Paul Sassone

A philosophy professor told us in class that if humans really were rational, humans wouldn’t smoke.

He said this while exhaling a lung full of smoke from a Camel.

I’ve acted irrationally plenty in my life. And I was tempted to do so again just the other day, not only irrationally but dangerously to boot.

I was meeting with a doctor for the first time. And naturally, he had all kinds of questions about my health and medical history.

A couple of times I was tempted to not answer his questions truthfully. That would be not only irrational but dangerously foolish.

How can a doctor make someone’s health better without accurate information?

Only a dope would withhold medical and health information from a doctor.

And, apparently, there are a lot of dopes in the United States.

Many of us do, indeed, lie to our doctors.

Thirty-eight percent of those in a WebMD survey said they lied to, or withheld information from, their physicians.

A similar survey by the digital health platform, Zocdoc, found that a quarter of those surveyed  admitted lying to their doctor.

Why would we do that?

The reasons for lying most given were embarrassment, fear of being judged, not wanting to be lectured and not having enough time with the doctor. Some patients also lie because they want something from their doctor, such as pain medication.

What do people most frequently lie about? How much they exercise, smoking, sex, alcohol use, recreational drug use.

What was I tempted to lie about?

None of your business.

Suffice it to say that I decided not to lie. I realized how stupid that would be. Because I do like to think I am a pretty rational guy.

But, somewhere deep inside me is the primitive fear that if I mention a disease, or even a symptom, that I would come to have that disease.

Pretty Neanderthal, huh?

So, on behalf of the rational in all of us — and for my own physical well being — I told the truth.

And just doing that made me feel better.

—Feeling better starts with telling the truth–