If you’re like most people, you’ve probably stretched the truth at a doctor’s appointment. That could look like lying about how much you drink each week, how much you exercise, your depression symptoms or your thoughts on taking a new medication.
In fact, a University of Utah study found that anywhere from 60% to 80% of adults lie to their doctors about their lifestyle habits.
Failing to disclose your full health picture to your doctor can harm your well-being, making these kinds of omissions particularly dangerous. Of course, there are many reasons why people omit the truth; they may lie because they’re afraid of a lecture, wary of a new prescription or afraid of judgment from a doctor.
“People really think that doctors judge them and are going to look at them differently and treat them differently if they know some of this information about their habits, good or bad,” said Dr. Katie Freeman, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. “But we really don’t care. We don’t have time to judge people. We really want to know so that we can figure out what that next step looks like.”
Keeping things from your doctor only makes their job harder and jeopardizes your health. Below, doctors share the topics they really wish patients would stop lying about and why it’s so harmful to do so:
1. Not taking your medication.
“I find that one thing that I really, really always want to know is if someone is not taking their medication,” said Dr. Raquel Zemtsov, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
This is a common problem. Research shows that as many as 50% of people on statins, a cholesterol-lowering medication, stop taking it or don’t take it as prescribed within the first year of starting the medication.
Zemtsov said she won’t be disappointed or upset to learn that a patient has stopped taking a medication, “but if you’re still having symptoms and I think you’re taking a medication, I may have a different decision, or may come up with a plan that isn’t helpful or safe for you,” she said.
This could look like prescribing additional medication, ordering workups or increasing dosage, Zemtsov added, when it isn’t actually necessary.
If you aren’t taking your medication for any reason (such as side effects, cost or trouble remembering to take it), it’s important to tell your doctor.
“We can come up with a plan together to find either a better medicine or a better way to take it without having to have any extra tests or imaging or any other prescriptions done because I think that the treatment isn’t working,” Zemtsov said.
2. If you’re uncomfortable with a treatment plan.
While medication adherence certainly falls into this, it’s also important to tell your doctor if you are not willing to follow through with a certain treatment plan from the start, according to Freeman.
If you had side effects from a medication or are nervous about a necessary procedure and plan to cancel it as a result, you should let your doctor know. This way, they can either help calm your nerves or prescribe an alternative that you’re comfortable with and will follow through with.
If your doctor doesn’t understand your true lifestyle habits, they won’t be able to fully help with your health concerns.
3. Lifestyle habits like exercise and diet.
Humans are known to downplay the things we aren’t proud of, Freeman explained. This includes not engaging in lifestyle habits you know you should adopt, such as exercising and eating enough fruits and vegetables.
“If I don’t know that someone isn’t exercising or not eating healthfully, it may not occur to me to look for other conditions that might happen, too, because of that, like diabetes or high cholesterol,” Zemtsov said.
If your doctor is under the impression that you’re getting the fiber you need or strength training the right amount, they may not advise you on what you actually need to be doing, either.
4. Substance use, including alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.
For many people, when a doctor asks how much they drink, how often they smoke, if they use cannabis or if they take illegal substances, the gut reaction is to stretch the truth, whether intentionally or not. Maybe you tell your doctor you have six drinks a week when that number is actually closer to 10. Or perhaps you share that you smoke cannabis once a month when it’s actually more like five times a month.
It’s important to be honest with your doctor about your substance use, both experts told HuffPost. Substance use can impact many aspects of your health, including your sleep quality, cancer risk, breathing and cognition.
If a doctor thinks a patient isn’t using a certain substance or is doing so in a low amount, the counseling around that topic won’t be helpful since the doctor simply won’t know the patient’s specific needs, explained Freeman.
For example, “if you’re drinking at a certain level and you’re minimizing that, then I don’t have the space to really provide you with the right information about the effects this could have on you. What it might do to your liver? What it might do to your blood counts and your bone marrow, how it affects your energy and your sleep and your mood,” Freeman noted.
Moreover, substance use often gives doctors a peek into your physical and mental health. Zemtsov said she finds that when people use substances outside of healthy or legal parameters, it’s a way to treat symptoms or concerns they’re having. “Be it anxiety, depression or pain,” Zemtsov added.
Understanding why someone is using a substance can allow doctors to talk about substance use risks and to address the root problem driving the substance use, she explained.
“I’ve been able to have some really fruitful discussions that came from learning someone smokes every day because they have really bad anxiety. We’re able to get them therapy, and I can start them on medication, and they feel so much better that maybe they stop smoking, and now their breathing feels better too,” Zemtsov said.
5. ‘Embarrassing’ things like bowel movements and urination.
“The other thing that I’d love people to know is, I think people worry about talking to their doctor about their bowels or their bladder or the diarrhea that they’ve been having for a long time, or that rash that’s in a weird spot that no one can see but really bothers them,” Freeman said.
“I really think folks think that doctors are going to find that gross,” Freeman added, noting that this couldn’t be further from the truth.
It can be uncomfortable to talk to your physician about things that aren’t commonly discussed socially, but it’s important for your physician to know.
“If your doctor doesn’t know, then they can’t help you,” Freeman said. While you can search for information about your “embarrassing” problem online, “it’s actually much more comfortable and probably safer and more private to tell your doctor,” Freeman added.
“We do have things that can help and can really improve people’s quality of life and ability to do things,” said Freeman.
Additionally, certain occurrences may be signs of more significant issues that your doctor may want to test for. For example, bowel issues are often tied to colorectal cancer, and rates are currently on the rise.
6. Your sexual health.
“I work to make an environment where my patients know that they can talk to me about anything and that sexual health is part of health,” Dr. Beth Oller, a family physician based in Kansas, told HuffPost via email.
“Often, when I ask someone about their sexual health, it is the first time they have been asked, and they have just assumed that painful intercourse or erectile dysfunction is something they just have to deal with,” she said.
Patients shouldn’t be embarrassed about these topics, Oller said, but should instead feel empowered to bring up sexual challenges to their doctor.
Sexual health issues can weigh on an individual physically and mentally, and they can sometimes be indicative of other health problems. Erectile dysfunction, for one, is linked to diabetes and heart disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. And vaginal dryness can be a sign of menopause and an autoimmune disease known as Sjögren syndrome.
If physicians don’t know about an issue, they can’t help, Oller added.
“If you don’t feel comfortable talking to your physician about sexual health (or anything else that is affecting your health), it may be time to look for another provider,” she said.
It can be challenging to find a doctor you trust, but once you do, it’s easier to be honest about your lifestyle habits — good or bad.
“Having a regular primary care provider, whether it’s a family doctor or an internal medicine doctor, pediatrician, I think, promotes trust with that doctor, which allows people to be more honest and more comfortable,” Freeman said.
When you see the same doctor again and again, it also becomes easier to work with them to make lifestyle or habit changes, she added.
“I think it’s important to make sure that you’re seeing a primary care doctor who you feel advocates for you and listens to you because having a physician who you feel like does those things also makes it easier for you to talk about what’s important to you and,” Zemtsov said, “ultimately, it’s our job to help you and and we can’t do that unless we know everything about you.”
Need help with substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.
The original version of this story was published on HuffPost at an earlier date.
