Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health

[patty]

I too recommend Dr. Gilbert Welch's book, Over-Diagnosed.

http://anti-itisdiet.blogspot.com/2011/ ... lbert.html

The book contains a lot of information, but following the author's line of argument is easy. The issues are intellectually and emotionally difficult for everyone -- not only patients, but physicians as well.

I have not read all the sections of the book. Some sections -- such as the ones on breast cancer and risky pregnancies -- do not apply to me.

I agree with the author's general conclusion: Modern medicine can solve certain problems that very sick people encounter, and modern medicine deserves credit for that. Patients, however, should be very cautious about screening (testing before there are even any symptoms of illness) and premature diagnoses of "problems" that are unlikely to injure or kill the patient.

The time to read this book, or at least most sections of it, is now -- not when one is frightened by an emerging medical problem.

Mahalo, for bumping this thread up again. What a great article to print to share. And I went back and listened to "Is Preventive Medicine Actually Overtreatment?" And Skip's response to my post is so clear, it is so hard to emotionally disengage from our social herd mentality that medicine is so wrapped around, where food as food for thought is the solution. I have the book on my ipod... and will have to begin to read it again. Hopefully it will come out on audio... Mahalo again.. patty

[Skip]

The link below, from Wikipedia, highlights some of the points in the book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdiagnosis

[mountain]

I read about this book here and decided to read it.....what an eye opener. It is a really good book, somewhat repetitive I found, but the message is clear.

[Skip]

Here is an example of the prevention through screening mode of thinking that we have adopted. It is an ad that you may have heard on the radio:

http://streaming.cdc.gov/vod.php?id=67f ... 8095523000

Why doesn't anyone talk about what might be causing this cancer (like diet) and get to the root of the problem?

The message is that you better get screened because you may have cancer even though you feel great and have no symptoms.

[RowerDave]

Dr. Welch has a new op-ed in today's LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-welch-diagnosis-20110506,0,1693731.story

[patty]

Dr. Welch has a new op-ed in today's LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-welch-diagnosis-20110506,0,1693731.story

I like this:

You might reasonably wonder: How did we get here? A big part of the story is, of course, money. Whether you are a drug company, a hospital or any other player in system, the easiest way to make more money is to encourage lower thresholds and turn more people into patients.

If you haven't seen the movie Inside Job, be sure too. In essence the dominos fall to the educational system. Money/false numbers is the systemic cause in our culture... the belief there is never enough... vs... this too will pass. All nature knows the law: when nature flourishes, population flourishes, when population flourishes, nature decreases... yes, no and wait. Our educational systems need to teach programs of application .... fractal geometry. Numbers, money, healthy cells aren't like musical chairs. When the patients change, take their power back, the system will change as when the consumer changes the suppliers change. We are learning to disengage from a over stimulated culture.

Excellent book and interviews... Aloha patty