When I first started seeing Dr. Barry Landfield, I was immediately struck by his extremely condescending tone. He rarely smiles and stares down at you through his spectacles, which balance at the end of his nose, while scribbling notes with a fountain pen. If he asks you questions about yourself, he uses them as onramps on which to enter the highway of himself. I was also immediately put off by the staff at the front desk.
I became further skeptical about his practice when I was never offered an EKG exam with my yearly physical, which I hear is customary for men over forty. I'm forty-nine. When I email Dr. Landfield, and/or the front desk, it often takes a long time to hear back from either and when I've tried to make a comment about not having questions answered or hearing responses, I've been met with a hostile defensiveness from the doctor and staff.
My treatment got even worse when I developed high LDL levels and Dr. Landfield ordered me to start taking statins. He offered be zero advice about nutrition, exercise, stress. "Do what I say," he told me early on, "I'm your f***ing doctor!" I nervously chuckled at this thinking that he was being facetious, but he didn't smile at all, and I was left wondering if he was joking or whether he had seriously just yelled a profanity and an order at me. I told him that I was open to taking statins but wanted to do a little research and try a new diet first. He laughed at me, and said it would never work. Having read and heard from a nutritionist that research is finding a correlation between sugar and carbohydrate intake and LDL, I began experimenting with a new diet and with the plan that after a few months I'd get retested and also request to get a thyroid panel, tests for LDL consistency and numbers, and a coronary calcium scan. I thought it couldn't hurt to have as much information as possible. Neither the main person at the front desk, Lizzy, nor Dr. Landfilled responded to my question about why I'd never had an EKG. And after multiple calls and emails, I finally got Lizzy to order the tests. She said that the request of a coronary calcium scan had been denied by insurance and the only way forward was for me to appeal since the doctor had already done what he could to try to convince them. Then I got a letter from my insurance telling me otherwise: "...male patients must have a Framingham calculated risk score of 10-20% to qualify for this test. The note from Dr. Landfilled does not have the required information to calculate the risk score." My doctor had told me that they had done what they could and I'd have to appeal, but then I find out they hadn't bothered to calculate the risk score. My mother's family has a history of heart disease. When I asked him if we could gather the needed information for the risk score, he barked, "That's for me to worry about! Not you!"
After having the other tests done, I was supposed to meet with a nurse to go over the test results. I was happy to be meeting with the nurse since she was at least friendly. She was new at the office. When Dr. Landfield walked into the examining room instead of her, he immediately yelled, "You can take off your mask!" I told him that I'd rather keep it on. Even though I'd been vaccinated and wasn't too concerned, I just wanted to be as careful as possible. He laughed as he walked to the computer, and continued. "Heeelloooo! Here's the mystery man, the man of mysteries!" he yelled in a mocking tone. I was baffled. Was he mocking me? I asked him what (on Earth) he meant and he said that I had ordered tests and he couldn't understand why I'd wanted them. I told him that I wanted an overall picture of my heart health and cholesterol, and he said, "Sure, sure, the more knowledge the better! Knowledge is power!" I again couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic and found this mocking sarcasm unprofessional and deeply offensoffensive. He then yelled, and I mean yelled, "What have you been doing to lower your cholesterol, because you've been doing a terrible job!" At this point he's yelling in my face. I started, "Um, I've been trying to lower my intake of sugar and carbs, and--" At this point he cuts me off and screams, "Those have nothing to do with cholesterol!" He didn't let me even finish telling him about my diet. After going over some of the test numbers and telling me how important they were (even though he'd just told me it was bizarre for me to request the tests), he yelled, "Look, what do I have to do to get you to start statins?!!" I started to tell him that I was open to statins, like I'd told him and the nurse multiple times, but just wanted to experiment a little with diet and lifestyle and gather some more information, he showed me out of the exam room and into the lobby, where yelled in front of wide-eyed patients, "You can find another physician! Good luck finding one! When you find one, call the froth desk to heave your records transferred!" Utterly bewildered, I left the office. read more