I have realized doctors don't do much good, except for very extreme treatments for life-threatening conditions (surgery, powerful medications etc). I'm not saying they never help, just that 99% they do either useless or actively damaging treatments that don't take side-effects into account. They are biased towards unecesserary action. Overuse of antibiotics is just one way this manifests itself, but it is true for most treatments.
People have stopped going to the doctor and most seem fine
31–40 of 76 posts
Re: People have stopped going to the doctor and most seem fine
#32This article seems to suggest that because no spike in short-term ailments due to lower frequency of care has been observed in a 5-month span, there is no damage to the quality of our society's physical health overall. That seems incredibly myopic to me. The real question is whether there there will be statistically detectable increases in severity or prevalence of chronic or emergent ailments in the long run. How ma…
In my mind, the missed cancers could be a problem. But, there's a lot of "health care" that doesn't really need to happen. A few of my family members have chronic health issues that require medication. These are typically prescribed 6-months at a time, requiring in-person bi-annual follow-ups. That's a waste of both parties time - patient and doctor - as 95% of the time, the result is "here's another 6 months" and 5%…
In the UK my follow ups( every 8 to 10 weeks) for a kidney transplant are done over the phone now - its just the bloods I have to go into the hospital for.
Its a real pity Theranos has tainted the testing with small amounts of blood area for the next decade.
Re: People have stopped going to the doctor and most seem fine
#33If I could get antibiotics for strep or sinus infections without going to them, I'd pretty much never go. Those visits are really dumb because I already know what's wrong, and just need them to say "yep, it's the thing you already knew it was, here's a prescription and a bill for doing nothing useful" ... actually on reflection already knowing what's wrong and just needing a doctor to say it so treatment can proceed…
Counterexample from recent personal experience: I developed pain in my hand which made it difficult to type. Some googling revealed that my set of symptoms could be caused by 3 rather different underlying causes requiring very different treatments. Failing to treat the correct underlying cause could permanently damage my ability to use my hand, and thus my ability to earn a living. I _needed_ to go to a physician for…
And what are the odds you will encounter that situation again in the next 10 years? In the same time period, what are the odds you'll need a prescription for antibiotics for a common disease?
No one is saying you should stop seeing doctors entirely, but several things that currently require a doctor's appointment probably shouldn't.
Re: People have stopped going to the doctor and most seem fine
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my mind, the missed cancers could be a problem. But, there's a lot of "health care" that doesn't really need to happen. A few of my family members have chronic health issues that require medication. These are typically prescribed 6-months at a time, requiring in-person bi-annual follow-ups. That's a waste of both parties time - patient and doctor - as 95% of the time, the result is "here's another 6 months" and 5%…
I recently started paying for Direct Primary Care. We signed up as seeing a doctor during COVID became even more difficult than usual. It’s definitely a luxury but I pay $100 a month and my wife and I can bug our respective doctors (she has a woman doctor that will only accept women and children patients; my male doctor only accepts male patients) whenever we want. Obviously we try not to bug them all the time and be…
Effectively you're paying $100 a month to be treated for hypochondria?
Re: People have stopped going to the doctor and most seem fine
#35There is an (admittedly controversial) idea within the medical community of Specialist induced demand. I have heard it quoted to me that studies have shown that when a medical specialist moves into an area that they then generate more demand for related procedures. Personally I am not in the medical profession but am wondering if anyone more knowledgeable can speak to this. Specially what percentage of procedures could be considered in this category or is this just ridiculous?
As a personal example, I received a nose surgery once that opened my nasal area so I could breathe better but it only lasted a few months and after that it seems to have reverted so it appears to be an unnecessary procedure at the end of the day. I have just decided to live with the difficulty as the recovery was awful.
Potentially relevant link: http://www.mit.edu/~erinmj/files/PID.pdf
Re: People have stopped going to the doctor and most seem fine
#36> In a recent survey, only one in 10 respondents said their or a family member’s health had worsened as a result of delayed care during the pandemic. That's 30 million people. And in a fantasy world where going to the doctor in America was cheap and easy, I imagine most people would be happy to go regularly if they knew there was a 10% chance it would make them healthier. Also, how are people answering this survey? O…
If the average family size is three, then to account for the "or a family member's health" would mean something on the order of 10 million Americans adversely affected.
Re: People have stopped going to the doctor and most seem fine
#37If I could get antibiotics for strep or sinus infections without going to them, I'd pretty much never go. Those visits are really dumb because I already know what's wrong, and just need them to say "yep, it's the thing you already knew it was, here's a prescription and a bill for doing nothing useful" ... actually on reflection already knowing what's wrong and just needing a doctor to say it so treatment can proceed…
If people could get antibiotics on demand, the antibiotics would stop working a lot sooner...
Mind you, penicillin is cheap and widespread enough that we could probably hand that out.
Re: People have stopped going to the doctor and most seem fine
#38This article seems to suggest that because no spike in short-term ailments due to lower frequency of care has been observed in a 5-month span, there is no damage to the quality of our society's physical health overall. That seems incredibly myopic to me. The real question is whether there there will be statistically detectable increases in severity or prevalence of chronic or emergent ailments in the long run. How ma…
In my mind, the missed cancers could be a problem. But, there's a lot of "health care" that doesn't really need to happen. A few of my family members have chronic health issues that require medication. These are typically prescribed 6-months at a time, requiring in-person bi-annual follow-ups. That's a waste of both parties time - patient and doctor - as 95% of the time, the result is "here's another 6 months" and 5%…
If all the doctor does is say "here's another dose", then something is wrong, for sure. My experience in needing occasional prescriptions for asthma inhalers (not in the US) has been that the doctor gave me a quick but thorough check up every time to ensure that my condition was not worsening. That's the reasoning behind it. Whether it's a valid reason or not, I don't make a claim either way. But I don't think this level of cynisism that says the doctors only do it for a paycheck is fair or warranted.
Re: People have stopped going to the doctor and most seem fine
#39“Only” 1 in 10 respondents said their health had worsened due to delayed treatment? That seems really high to me! There’s a very obvious ulterior motive we could ascribe to papers publishing anti-healthcare pieces. e: and note this is only people whose health WORSENED. People like me who have a condition which has stayed the same, but have not been able to receive further tests and treatment, are not accounted for in…
The quote is "only one in 10 respondents said their health or a family member’s health had worsened as a result of delayed care". You may still think this is high, but it's not "1 in 10" when accounting for family size.
Re: People have stopped going to the doctor and most seem fine
#40If I could get antibiotics for strep or sinus infections without going to them, I'd pretty much never go. Those visits are really dumb because I already know what's wrong, and just need them to say "yep, it's the thing you already knew it was, here's a prescription and a bill for doing nothing useful" ... actually on reflection already knowing what's wrong and just needing a doctor to say it so treatment can proceed…
The fact that you used antibiotics as the example makes me very uneasy on this.
Antibiotics are almost certainly over-prescribed, and humanity is ultimately going to lose them as a result. It's good to make absolutely sure that you need them.