One of the top health stories now in America underscores something that can't be stressed enough: Doctors exist for a reason. Don't delay seeing a doctor if you need to.
I have to say this, because around the time I started high school, my whole family seemed to pretty much swear off physicians forever, because medical care got too expensive. They could be sick for a week, and they wouldn't go within 3 miles of the doctor's office.
Although I'm not a doctor, I think flushing the ears with hydrogen peroxide to prevent a common cold, or even after symptoms first appear, works. I've mentioned it before, and it's discussed on other websites. But if a cold sets in, and this treatment no longer works, visit a physician. Now. Right away. This instant. Pronto. Worry about the cost later.
It can actually save your life.
CNN reports that the killer adenovirus - a potentially fatal form of the common cold - is approaching epidemic levels. The state of Oregon seems to be hit particularly hard by this deadly virus. Even people who were in perfect health have died from it. In Oregon alone, at least 7 have died. But this is a nationwide alert.
Instructively, the existence of the adenovirus has been known for decades - but it apparently didn't mutate into its fast-spreading killer form until 2005. So you can't blame Carter for this, Freepers. (Have you also noticed that people get sick a lot more now than they did in the '70s? I think I can count on one hand the number of times I was sick before second grade.)
This also highlights the point that you can't trust the current government in battling the epidemic. The CDC refused to admit the spread of the fatal virus until after it had long since sickened many. Indeed, the long-running policies that have made health care too expensive and the official pronouncements that nobody should see a doctor for a cold have contributed to the current threat by conditioning people into thinking they shouldn't seek treatment if they get sick.
So take my advice. Or don't spread the misery.
(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/12/19/killer.cold/index.html)
Saturday, December 22, 2007
If you're sick, see a doctor
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People flooding emergency rooms and doctors offices for minor colds is what drives up health-care costs and delays care for those who really need it.
ReplyDeleteEvery cold is not this strain. Most aren't. Use common sense. Bandit didn't consult a medical professional when he wrote this, it's a reaction to an article he read on CNN's web site. He probably means well, but he doesn't always think things through.
Read the article again. This is not a 'minor' cold. Ask the seven who died how 'minor' it is.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have ever had a 'minor' cold.
But you raise something interesting...If visiting the doctor for a potentially deadly virus delays care for others who need it even more, then it proves America is already severely rationing health care. One of the fears from the neocons was that health care reform would involve rationing...but we already have it now.`
None of this may matter anyway because they ban every treatment that works.
In the days of the medicine man you didn't see people put on a waiting list for six months to see him. Health care is worse now than it was 2000 years ago.
Read what I wrote again. I'll repeat: Every cold is not this deadly strain. If everyone who sneezed went to the doctor, it would be even harder to get an appointment. Besides that, sitting in a doctor's waiting room is good place to pick up something worse.
ReplyDeleteDemand for health care is rising as the population gets older and, it's not "PC" to say it but, fatter. At the same time, there's a shortage of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. See the 'help wanted' ads under health care. In most any newspaper you'll find a lot of them. Also, notice the number of doctors coming to this country from India and southeast Asia. It's not rationing, it's demand.
If you prefer first-century and early medicine, it is actually still being practiced today. They're called holistic healers now instead of medicine men. There's also naturopathy.
Scheffbd??
ReplyDeleteIf you're so worried about people going to the doctor when they don't need it....what about all the people who have cosmetic surgery??
I don't mean people who have some serious deformity. I mean people who are just trying to reverse the natural process of aging.
If you're 60, why try looking 30, when so many people don't even live to see 30??
And I do use herbal medicine which the government tries to discourage.
If busy hospitals are performing elective cosmetic surgery, that's a problem. But, not having any experience with cosmetic surgery, isn't most of it done outpatient in offices that are more like beauty spas than hospital operating rooms?
ReplyDeleteI can't believe someone is actually encouraging people to NOT see a doctor?
ReplyDeleteFuck.
Is this what the country has stooped too?
If you go to a doctor when you're sick, it shouldn't drain resources from other sick people.
Doctors are for sick people. In the richest country in the world, why are we choosing which sick people to serve?
The old-fashioned "medicine man" (so to speak) didn't have the most modern medicine, but he didn't have to choose which sick people to serve either.
Would you rather have basic first century medicine or no medicine?
I say that if America won't fix its current system, it should supplement it with a traditional medicine man or woman in every community.
In essence I agree with Louis...If we don't have enough doctors, maybe we should allow licensed nurses to issue prescriptions...and provide a dispensary in every community. (Right now the drugstores are often part of a big box store that is out in the suburbs where people can't reach them.)
ReplyDeleteAlready nurses do have plenty of training. We already trust their judgment in time of need. Maybe with some extra training we can authorize some nurses to authorize prescriptions.
(If you think that's a bad idea, I'll have you know that most other countries already allow this to some extent.)