Comments on: If It Ain’t Broke, Improve It

By: Brainetics

Brainetics — Wed, 18 May 2011 08:10:06 +0000

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By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:17:40 +0000

I’ve noticed for years that there is more subliminal messaging in any medical advertisement than anything else out there. Every single one of them has the implied message that “something is wrong with you,” and “we ARE the miracle cure,” even if the drug has absolutely nothing to do with you. Usually it’s some convincing [blue or green-eyed] actor swearing by the stuff, even though it was JUST released. Pay attention the next time there’s some medical ad, you’ll see what I mean.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 03:25:12 +0000

“For some bizarre reason, we don’t think about our bodies that way when it comes to health care and self improvement. We don’t pursue excellent health the way we strive to be better in our hobbies and work. So, where did we get the idea that mediocre health is good enough?”

Not everyone!

I have what you could call an ‘obsession’ with self improvement. Up until a few years ago, it was purely intellectual – lots of time spent learning computer programming languages, learning spoken languages, etc.

Stereotypes will tell you that all intellectual people are either one of two things:
a) Horribly fat
b) Horribly skinny

I was b! Then I did some research on how I could ‘improve’ my body in the same way that I was improving my mind. 3 years of intense physical training later, I am 3 times as strong as I was, I have much denser bones, and my previously skinny body is starting to look rather … not skinny at all! Now I’m just as interested in improving my health and physical self as I am my intellectual self.

It might all be a waste of time once I get my body replaced after the singularity, though! ;p

By: Kyle Munkittrick

Kyle Munkittrick — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:28:00 +0000

@Ruth: I agree, that’s why I added the qualifier “known.” Part of the problem is that if a drug is submitted to the FDA for curing some disease, it receives a battery of tests to ensure that it 1) treats that disease and 2) does so with acceptable levels of side-effects. When a drug is submitted because it enhances some feature of a healthy person (i.e. focus), it is summarily rejected. Neither how much the drug actually improves performance nor the side-effects are known. And so people use it off label and risk complications simply because regulatory bodies have decided you can only feel better if you get sick first.

@Lucilia: 6 cases in 9 years is hardly a regular occurrence. Those instances are listed as reactions to the drug, not side effects. Every drug has potential problems and lots of drugs cause severe adverse reactions in a small percent of the population. The problems you listed with Provigil are, like a penicillin allergy, a result of a very specific reaction to the drug in a few people, not a general or expected side-effect of the drug.

And calm down with your pro-pot sermon. I don’t disagree with you that it should be legal. “90% cure rate within 20 minutes?” Please, weed treats symptoms in some individuals, which is wonderful, but it doesn’t cure a damn thing.

By: Lucilia Cuprina

Lucilia Cuprina — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:20:24 +0000

Provigil side effects include erythema multiforme, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, and toxic epidermal necrolysis. That last one is difficult to ignore: Your skin blisters up like chicharrónes, then sloughs off. All of it.

US ethical pharma has one simple, overriding, felonious fortification rule: Thou shalt not take pleasure in pharma. Nothing that brings joy is tolerated unless accompanied by Martin Luther’s Third Thesis. Projectile vomiting, icthyiosis, choleroid discharge, suicidal thoughts (yeah, harmless daydreaming)… are all good.

Are you depressed? Smoke a joint. 90+% cure rate within 20 minutes. Then, watch what happens to you in the name of moral propinquity.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:34:38 +0000

I would disagree with you on the drug thing–”no KNOWN side effects” does not equal “NO side effects,” and studies rarely cover long enough periods of time to uncover all of the long-term effects. There are effective non-drug therapies for burnout, and using drugs to feel better doesn’t solve the underlying problem.

However, with reguards to regular doctor’s visits, here in Canada, that nurse never would have said what she said. I go to the doctor yearly (or more often)–it’s part of our health care package. Sure you might be feeling fine now, but the truth is that regular checkups can catch a disease before it gets out of hand, and save you a lot of trouble in the end.

By: Robert S-R

Robert S-R — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:47:00 +0000

I think a lot of it is caution. If you think about it, the standard, average human form is the result (same as any current living creature) of a couple billion years of evolution at work. What are the odds that any particular substance we add to our system would be a net improvement? Many things found in nature that we don’t find in our bodies is acutely hazardous, and much else has little or no effect. Occasionally we find something that makes us feel better when something else has gone wrong.

The problem is that there is no natural precedent for improvement through supplements or surgery. Those treatments and procedures can only make us feel better at all if we are currently feeling much, much worse.

By: Bee

Bee — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 06:33:27 +0000

I think the reason is simply that it’s not what doctors were educated to do.

By: greendream

greendream — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:45:22 +0000

I think an important, and overlooked, point is that, in general, teeth do not go wrong as regularly as the rest of the body. Dentists rely on regular check-ups, new lines of dental products and the idea that without regularly dentistry disasterous things will happen to stay in business. On the other hand healthy people going to the doctor keeps the doctor from seeing the long list of people who currently ARE ill, or injured. I feel that this is supported, at least in part, by the system here in the UK with the NHS. Go to an NHS doctor when you are relatively healthy (mediocre health) and the reaction will be much the same as in this article, but private healthcare in the UK DOES involve regular checkups and suchlike, I would imagine because most people opt for the tax-based alternative.

I am not saying this is certainly the truth, far from it, and maybe I am a little too cynical, but it seems to me that the dentist needs to employ more business-like tactics than GPs and hospitals.

And finally, on a personal level, I look after my teeth as well as the next guy. I brush twice a day using a standard toothpaste and budget toothbrush, scrape off plaque every now and again, I don’t use mouthwash or floss, and I also don’t go to the dentist twice a year. In fact between my most recent checkup (2 months ago) and the previous one 30 months had elapsed. It turned out, and it came as no suprise to me, that when I saw the dentist 2 months ago there were no problems at all with my teeth. No cavities, no gum disease, no decay and no problems.

I’m not saying dentists don’t promote dental hygeine, and don’t prevent problems, but, in my own experience at least, common sense and regular brushing does a similar job.