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The trouble with preventative medicine is that it is creating artificial anxiety on the basis of the possibility of illness. Thus, we the people are constantly

The trouble with preventative medicine is that it is creating artificial anxiety on the basis of the possibility of illness. Thus, we the people are constantly in a state of "possible sickness" and instead of thinking of illness as what it has always been (a state of lack of health which manifests in lack of well-being), we are made to think of illness as "having a wrong parameter". The acceptance of mortality (or its lack) is key to this. Or, on the other hand, we can think of health as "public health", and forget about the individual. But I reject this proposition.

pc86 5y ago
I honestly have no idea what you're trying to say. Are you against preventative medicine? Are you against public health initiatives?
- someguydave 5y ago
  I am against preventative medicine in the case where it has not been shown to have benefits worth the costs.
dlisboa 5y ago
We are always possibly sick at all times, getting a test done will not prevent or change that. The fact that we don’t get anxiety daily is because we forget about it and move on with life. But what is worse? Getting anxiety over being sick for a couple days or living in regret because you didn’t get a simple test to discover something potentially treatable early on? If you “accept mortality” in the way you seem to imply then there’s no need to worry about health anyway. Should I just “accept” that if it wasn’t prostate cancer something else would’ve killed me anyway, so why check?
neogodless 5y ago
> The trouble with preventative medicine is that it is creating artificial anxiety on the basis of the possibility of illness The possibility of illness exists with or without preventative medicine. Preventative medicine decreases that possibility, and reduces anxiety. > The acceptance of mortality (or its lack) is key to this. Whether or not you accept mortality has no effect on whether it is a condition we all share. Though it's unclear to me if you wish for everyone to accept mortality, or reject it. > Or, on the other hand, we can think of health as "public health", and forget about the individual. I'm trying not to read something into this, but it's hard not to. In general, health is personal/individual, even if the way it affects you can then affect others. Of course, in the case of infectious disease, individual infection leads to transmission and public spread, so it should be thought of at more than just an individual level. (That isn't really relevant for the PSA, though. That's quite individual.)
xboxnolifes 5y ago
> The trouble with preventative medicine is that it is creating artificial anxiety on the basis of the possibility of illness. I don't see it this way. Regardless of the existence of preventative care, what brings anxiety is the knowledge of the existence of the illness and the possibility of being sick. The preventative care (assuming we mean test/monitoring and not constant medication) is what shows me that the anxiety is unfounded.

pc86 5y ago

I honestly have no idea what you're trying to say. Are you against preventative medicine? Are you against public health initiatives?

someguydave 5y ago
I am against preventative medicine in the case where it has not been shown to have benefits worth the costs.

dlisboa 5y ago

We are always possibly sick at all times, getting a test done will not prevent or change that. The fact that we don’t get anxiety daily is because we forget about it and move on with life. But what is worse? Getting anxiety over being sick for a couple days or living in regret because you didn’t get a simple test to discover something potentially treatable early on? If you “accept mortality” in the way you seem to imply then there’s no need to worry about health anyway. Should I just “accept” that if it wasn’t prostate cancer something else would’ve killed me anyway, so why check?

neogodless 5y ago

> The trouble with preventative medicine is that it is creating artificial anxiety on the basis of the possibility of illness The possibility of illness exists with or without preventative medicine. Preventative medicine decreases that possibility, and reduces anxiety. > The acceptance of mortality (or its lack) is key to this. Whether or not you accept mortality has no effect on whether it is a condition we all share. Though it's unclear to me if you wish for everyone to accept mortality, or reject it. > Or, on the other hand, we can think of health as "public health", and forget about the individual. I'm trying not to read something into this, but it's hard not to. In general, health is personal/individual, even if the way it affects you can then affect others. Of course, in the case of infectious disease, individual infection leads to transmission and public spread, so it should be thought of at more than just an individual level. (That isn't really relevant for the PSA, though. That's quite individual.)

xboxnolifes 5y ago

> The trouble with preventative medicine is that it is creating artificial anxiety on the basis of the possibility of illness. I don't see it this way. Regardless of the existence of preventative care, what brings anxiety is the knowledge of the existence of the illness and the possibility of being sick. The preventative care (assuming we mean test/monitoring and not constant medication) is what shows me that the anxiety is unfounded.