Ugh, Don't Be a Doctor Like This

My friend recently went to the doctor with a complaint of symptoms suggestive of exercise induced asthma and night cough with wheezing, with a history of eczema and allergic rhinitis and a strong family history of asthma. The doctor was adamant on not prescribing medications (even for pre-exercise), and not to diagnose asthma as he was not having an acute exacerbation during the time of consultation. Instead, she told him to stop exercising at night for avoidance of exacerbations. The friend then told her that exercising at night is the only usual time, as there is usually no time to do so in the morning or evening.

Then came the hammer (I'm paraphrasing here from memory):

"As a medical student, you need to make some sacrifices. If it means not exercising to prevent an attack, then do so. This is because we are very busy blablabla..."

WTF, that is complete bullsh*t. Just because you are in a busy field like medical does not mean that you should not exercise. And when a person has obstacles to achieving a healthy lifestyle, you help him/her to do so. When a child has exercise induced asthma, do we ever tell the mother to stop the child from exercise instead of prescribing reliever medications to use before physical activities? Do you tell the swimmer to stop swimming because swimming can lead to shoulder impingement? Do you tell the blind to give up on education because he can't "read"?

What happened was completely stupid and fu*king irresponsible. At least she cared enough for this friend of mine:

"Let me prescribe you with vit B complex, as it can help you concentrate."

Talk about not treating the complaint at all. If he's not going to buy for himself the oral salbutamol for prophylaxis pre-exercise, I'll buy it for him.

What an absurd ordeal.