Carl Remick wrote:
>
> The overall point is true that excessive testing leads to a
> valetudinarianism, false positives, true-but-meaningless positives (as
> with diagnosis of prostate cancer in older patients who will probably
> die of other causes), needless surgeries, and other individually
> debilitating and socially wasteful consequences. But it is pretty zany
> just to zero in on a small part of this problem and see -- as Brendan
> ONeill does in "What a load of b*ll*cks" -- only some, ah, nutty plot
> to make young males less rambunctious. Medicine's ever increasing Will
> to Test is driven by more-pervasive impulses to control and, above
> all, to bill. I guess the future of the service economy won't be
> people taking in each other's washing but folks giving each other
> clinical tests.
>
> Carl
Judging from my experience, this has the makings of an extremely dangerous situation where due to over-testing and pointless fright, we give up on western meds alltogether. I have actually reached a point where I'm relegating western medicine to emergencies only and depending on acupuncture/herbs, diet, and exercise for my basic good health. My last three run-ins with western meds were absolutely disastrous to my health and seriously retarded/threatened healing. If western medicine observed the first law of medicine: "At least, do no harm," I would be more trusting. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Joanna