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Kitti McMeel's avatar

The flaw in Dr Nabhan’s argument surfaced when he wrote “ I believe that screening select people who meet high risk criteria is a valuable and acceptable practice” the problem with that statement is that screening is aimed at an entire population not just a select few who meet high risk criteria. For example, take mammograms. All women are encouraged, dare I say required through subtle and not so subtle pressure to undergo a painful and not at all benign procedure beginning early in their lives and continuing yearly for the entirety of it. There is data to support that mammograms do not decrease overall mortality. Many lesions are found that had they been ignored would have led to a far better quality of life. I think of the Medical model similar to the Titanic with everyone grasping to hold onto it and salvage what they can. Yes it may help some, but it also injures many. I’ve heard Dr. Prasad comment on this many times. Innovations are slow to turn that ship around because there is so much money invested in the status quo. For example, there are new alternatives to ionizing radiation mammograms that are not offered to women or covered by insurance. There are new procedures for dealing with early stage breast cancer that also are not offered to women or covered by insurance.

I doubt that I will see a change in my lifetime, but Hope springs eternal.

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Crixcyon's avatar

Nearing age 75 and no more screening tests for me other than an occasional blood test perhaps. This assumes that getting screened and finding some bad thing further assumes that the medical mafia has the cure. 95% of the time, it does not.

I will eventually die from something and there is no way any medical expert can say that they could have done something to keep me ticking. That sentiment, like most medicine, is purely guesswork or perhaps you fall somewhere on a chart showing probabilities of living or dying.

The individual never fits the probabilities of the masses. We are not to be treated as a one-size-fits-all number as medicine so easily does.

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