![]() To be more precise, Welch focuses on the US with its peculiar system of health insurance: "The United States is one of only two countries in the world that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs (the other is New Zealand)."Welch takes a systematic look at some of the causes of overdiagnosis: (1) narrowing the acceptable range for metrics such as blood pressure, blood sugar and PSA (prostate specific antigen) (2) more powerful and frequent scans causing increased findings of benign abnormalities known as "incidentalomas" (3) aggressive sampling of tissues to find indicators of cancer which may never cause a problem (4) mail-order DNA analysis encouraging people to look for problems which may not exist.I did enjoy Welch's journalistic exposé, partly because I am from the school of thought that healthy diet and activity should be the main focus for the average Joe rather than trying to preempt far-off conditions and diseases. It is, of course, a problem concentrated in the First World, where doctors, patients and corporations conspire with varying degrees of good will to achieve what statistics prescribe to be the healthy norm. Overdiagnosed has a similar mission, this time targeting the need to find and correct every minor abnormality. Giles Yeo did it in his anti-diet Gene Eating. ![]() Atul Gawande did it in Being Mortal, where he dispels the notion that extending lifespan is the sole goal of treating the elderly. Read moreīashing the status quo is a common theme in popular health and medical non-fiction. Steven Woloshin, have studied the effects of screenings and presumed preventative measures for disease and #8220 pre-disease.#8221 Examining the social, medical, and economic ramifications of a health care system that unnecessarily diagnoses and treats patients, Welch makes a reasoned call for change that would save us from countless unneeded surgeries, debilitating anxiety, and exorbitant costs. #160 #160 Drawing on twenty-five years of medical practice and research, Dr. Documenting the excesses of American medical practice that labels far too many of us as sick, Welch examines the social, ethical, and economic ramifications of a health-care system that unnecessarily diagnoses and treats patients, most of whom will not benefit from treatment, might be harmed by it, and would arguably be better off without screening. Gilbert Welch builds a compelling counterargument that what we need are fewer, not more, diagnoses. ![]() Going against the conventional wisdom reinforced by the medical establishment and Big Pharma that more screening is the best preventative medicine, Dr.
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