5 ms·

We really need to change the whole medicine paradigm from checking when something is wrong and trying to fix that to doing comprehensive checks regularly and ad

We really need to change the whole medicine paradigm from checking when something is wrong and trying to fix that to doing comprehensive checks regularly and adjusting the necessary supplementation and preventive treatments upfront. I think more and more people are doing this on their own, but in my experience it's still a small minority and far from being seen as essential.

hinkley 6y ago
You can, of course, go to far with this and end up with The Island. Ultimately the crisis in the movie was triggered by denying someone bacon, which honestly is not that implausible.
electriclove 6y ago
I think we need to enable technology so people can do these checks themselves/at home. It seems we are holding back the tech because we are afraid of what people will do with the information.
- nostromo 6y ago
  Some companies are doing this, like Everywell. Testing is still a pain in the butt and gets pricey the more things you’re measuring.
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  Tech is cool and all, but this can be done much more simply with just reading a lot and keeping a journal and that sort of the thing. The real sticking point is the minute you know "too much" about the impact things have on the body and try to engage in discussion, someone will have a cow about how you are "practicing medicine without a license" or something. The problem is that any exercise of real power will get someone's hackles up, even if that power is just a case of "knowledge is power" and medical/health stuff is a super touchy topic for a long list of reasons.
  - mywittyname 6y ago
    To be fair, A) medicine is complicated, B) lots of people like to talk out of their asses about stuff they don't really know too much about. I'm very leery of medical advice coming from a non-medical professional. Heck, I even double check medical advice coming from doctors since I've gotten conflicting diagnoses and been prescribed drugs to take for months only to find out from the manufacture website (not the doctor of pharmacists) that a follow up exam is required after five consecutive days of medication to prevent a potentially disabling side-effect. This is why I enjoy articles such as this one. It's the closest thing to peer-reviewed advice I'm likely to get. Getting to read multiple physicians discuss this topic in detail provides me with a more complete understanding of the topic at hand.
    - DoreenMichele 6y ago
      The reason why it happens is somewhat irrelevant to my point. You feeling the need to justify why people do this actually just reinforces my point. Tech is a means to an end, but whatever means you use, this issue right here is your single largest speed bump for this end goal and wrapping your goal up in shiny tech will not move that needle one tiny iota. That's just not how this works.
  - jgilias 6y ago
    Respectfully, there is a reason why one must have a license to practice medicine. It's simply too easy to kill people inadvertently. I guess that's fine if the unlicensed doctor is the only patient. But then, I do agree that a license doesn't necessarily guarantee competence. A GP being interested in and keeping track of the latest research on nutrition, longevity, etc, would be worth their weight in platinum.
    - DoreenMichele 6y ago
      You have completely and totally missed my point while simultaneously sort of making it for me, which I imagine you will fail to see.
  - electriclove 6y ago
- collyw 6y ago
  Wasn't that the promise of Theanos? I am interested in diet and nutrition and what is healthy in general, but there are few things you can measure easily by yourself, blood pressure and heart rate being the ones that I can check myself.
- jgilias 6y ago
  Better tech would be nice to have, but the most important part in my opinion is the paradigm shift itself. Medical institutions do offer comprehensive check-ups for healthy individuals already. It's just that not many healthy individuals actually bother to do this. Better tech would just make it easier to increase the data resolution. Which is important, especially as one ages, but not absolutely necessary for enacting the principle itself. Currently it seems that preventive care is widely accepted and practiced only in a handful of medicine subfields. Gynecology and dentistry come to mind. But this should apply to health care in general.
- spfzero 6y ago
  People can do vitamin D monitoring at home. See above link to www.grassrootshealth.net. They will sell you 2 test kits for serum D3 for $50 (I think). You take the tests 6 months apart, and they send you the results each time, so you can test the efficacy of whatever you are changing (i.e. sun exposure). I was 39ng at my first test, near mid-range and not deficient, and decided to bump up my sun exposure a bit just in case, and never bothered with the second test. I live in a sunny area, fortunately.
  - electriclove 6y ago
    This is great, thank you for sharing!

hinkley 6y ago

You can, of course, go to far with this and end up with The Island. Ultimately the crisis in the movie was triggered by denying someone bacon, which honestly is not that implausible.

electriclove 6y ago

I think we need to enable technology so people can do these checks themselves/at home. It seems we are holding back the tech because we are afraid of what people will do with the information.

nostromo 6y ago
Some companies are doing this, like Everywell. Testing is still a pain in the butt and gets pricey the more things you’re measuring.
DoreenMichele 6y ago
Tech is cool and all, but this can be done much more simply with just reading a lot and keeping a journal and that sort of the thing. The real sticking point is the minute you know "too much" about the impact things have on the body and try to engage in discussion, someone will have a cow about how you are "practicing medicine without a license" or something. The problem is that any exercise of real power will get someone's hackles up, even if that power is just a case of "knowledge is power" and medical/health stuff is a super touchy topic for a long list of reasons.
- mywittyname 6y ago
  To be fair, A) medicine is complicated, B) lots of people like to talk out of their asses about stuff they don't really know too much about. I'm very leery of medical advice coming from a non-medical professional. Heck, I even double check medical advice coming from doctors since I've gotten conflicting diagnoses and been prescribed drugs to take for months only to find out from the manufacture website (not the doctor of pharmacists) that a follow up exam is required after five consecutive days of medication to prevent a potentially disabling side-effect. This is why I enjoy articles such as this one. It's the closest thing to peer-reviewed advice I'm likely to get. Getting to read multiple physicians discuss this topic in detail provides me with a more complete understanding of the topic at hand.
  - DoreenMichele 6y ago
    The reason why it happens is somewhat irrelevant to my point. You feeling the need to justify why people do this actually just reinforces my point. Tech is a means to an end, but whatever means you use, this issue right here is your single largest speed bump for this end goal and wrapping your goal up in shiny tech will not move that needle one tiny iota. That's just not how this works.
- jgilias 6y ago
  Respectfully, there is a reason why one must have a license to practice medicine. It's simply too easy to kill people inadvertently. I guess that's fine if the unlicensed doctor is the only patient. But then, I do agree that a license doesn't necessarily guarantee competence. A GP being interested in and keeping track of the latest research on nutrition, longevity, etc, would be worth their weight in platinum.
  - DoreenMichele 6y ago
    You have completely and totally missed my point while simultaneously sort of making it for me, which I imagine you will fail to see.
- electriclove 6y ago
collyw 6y ago
Wasn't that the promise of Theanos? I am interested in diet and nutrition and what is healthy in general, but there are few things you can measure easily by yourself, blood pressure and heart rate being the ones that I can check myself.
jgilias 6y ago
Better tech would be nice to have, but the most important part in my opinion is the paradigm shift itself. Medical institutions do offer comprehensive check-ups for healthy individuals already. It's just that not many healthy individuals actually bother to do this. Better tech would just make it easier to increase the data resolution. Which is important, especially as one ages, but not absolutely necessary for enacting the principle itself. Currently it seems that preventive care is widely accepted and practiced only in a handful of medicine subfields. Gynecology and dentistry come to mind. But this should apply to health care in general.
spfzero 6y ago
People can do vitamin D monitoring at home. See above link to www.grassrootshealth.net. They will sell you 2 test kits for serum D3 for $50 (I think). You take the tests 6 months apart, and they send you the results each time, so you can test the efficacy of whatever you are changing (i.e. sun exposure). I was 39ng at my first test, near mid-range and not deficient, and decided to bump up my sun exposure a bit just in case, and never bothered with the second test. I live in a sunny area, fortunately.
- electriclove 6y ago
  This is great, thank you for sharing!