Who's driving up health costs?

[samsara15]

No one seems to notice that all the screening, testing, and drugs prescirbed by Primary Care Physicians are a substantial part of those costs. We have been giving people pills for 20-25 years now, for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Where are the dramatic decreases in heart attacks and strokes that all those pills should have produced? What about the PSA tests, and mammary exams, the colonoscopies that only benefit the left colon? What useful functions do PCPs serve? When I have attempted to use my Primary Care Physicians for basic health care, such as cutting myself with lawn shears, they either brushed me off or sent me to the emergency room, and my PCPs are very highly rated by the local rating services. What about all the negative effects of over-treating people, that seem to be ignored?

 

[Helicitor]

No one seems to notice that all the screening, testing, and drugs prescirbed by Primary Care Physicians are a substantial part of those costs. We have been giving people pills for 20-25 years now, for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Where are the dramatic decreases in heart attacks and strokes that all those pills should have produced? What about the PSA tests, and mammary exams, the colonoscopies that only benefit the left colon? What useful functions do PCPs serve? When I have attempted to use my Primary Care Physicians for basic health care, such as cutting myself with lawn shears, they either brushed me off or sent me to the emergency room, and my PCPs are very highly rated by the local rating services. What about all the negative effects of over-treating people, that seem to be ignored?

How dare you question the validity of the scientific consensus that ingesting poisons for a significant fraction of your life will miraculously extend it by many many years.

Yeah. When my "docs" started prescribing tons of blood pressure medicine for borderline hypertension when I was in my 30s, I took it without question. After experiencing nasty side effects with ALL the different type drugs, I started doing my own research. At one point, I stopped taking one drug (because of angioderma--swelling of the lips for no good reason) in preparation for starting combination therapy. While the one drug was clearing my system, I kept checking my blood pressure as I was concerned about rebound. Guess what. It went down. Yup, the drugs were making it higher.

I haven't taken anything for 3 years, and I feel better and my BP is at least as good as when I was on the drugs. My research has turned up that most studies do NOT find a pronounced positive effect for most drugs like BP and Statins. No real difference in morbidity or mortality. It only seems to really help if you've already had a heart attack and survived. Many, like statins, can have significant side effects, to include neurologic effects.

Exercise and diet (and some red wine in moderation) is the best thing for your long term health, but who makes money off of that? Oh, and chill out. Stress kills almost as fast as chain smoking.