I Was An MIT Educated Neurosurgeon Now I'm Unemployed and alone in the mountains

I suggest watching the whole video, I found it very interesting. Here's my attempt to summarize the key points.

An MIT-educated neurosurgeon quit his job after realizing surgeries weren’t addressing the root cause of patients’ problems. He observed that the outcome of surgeries would vary greatly: for some it would help, for others a bit and for others, it would not help at all even though he performed them perfectly every time. Some patients even called before the surgery to say that they were okay and no longer needed surgery.

So he started asking patients questions and after 9 years he concluded that patients who got better and healed did the following (at 19:42 in the video): low salt diet; mostly plant-based diet; did things that would cause sweat: exercise, sauna, or living in hot weather; did not smoke; drank little to no alcohol; had good social support: family, friends, etc; slept 8 hours a day; were not stressed or managed to release it back, e.g. meditate.

Then he talks about the moral dilemma. If he helps patients to truly heal by sharing what he has learned, he and the hospital would not make money.

DISCLAIMER: If you have back/spine problems and you delay surgery because you hope the problem would go away on its own, with healthy living, you might end up with damaged/dead nerves which is irreparable damage, which even a delayed surgery cannot fix.

With regards to for-profit medicine, this is why I hate all market based health insurance systems. Even if you are rich and get treated like a king, you still have to question whether your doctor/surgeon is trying to sell you a procedure. The only system that does not suffer from this issue is the NHS (e.g. UK) where the incentive is lacking. The debate about health care systems tends to focus on availability and coverage, but this for-profit perverse incentive is orthogonal to all that.

I was pretty moved by this. It wasn't what I expected. It's his personal experience working as a neurosurgeon for 9 years, his critiques of US healthcare, his recognizance of burnout, and his escape from it all. What comes across most, especially on youtube, is his sincerity and lack of presentation or preaching. It's so personal and ends up kind of inspiring.

He talks slowly and you can watch at 1.5x.

Edit: Why is this flagged?

The channel contains 10-hour-long videos of natural sounds.

Maybe the post is less about what is right or wrong in medicine and more about the author having gone into the wrong field, which is opposite to what they enjoy in life.

Perhaps all along, the author misunderstood what modern medicine is about and how life really works. There is no miracle cure that would restore the neural system.

There is a miracle prevention however, be active, exercise, eat well, sleep well, enjoy life, contribute to society. That will help your back more than surgery once things go bad.

I have taken career breaks. I don't call myself unemployed. To me, unemployed means that you are not working but you want to be. It seems like the terms "unemployed" and "alone in the mountains" are just being used to dramatic effect. Am I wrong?

This part resonated:

".. When you let go of something you are holding too tightly, even though it's hurting you. When you let go of it, then you are able to pick up something else that is hopefully better for you."

Despite all the post-rationalization on the why's of medicine, it does feel like he is someone bouncing back from Burnout.

The risk being that he may fall into the opposite end of the pendulum swing. As the saying goes: "A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

In the end there is a balance to everything, I hope he finds his.

When he isn't talking about medicine, I get very strong Chris McCandless vibes. That need to be free, away from modern life, the demands, the unnecessary stress. Maybe get away from people too (which is harder to admit to... people directly).

I haven't come across a video yet but I'm sure he's better prepared for outdoor living than some others that have done similar. There's a large sub-community of Van Lifers doing similar. With a little planning and preparation, it's a great life. Especially for those that clearly need to get away from it all.

I can't imagine how difficult the decision was. He basically said that his entire 9 year career was emotionally difficult. That is a heavy burden to bear for so long. I'm certain that his upbringing, his years of preparation, the expectations of the world... made the decision to walk away (without a plan) seem overwhelming.

Still... he broke free from all of that!

Honestly... I feel so happy for him. To be able to make the decision and implement it. To be at a point where he can begin talking about it, freely. To be connected to civilization on his terms. To live his life in a way that makes him happy.

I'm wondering, does anyone know what are the chances for returning to neurosurgery after an extended hiatus? Person in the video practiced for a decade (edit: nearly a decade of practice, and two decades total including training), I'm sure burnout is common in the field, but I wonder if people that left ever make their way back.

A remarkable video, I'm so glad I watched it. I can't explain why except to say you'll know after you watch it.

I (non-US, non-neurosurgeon) work with a lot of neurosurgeons in my daily practice and here’s my two cents on this.

Dude is a neurosurgeon. There are lots of other options for neurosurgeon, and some of them are really rewarding. You don’t like spine surgery because of all the aforementioned reasons? Why not try neuro-vascular surgery, where you cure stroke? Or neurosurgical oncology, where you cure cancer? Or neurosurgical trauma, where you are literally putting people’s head back together.

Dude has a huge dysphoria problem with his job, probably burn-out or something, I don’t know, but throwing away years of educations is kinda wasteful.

He could have tried injecting senolytics into the weared disks to remove senescent inflammatory phenotypes, as there is some research in senolytics (dasatinib+quercetin) improving arthritic knee joints by removal of senescent inflammatory cells which allows the new cartilage to grow.

Very poignant and from the heart! Thank you for sharing. But oh man, when that mosquito was on his cheek, I got so anxious about whether or not he'd slap it away...

Super cool project.

netflix special ... when?

A dentist can fix cavities. But what was the root cause? Lifestyle. What can a dentist do about it? Largely nothing. Of course there's going to be advice to brush your teeth and avoid sugary drinks, but such advice is given to children many times over before a dentist sees a cavity.

So is it myopic for a dentist to focus on fixing cavities? Is the dentist missing something big? The dental industry also experiences a problem that if everyone started brushing well then the industry would largely crash. Does that stop dentists from telling people to brush? No.

Not a fan of anywhere with that many mosquitos.