> What do you, as an eager but uneducated layman, use to decide that? Is this a trick question? I use my doctor's expertise and advice, obviously. Just like I

> What do you, as an eager but uneducated layman, use to decide that? Is this a trick question? I use my doctor's expertise and advice, obviously. Just like I do for any other nontrivial medical question. This has happened to me a number of times throughout my life. I have some problem, my doctor requests a scan (or x-ray or ultrasound or...), it turns up some anomalies, and my doctor has to evaluate them to decide if they are relevant to anything. For many of them the answer is, no, they're not. Now I know that I have a cyst here and some slightly misaligned vertebræ there and ... that's fine. They weren't causing the problem I had and they're probably not causing any other problems either. The argument that we must not look at ourselves because if we do, we'll be compelled by some mysterious force to take dangerous interventions is silly and just seems like an excuse for medical incompetence or laziness.