STAT October 7, 2025
Instead of focusing on future doctors like me, expand access to registered dieticians
During my third-year neurology rotation, I had several elderly patients present to the clinic with concerns about “pins and needles” sensations affecting their mobility. Each time these patients came, my resident physician would ask me what labs we should request. Checking their vitamin B12 level was high on the list.
Vitamin B12 deficiency is one of the most common causes of peripheral neuropathy, particularly in elderly patients, which affects their balance and ability to walk. This is a nutritional fact I, and almost every medical student in America, learned in pre-clinical nutrition courses.
One of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s refrains has been that doctors don’t...
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