We compare options when we shop for everything from laptops to lawnmowers, skimming reviews and weighing our choices. Yet when a doctor recommends a surgery that will change our bodies forever, many of us say “yes” on the spot. We treat the most consequential choices of our lives with less scrutiny than a $150 purchase on Amazon.
Medicine isn’t math. Two specialists can read the same results and see different stories, shaped by training and philosophy. A cardiologist may lean toward a stent and a functional doctor might start with diet and medication. Both can be reasonable, but neither is absolute.