Is Preventive Medicine Its Own Health Risk?

Re:Is Preventive Medicine Its Own Health Risk? by akiselev on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @03:29PM (#8725495)

There's one TEDMED talk about chronic disease [1] in particular that has really stuck with me over the years. At about 2:40 the speaker pulls up a graph compiled from WHO Global Burden of Disease data [2] that shows the occurrence of serious acute (usually communicable) and chronic diseases across countries with high (United States), middle (India), and low (Kenya) incomes.

As you would suspect, the United States has significantly fewer acute diseases than India, which in turn has significantly less acute disease than Kenya. BUT for chronic conditions, the numbers (relative to population size) are pretty much the same across the board. The distribution of chronic disease is slightly different depending on wealth (diabetes vs obesity vs malnutrition vs heart/lung disease like cancer vs liver disease from alcohol, etc) but they are almost entirely preventable often with "just" some life style changes (I'm oversimplifying, but the vast majority of the conditions are considered very preventable). With the United States spending nearly a fifth of its GDP on medical care we STILL have just as big a problem with chronic disease as Kenya, a country where the average income is under $10/day.

Preventive medicine is almost definitely its own health risk but when you look at what we're trying to combat and just how intractable the problem is here in the US, let alone globally, it starts to look like a very acceptable risk.

[1] http://www.tedmed.com/talks/show?id=7333

[2] http://www.who.int/topics/global_burden_of_disease/en/

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Re:Is Preventive Medicine Its Own Health Risk? by protonfish on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @03:59PM (#8725700)

So your logic is: The US is spending nearly a fifth of their GDP on medicine, it has no effect on chronic conditions. Therefore that is a good thing and we should continue.

I think I am missing something.

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Re:Is Preventive Medicine Its Own Health Risk? by akiselev on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @04:19PM (#8725833)

The money we spend may not have an effect on chronic condition occurrence rates but it does have an effect on people, which is the entire point of healthcare. No amount of money spent on an obese patient will change their eating habits; only the patient can do that of their own free will. However, that money will keep them alive longer and drastically increase their quality of life despite the negative impacts of their behavior.

Are you saying you'd rather be in Kenya, where you have almost zero options for improving your quality of life, given a disease that is for all intents and purposes permanent?

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Re:Is Preventive Medicine Its Own Health Risk? by thirdtruck on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @04:19PM (#8725831)

The OP didn't say anything about how much should be spent; they only said how much. One implication is that we're spending it wrong.

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Re:Is Preventive Medicine Its Own Health Risk? by npsimons on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @03:50PM (#8725624)

The problem is twofold in America: first and foremost, no one wants to hear that they need to lose weight and exercise more, they just want a quick fix. Second problem is that there's so much profit motive involved that companies are eager to hype the quick fix, especially in terms of pills that doctors can prescribe in a fifteen minute office visit after plugging your numbers into a company sponsored calculator.

Exercise moderately and eat healthier are probably the most important "preventive" means of health care. Even for conditions that aren't directly related to being overweight or lacking exercise, it can help immensely to correct those two issues.

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Re:Is Preventive Medicine Its Own Health Risk? by Spooky23 on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @06:00PM (#8726437)

Society drives these things.

I'd love to hit he market every other day and have lots of good home cooked meals. But my wife and I work 50-60 hours, and need to have the 2 year old in bed by 8:30. That means out the door at 7, home by 5:30, dinner on the table by 6:30.

I'd love to cook awesome meals and play old man basketball. When do I do that?

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Re:Is Preventive Medicine Its Own Health Risk? by Tagbert on Tuesday December 09, 2014 @09:36PM (#8727371)

You might want to ask yourself why you are working so much. That is a lot of time that you could be spending on yourself and your family. Is it really necessary to work that much? Does your employer really require that or are you enabling them to take advantage of you at the cost of your health?

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