As hard as it is for us GPs to admit, we aren't the real healers

The Swedish word for physician is 'läkare', which literally means healer.

That seems a lot more glamorous than the American word 'physician', which is derived from 'physic', the old-fashioned laxatives that were thought to rid the body of poisons and impurities.

But we are actually the healers a lot less often than we think.

The more we learn about how the body works, the more we have to admit that rather than us doctors, it is each patient that heals himself or herself with at most some guidance from us.

We may recommend a change in diet,