? And more to the point, do they receive better treatment and a better outcome? Would an athlete involved in marathon running training who went to a doctor who was a marathon enthusiast himself actually see any difference in the way he was treated or diagnosed? There has really been no research that's been done into this, and apparently no one knows.
But still, there is anecdotal evidence on the issue. There was a study done in Canada that polled about 4000 women doctors and found that it was the doctors who were at least somewhat involved in physical activities who felt comfortable giving advice to patients in exercise-related matters. They also found out that the physically active doctors had better, more useful words of advice for their patients. If the doctor is an athlete, he she is also more likely to not offer advice that is likely to irritate someone involved in marathon running training - such as to say that intense running like damages the knees, or that a person is not to be cleared for running unless he submits to a battery of tests.
But as it is with everything else in life, this isn't a simple certifying test that can tell the good doctor is apart from the bad. There are many athletes who have had terrible experiences with athletic doctors, and good experiences with sedentary doctors. It all depends on the individual. As far as it goes, preferring an active athletic doctor to a more bookish one stands to some reason; the preference may not really bring on any benefits most of the time. It's just the way one can open up with someone who undrstands. Doctors who are athletic themselves will be better aware of what it feels like to run; in the event of an injury, they will be able to sympathize with how difficult it is to just give up the sport until one heals. They could be able to better recommend an acceptable option.
Most doctors don't really understand how truly dedicated athletes can be to their sport. It's pretty easy for them to advice extended times off from sports when they don't have that kind of insight into the level of dedication that goes into it. Consider a friend of mine who was in the middle of an intense period of marathon running training. At one point, she felt that she was losing strength, and breathing too hard. When she visited a doctor who wasn't an athlete himself, he found out that she had a malfunctioning valve; he recommended that she do nothing about it, because she seems to be doing reasonably well as it was. When she sought a second opinion from an athletic doctor, he right away recommended that she come in for surgery. He saw that her triathlon times were down and he saw that she could never be as good an athlete as her potential allowed her. It takes an athlete to care enough to be able to ask the right questions.
Another marathon running buddy of mine who took the New York City Marathon in about 2 hours and 40 minutes, suffered from atrial fibrillation, a problem with the heart. Every doctor he saw, told him that he had no choice but to give up running altogether. An athletic doctor came up with better opinion though. He said that if he made sure that his heart rate was kept to safe levels, and as long as there was no chest pain, he had nothing to worry about. An athlete who has enough crazy dedication to keep to a marathon running training program is not an easy patient for a doctor to have. A patient like this has a quality to his dedication that is very rare. It would take an athletic doctor to understand the seemingly impossible demands of patients like this. A doctor who isn't athletically inclined himself, would rarely understand the reason the patient had to worry about every little thing, things that would rarely matter to any other patient.