Now we are suppose to be checking for thyroid cancer! The 40 year war on cancer has been pushing us all into a greater and greater consciousness of how we could die.
Self-screening takes up more and more of our time. And medical procedures to screen for breast, colon, prostrate and thyroid cancer now take up more and more of our medical dollars. Some estimates say $700 billion is spent on medical costs for these early warning cancer screenings. And under most insurance policies we pay for those because yearly exams fall under the annual deductible. Which would be fine I suppose if they work.
But in a recent Times editorial by Natasha Singer doubt is expressed:
An upshot of the decades-long war on cancer is the popular belief that healthy people should regularly examine their bodies or undergo screening because early detection saves lives. But in fact, except for a few types of cancer, routine screening has not been proven to reduce the death toll from cancer for people without specific symptoms or risk factors — like a breast lump or a family history of cancer — and could even lead to harm, many experts on health say.
I can certainly feel that way about exams that are intrusive like pap smears and colon exams. Or exams that squeeze your tits in vises or subject you to continued and regular doses of radiation or microwaves. But I think what bothers me most about this push for awareness of cancer is that they have us thinking constantly about it. Most of my friends are avid readers of books that tout ridding yourself of poverty consciousness or failure mindset. And yet they are constantly talking about their latest cancer screening being negative.
I think cancer awareness programs have created a cancer consciousness which over-estimates our risk of cancer. These programs, I argue, work only for the medical profession. It helps them make their Lexus payments.
I do think most Americans need better body awareness that goes beyond your jeans fitting too tight. And if you sense there is something wrong or don't feel well then see a doctor. But if you feel fine live life to the fullest. Tomorrow you could be hit by a truck.
Hear hear!
ReplyDeleteBravo!
Ditto dear pudel.
My positive test-result flung me into a whirlwind of medical attention which consumed my life, and ended with 'them' saying in 1993:
"Now you will be seeing us every 3 months for the rest of your life".
and I never went back.
I now realise that I should never have aquiesced when first bullied into having ther preventative screening.
We live as long as we are supposed to live.
Keep your affairs in order, your drawers neat, and go when you go.
(ha ha WV is 'lesser' - the lesser of 2 evils is to let disease take you, without a prolongued battleground on your body being the final time of your life.)
yes, I agree. Everytime I go to the Doctors he gives me a list of tests I should be having. I feel fine so they get filed away in the too hard basket. I'm a great fan of modern medicine but there's a time and place for everything.
ReplyDeleteIn my personal opinion I think more damage is caused by the stress waiting for the results of unnecessary tests.
The old saying "what you don't know, won't hurt you" may well apply here.
Coming back here - tomorrow! After several meetings which I don't want to go to.
ReplyDeleteAgree very much to that , I was HIT BY A BUS1lol and since then I been getting \mri cat scans x ray though it cause my head to split open the Dr didnt keep me and I was walking across the street at a walk signal that said walk almost to the otherside wham. ndidnt break any bones but had a serve concusion no Insurance they sent me home as if I fell and scraped my knee , since it was a city bus the test started to come in I need cat mri etc thinking ok the body a bit ouch thinking I still got off lucky they just found several ? csyt around my thyroid and I get to go get a ultra sound Hum wondering where this goes. more to this story got hit in 2001.
ReplyDeletewell a few years ago my mum was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and she had to have a operation to remove abit of the thyroid and now she is happy and living life because she had survived thyroid cancer and she is now hoping it wont come back.
ReplyDeleteI am happy it worked for your mother but the growing evidence is that we may actually be causing cancers to metastasize by treating them rather than monitoring them.
ReplyDeleteResearch is showing that treatments are damaging our immune systems rather than supporting them. And they are swinging back to the "too much" radiation theories which were espoused in our youth. And most diagnostic tools use radiation.