The decade now drawing to a close has featured more than a few health-related news stories that have seemed just a tad overblown. DrRich has carefully selected the Top 10 Most Overblown Health Stories of the Past Decade, and is pleased to present them for your consideration.
Let the countdown begin!
For a while there, mad cow disease was going to kill us all (all of us beef-eaters, anyway), and McDonald's corporate net worth had plummeted by over $1 billion - and then the story just went away. What the heck happened?
Political leaders who are advancing healthcare reform like to admonish us periodically that the health insurance companies (one of the modern embodiments of evil) are doing everything they can to stifle those reforms. Here's why the opposite is true.
If you proposed to label the past decade "The Decade of Epidemics," you would get no argument from DrRich. Over the past 10 years we've seen a heart attack epidemic, an obesity epidemic, an autism epidemic, a hypertension epidemic, and a metabolic syndrome epidemic - to name but a few. DrRich explores the mysterious origins of our current epidemic of epidemics, and concludes (as always): Follow the money.
In the contentious debate over the future of our healthcare system, in which the opposing parties find almost nothing in common, there is one thing everybody agrees upon - the abiding importance of primary care medicine. Both sides of the argument vow - whatever else they may do - to re-invigorate primary care, and restore it to the position of central importance it deserves. DrRich explains why the promises of both the Democrats and the Republicans to fix primary care are, to say it politely, hooey.
Our Republican friends like to tell us that, should the Democrats become successful in passing their healthcare reform plans, the next thing you know we'll have rationing. This sentiment betrays either an utter lack of understanding about the fundamental organizing fact of our current healthcare system, or utter disingenuousness. DrRich explains.
With as much respect and sensitivity as he can muster, DrRich explores the overblown claims that autism is caused by vaccines.
One of the most overblown tales related to healthcare, told repeatedly by the media and confirmed by head-nodding experts far and wide, is that the 47 million uninsured Americans are the cause of our overcrowded emergency rooms. DrRich shows why this tale is incorrect.
A prominent story which we hear over and over is that a renewed and reinvigorated preventive medicine initiative will not only improve the health of our nation, but will also drastically reduce the cost of our healthcare. Unfortunately, this assertion is not only overblown, but is fundamentally wrong. And we're already beginning to see the consequences of using preventive medicine primarily as a cost-saving venture.
This past decade has seen remarkable strides in our ability to work ourselves up into a lather about obesity - and the obese. DrRich shows how the anti-obesity movement has exaggerated the problem, and in the process has stigmatized a substantial proportion of our population - and how by doing so it is setting a disturbing precedent.
The century is only a decade old, but remarkably, we've already had at least three candidates for Pandemic of the Century. And since the century promises nine more decades, it seems likely we'll end up with another 25 or 30 candidates when it's finally time to vote. DrRich, for one, is preparing his absentee ballot.
