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The alternatives to stenting and surgery that this scientist recommends, in her own words, are: "Major improvements can simply be made by medical – as opposed

The alternatives to stenting and surgery that this scientist recommends, in her own words, are: "Major improvements can simply be made by medical – as opposed to procedural – interventions, such as the adoption of healthier lifestyles, anti-cholesterol drugs, taking blood pressure [drugs] and cutting out smoking.” How are these "surgery alternatives" if the underlying cause is usually years of lifestyle choices? Is the doctor expected to tell patients to lose weight and quit smoking, and send them home? So much of medicine has this conundrum. Patients don't simply change as expected and they will also seek out treatment if none is offered otherwise.

gonzo41 6y ago
People being lazy, is that Medicines problem?
- pocketgrok 6y ago
  It leads to them needing medical treatment so yeah it definitely is.
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  It's pretty fundamental that poor health is medicine's job to address, regardless of the origin or whether the person "deserves" to recover by some peoples' moral standards.
floatingatoll 6y ago
Should medical science only promote “get rich quick” surgical procedures and refuse to consider that “work hard first” lifestyle changes are effective for the vast majority of patients that work diligently towards health? No: lifestyle changes are a preventative and curative step that can avoid diseases and surgeries in many other fields. Medicine is absolutely capable of demanding patients work diligently towards lifestyle changes before they receive surgical intervention. For example, if you want an organ transplant and you aren’t working diligently towards health (often with exactly the same list of lifestyle changes as above!) you may be denied your organ transplant. The problem she fought against was that surgeons didn’t want to consider that the lifestyle changes method could possibly be effective. She was right; they were wrong. So now it’s left to medicine to decide when and how to take that into account in their treatment recommendations and standards of care. As you describe, this is a Hard Problem, but it’s a familiar one. They already have lots of experience with treatment through lifestyle change, and now as a result of her work, they can apply those learning to this new area too. Good work.
- soared 6y ago
  His/her point is that by the time most people see a doctor about a problem, it is too late for lifestyle changes to have an effect and that surgery is semi-urgently necessary.
- yostrovs 6y ago
  Doctors know full well that exercise, diet, etc can drastically improve health. Do you really think they are willfully ignorant? They also know their patients that they told a hundred times to start exercising, etc. Now these patients have serious, life threatening conditions. You seem to deny reality and suggest that they finally convince their patients to get their act together when they're 65 years old and set in their ways. How's that working so far?

gonzo41 6y ago

People being lazy, is that Medicines problem?

pocketgrok 6y ago
It leads to them needing medical treatment so yeah it definitely is.
happytoexplain 6y ago
It's pretty fundamental that poor health is medicine's job to address, regardless of the origin or whether the person "deserves" to recover by some peoples' moral standards.

floatingatoll 6y ago

Should medical science only promote “get rich quick” surgical procedures and refuse to consider that “work hard first” lifestyle changes are effective for the vast majority of patients that work diligently towards health? No: lifestyle changes are a preventative and curative step that can avoid diseases and surgeries in many other fields. Medicine is absolutely capable of demanding patients work diligently towards lifestyle changes before they receive surgical intervention. For example, if you want an organ transplant and you aren’t working diligently towards health (often with exactly the same list of lifestyle changes as above!) you may be denied your organ transplant. The problem she fought against was that surgeons didn’t want to consider that the lifestyle changes method could possibly be effective. She was right; they were wrong. So now it’s left to medicine to decide when and how to take that into account in their treatment recommendations and standards of care. As you describe, this is a Hard Problem, but it’s a familiar one. They already have lots of experience with treatment through lifestyle change, and now as a result of her work, they can apply those learning to this new area too. Good work.

soared 6y ago
His/her point is that by the time most people see a doctor about a problem, it is too late for lifestyle changes to have an effect and that surgery is semi-urgently necessary.
yostrovs 6y ago
Doctors know full well that exercise, diet, etc can drastically improve health. Do you really think they are willfully ignorant? They also know their patients that they told a hundred times to start exercising, etc. Now these patients have serious, life threatening conditions. You seem to deny reality and suggest that they finally convince their patients to get their act together when they're 65 years old and set in their ways. How's that working so far?