“Life is becoming a symptom”
According to a New York Times article published in January of this year, “more and more people are being drawn into treatment as a result of an astonishing increase in diagnoses and ever-expanding definitions of what constitutes disease.” In other words, we are developing diagnoses for virtually every symptom that comes down the pike, and concurrently developing drug treatments for these diagnoses. This, in fact, may place more and more patients in danger than if they were simply left alone.
Routine daily experiences such as periodic insomnia, sadness and twitching legs are now being given the diagnosis of sleep disorder, depression or restless leg syndrome, each with a miraculous drug which will take care of these specific symptoms. The really alarming aspect of this article is the fact that we are medicalizing childhood. In other words, trouble with reading is now considered dyslexia and unhappiness is seen as depression in children. Once again with drugs to compensate for these intermittent, routine symptoms.
We are also now beginning to diagnose illnesses in individuals with no symptoms. Many of my patients have experienced this when going in for routine tests or being checked for a specific condition during which another totally unrelated condition is identified. The unrelated condition is either not currently presenting symptoms or the treating doctors feel the patient merely at risk of developing a condition. These conditions are diagnosed utilizing a myriad of ultra-technological diagnostic studies such as CAT scans, ultrasounds, MRI scans and PET scans. Subtle minor flaws can be detected putting practically everyone at risk of developing something.
The other aspect of this dilemma that has been brought to light in this New York Times article is that thresholds for specific diseases are being lowered annually. The thresholds for diagnosing diabetes which used to be a reading over 140 is now a reading over 110. Hypertension or high blood pressure limits, in order to place a diagnosis on the condition have been dropped. Thresholds for osteoporosis and obesity equally have been reduced in recent years. The acceptable level of cholesterol in your bloodstream has been dropped multiple times in the last several years.
Due to many of these changes and diagnostic studies more than half of our population is now considered “diseased”. All of whom have a standardized drug therapy specifically for that newly diagnosed disease.
The best way for each and every patient, and every reader of my articles, to avoid this dilemma is to take better and better care of yourself every year. I have committed myself to learning and studying as much as I can regarding health and wellness. This enables me to be able to impart this information to you through my articles, my practice, and our website, as well as monthly newsletters. This information hopefully will assist you in making small changes on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. My goal is to aid you in improving your health and avoiding many of the modern treatments which, unfortunately, can certainly be more harmful than the “disease” with which you have been diagnosed. The only thing that I recommend that each of you do is take responsibility for your own health. Take responsibility by asking questions of your treating doctor. Take responsibility by researching, studying and learning what you can about the condition with which you have been labeled. Above all look at alternatives for treatment. Always, always recognize that the least invasive treatment with the least side effects is what you should choose. Learn as much as you can, study as much as you can, ask as many questions as you can about what you are being told. With the Internet, access to information is a fingertip away. We always avail our resources and information to any individual or patient who is interested in learning more. Many of my articles are published on our website. If you have interest in a specific subject, scroll through the list of articles, or contact my office and ask if there is any information that can be shared regarding a specific topic.
I thank you for your diligence in
trying to learn more about health and wellness and keeping yourself
healthy. I look forward to bringing you
more information. Please visit our website
at www.upchiropractic.com