I'm sorry; I may be very dense, but I don't quite understand this. How can someone be killed twice? JJ
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First the work day routine sets up for early disability (heart and weight), and second followed by early death when it actually kills you. That's two.
``But the tendency you point out is counterbalanced by opposing tendencies, just as tendencies in the whole capitalist system oppose each other...''
Well there may be opposition but business administrators make the final decisions, so opposing tendencies are resolved in favor of what is best for business.
``The "barefoot doctor" sort of idea. If the demand for such care rises, that would be such an opposing tendency...''
The demand for barefoot doctors (real doctors) is intense. But the longer time you spend on one patient interfers with the cash flow of seeing many patients all conveniently lined up in beds for morning rounds. Fifty dollars for one patient, or fifty each for ten.
``...what about the stories of unnecessary tests.''
Testing is a tough debate. The underlying problem is that the body only has a limited repetitore of overt symptoms that can be `read' by examination. Pain, temperature, swelling, redness, blood pressure, and the ubiquitous `flu like symptoms'. Hence lab tests narrow down the possibilities. Also doctors are taught to read tests results. It's a matter of narrowing down the focus to a few possibilities that can be accurately measured by a particular set. For example, cancers kill cells and these cell contents are dumped into the blood, so the highten presence of particular cytosol proteins in blood indicate mass cell deaths. The particular proteins help narrow down the likely tissues involved, which in turn can be tested individually with various imaging systems say, x-ray with radioisotopes, then may biopsy to narrow down what type of cancer or growth. Once a treatment regime is started, more tests to see if the particular regime is working, etc. Pretty soon you are spending half your week going in for tests.
``..Not necessarily true, again. I happen to be a type 2 diabetic, which is a chronic condition which gets a heck of a lot of attention..''
Yeah but, diabeties usually shows up as an acute condition (I think). Then the treatment keeps it from becoming acute again. The kind of chronic conditions I had in mind are the slow progressive type things like arthritis. Treatments like various kinds of herbal teas and heat and cold treatments and modest kinds of exercise which might be possible traditional approachs treat the symptoms of course and not the disease. I am not sure there is any preventative treatment. Don't know.
CG