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The health industry has no reason to cure patients. On the contrary, they have reasons to create new patients. And it's across the board. I tell myself exactly
by buserror 8y ago
The health industry has no reason to cure patients. On the contrary, they have reasons to create new patients.
And it's across the board. I tell myself exactly that when I look at my toothbrush.
A toothbrush lasts about ~3 weeks before needing replacing. I'm sure someone in the industry will tell me that it's because it's made of unobtainium unicorn hair specially designed to make my teeth whiter and all that.
I also have a another plastic brush to clean my shotguns of all things (I do a lot of clay pigeon shooting) -- the construction is identical to a toothbrush, just perhaps a tad bigger. Doesn't have the fancy colored handle.
Now the brush I'm currently using I've been using for 3 years and the brush is still pretty much pristine, after being used to generously scrub bits of sharp, grim metal once or twice a week.
Hmmm... How does that work? Better unicorns? Well, think about it, everyone is changing toothbrush on a monthly basis, that is a huge revenue. Even reducing the lifetime of a toothbrush by 5% would increase the number of brushes sold by a huge amount.
All the while, it creates fantastic amount of plastic waste. Fancy packaging and 100% plastic, possibly not even all recyclable.
- dghf 8y ago> I also have a another plastic brush to clean my shotguns of all things (I do a lot of clay pigeon shooting) -- the construction is identical to a toothbrush, just perhaps a tad bigger. Is it, though? Are the bristles made of the same material, for example? I'm guessing that bristles tough enough to scrub metal would not be the best things to use on your teeth and gums.
- stronglikedan 8y agoUnless you like the taste of copper.
- no_u_idiot 8y agoThis is only true for a single company in isolation. Any company making their products worse (whether it's healthcare or something else) will soon be replaced by someone doing it better. As such, any company not producing or selling viable cures for diseases will quickly lose a lot of money to a new company that sells those cures. In practice, this works more or less well depending on which country on earth you are in. But your statement that the health industry has no reason to cure patients is wrong basically everywhere and idiotic at best.
- sametmax 8y agoThis is where traditional Chinese medicine got it right : they have a culture of trying to keep people healthy. You are supposed to go to the doctor to not become sick. It's maintenance. Not that I think it's better, but economically, you suddenly have the same goal as your clients. And that more sane.
- slater 8y agoToo bad the medicine part of TCM is junk science
- sametmax 8y agoWell it's essentially eat right, drink water, get some rest, etc. Not the mumbo jumbo you see in Hollywood movie. I can't think of any scientific experiment that would conclude: burn out, eat junk and drink mostly beer.
- booleandilemma 8y agoWell it's essentially eat right, drink water, get some rest, etc. This is just healthy living. I don’t think we should ascribe it to Traditional Chinese Medicine.
- sametmax 8y agoYou'd be surprise how much common sense people pay to hear in some different form and name. Yin/yang, ayurveda, etc. We love creating symbolism for things grandma said to their children for 1000 years. Beside, most reason to go to the doctor go away if you have a healthy life style.
- logfromblammo 8y agoEverything developed before science is suspected to be bunk. Everything developed after science is suspected to be bunk until the experiment has been replicated.
- tootie 8y agoThey earn less money off of a cure than a palliative, but not everything the health care industry does is treating disease and the health care industry isn't one company. If one company owns the patent on a popular AIDS treatment, that would not at all stop a competitor from offering a cure if they had one. It's not company A's best interest, but it is in company B's.
- cimmanom 8y agoYour toothbrush needs replacing every 3 weeks?
- magissima 8y agoI had never heard that before either. I've been using the same one for like a year now, which is definitely too long now that I think about it, but 3 weeks?
- 2FC00C733A55 8y agoI used the same toothbrush for a year. Is this bad? How do you know when to replace it?
- kevmo 8y ago- when you're sick - when the bristles become less stiff (i.e. signs of wear) - or every 3 months
- a_f 8y agoThe toothbrush is meant to remove a growing living substance, namely bacteria. The shotgun cleaner is meant to removal particles. After a period of time the toothbrush too will become a colony of bacteria. It will then add to the existing problem or at least offer no benefit. This is why you should change them so often. The shotgun cleaner is not used to remove bacteria primarily and will not suffer the same issue provided the particles/grime can be removed from it.
- buserror 8y agoThat's the standard reply. However, people with dentures don't change them every 3 weeks. There are perfectly sane way to disinfect/clean these sort of things on a long term basis. You could imagine leaving your brush in a cleaning solution. Here they purposely make the brushes useless mechanically as the bristles deform to a point they are no longer usable.
- selimthegrim 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miswak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miswak