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He Was Right and No One Listened: Talking Back to a Number · Truth in Motion with Dr. Jocelyn

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Truth in Motion with Dr.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jocelyn, where insight, clarity, and wisdom help you thrive.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for spending a few minutes with me today.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yesterday, we looked at pictures.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: We saw how cutting off the bottom of a chart can turn a small rise into a mountain, how a picture drawn twice as tall can look many times bigger, and how Florence Nightingale drew the truth so clearly it changed how soldiers were cared for.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we learned to ask, where does the line start?
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Today we bring the whole week together.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: How do we talk back to a number?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: In the 1840s, a young doctor named Ignaz Semmelweiss was working in the maternity wards of the great Vienna General Hospital.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: The hospital had two clinics where women gave birth.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: One was run by doctors, the other was run by midwives.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And Semmelweis noticed something in the numbers.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: In the doctor's clinic, about one mother in ten was dying of childbed fever.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: In the midwives clinic, the rate was under four in a hundred.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: In April of 1847, the death rate in the doctor's clinic reached 18%, almost one mother in five.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So in the middle of May, Semmelweiss made a simple rule.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Before examining a woman, every doctor had to wash his hands in a chlorine solution.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: In June, the death rate fell to about 2%.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: In July, about 1%.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: In August, under 2%.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: The numbers were clear.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: He was right.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he was ignored.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Many doctors were offended at the very suggestion that their hands could be the problem.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: His ideas were rejected and ridiculed.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: He lost his position at the hospital and eventually left Vienna.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote open letters to his critics, and they were furious, attacking letters.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: In 1861, he published a whole book laying out his case.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: In 1865, Ignaz Semmelweiss died in an asylum at 47 years old from an infected wound.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: He had the right numbers.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: He saved mothers' lives, and still, almost no one listened.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Why does this matter?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because numbers come at us every day, from headlines, from companies, from the professionals we trust with our bodies.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And most of us respond in one of two ways.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: We freeze and quietly go along, or we push back so hard that the other person stops listening.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Semmelweiss shows us both sides.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: The doctors around him didn't question their own numbers, and when Semmelweiss questioned them, he did it in a way that made them dig in.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Talking back to a number well is a skill.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: It can protect our health, and it can keep the relationships we need to stay well.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Here's where I stand.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I believe asking questions about a number is not rudeness.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's partnership.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Any professional worth trusting should welcome our questions.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that includes me.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was trained to be a good team player, and I've learned that the best way I can serve any team is to tell the truth kindly.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Truth without grace gets ignored.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Grace without truth gets nowhere.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: We need both.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think the goal is to win an argument.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is to understand what a number really means for this one body, this one life, and then to make our own choice.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: All week we've been building a toolkit.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's lay it out on the table.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: On Monday, we saw a tobacco company write that doubt was its product.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we learned to ask, who is telling me this?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Who paid for it?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what would they gain if I believed it?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: On Tuesday, we saw a giant poll miss an election and an aspirin study that counted only men.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: We learned to ask, who was counted?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are they like me?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: On Wednesday, we saw a doubled risk that meant one more woman in 7,000.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: We learned to ask, percent of what?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Out of a hundred people like me, how many?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Over how long?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And yesterday, we learned to ask of any picture, where does the line start?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Does the size match the number?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: A handful of questions.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: None of them requires a degree.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Every one of them gives some of the choice back to us.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let's practice.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Start with a headline.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: A headline is the easiest number to talk back to, because we're really talking to ourselves.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: When a headline makes us feel something strongly, afraid, excited, guilty, that's our signal to pause.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then we ask, quietly, who's telling me this?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And who paid for the study?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Who was counted?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Percent of what?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: If the article doesn't say that empty space is information, we don't have to decide anything today.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know yet is a perfectly honest answer.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a company.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: An ad, a label, a website, a sales call.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here, the kindest, clearest thing we can do is ask for the plain numbers.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: How many people were in the study?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Out of a hundred people like me, how many were helped?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: How many had side effects?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Who paid for the research?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: A company with honest numbers is usually glad to share them, and when they can't or won't, that tells us something too.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: The hardest one is the person in the white coat or across the treatment table, someone we respect, someone we may need.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the good news.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to invent our own questions.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Health systems themselves have started handing them to patients.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: In Scotland, the National Health Service in Greater Glasgow and Clyde teaches patients a simple word to remember.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: B-R-A-N.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Benefits.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: What are the benefits of my treatment?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Risks.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: What are the risks of my treatment?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Alternatives.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Are there any alternative treatments I could try?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: What if I do nothing?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And in the United States, a campaign called Choosing Wisely gives patients five questions to ask before any test, treatment, or procedure.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do I really need this test or procedure?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: What are the risks?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Are there simpler, safer options?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: What happens if I don't do anything?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: How much does it cost?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that one.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are there simpler, safer options?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's the question at the heart of how I practice.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Gentlest, safest first.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And here it is, recommended to patients by mainstream medicine.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's be realistic.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: No practitioner walks around with every statistic memorized.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And for many of the things we care about most, the research that could give exact numbers simply hasn't been done.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: So these questions aren't a test our practitioner has to pass.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're a way to start an honest conversation.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: How we ask matters too.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: A few ways to say it, kindly and clearly.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Can you help me understand what this means for someone like me?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: What have you seen this do for people like me?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: How strong is the evidence for this, and where does it come from?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: What would you want to know if this were your mother?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: None of those is an accusation.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Every one of them is an invitation to partnership.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the most honest answer we'll hear is, we don't know.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: There isn't good research on that yet.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a failure.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's a practitioner telling us the truth.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Then, experience, careful observation, and our own record of how our body responds become part of the evidence too.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And here's one more thing.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: We never need permission to think it over.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: When a decision is ours, we can simply say, I'm going to take some time with this, and I'll let you know.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Taking time to decide is our right.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if a professional is irritated by honest questions like these, that's information too.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's one more kind of number I want us to talk back to.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: The ones we carry around about ourselves.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: The number on the scale, a lab value circled in red, an age, a diagnosis with a statistic attached to it.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Most people with this never fully recover.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: At your age, that's just how it is.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Many of us take numbers like these and quietly turn them into who we are.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: We stop saying, I have a high number, and start saying, I'm a high-risk person.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: We stop saying, most people with this don't recover, and start believing, I won't.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: A number can describe something about us.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: It can never define us.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we use the same questions here too.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Who was counted in that statistic?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Were they like me?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Percent of what?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Over how long?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And remember what we learned on Wednesday.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: An average describes a crowd.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't decide what happens to any one person in it.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Something shifts when we stop living as a number and start living as a person again.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Not because the number disappears overnight, because we remember we have a choice in how we respond to it.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: You are more than a lab value.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: You are more than a statistic.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: You are more than a label.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And your body is still doing the wisest thing it can, every single day with what it's been given.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to Vienna.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Semmelweiss had the numbers.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: He had the truth.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: What he didn't have was a way to help others receive it.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: His letters attacked the very people he needed to persuade.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't say that to blame him.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: He watched mothers die who didn't have to.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: His anger came from love.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that anger.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: But his story teaches us something we can carry.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Being right is not enough.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk back to a number, especially to someone we need, we want to be right and kind, clear and curious, firm about the questions, gentle with the person.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's how the truth gets heard.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how we stay in the room long enough to make a real choice.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: This week, we look behind the number.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's practice, and it's one to keep.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Take a small card or a note on your phone.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Write down the questions that mean the most to you.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's B-R-A-N.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's what have you seen this do for people like me?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's, are there simpler, safer options?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Bring that card to your next appointment.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: When a number comes your way, you won't have to remember.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: You'll just have to read.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: This week, we looked behind the number.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: We saw a tobacco company manufacture doubt.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: We saw who gets counted and who gets left out.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: We saw how average and risk can scare us or sell us.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: We saw how a picture can bend the truth or reveal it.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And today, we saw a doctor who was right and still went unheard.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we saw why it matters.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: A number we never question makes our decisions for us.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: When we ask, kindly and clearly, we get the choice back.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Next week, we turn to the body itself.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: What do we assume a body is?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: A machine of separate parts?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or a living garden where everything is connected?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because the picture we hold of the body decides how we care for it.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'll meet you there, with you every step of the way.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the conversation going.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Find your next steps in Notes from a Fellow Traveler, my blog.