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Worried sick : a prescription for health in an overtreated America / Nortin M. Hadler.

By: Hadler, Nortin M
Series: H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman series: Publisher: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c2008Description: 376 p. ; 25 cmISBN: 9780807831878Subject(s): Medical care -- United States | Medical policy -- United States | Older people -- Medical care -- United States | Medical care -- Utilization -- United States | Health care reform -- United StatesDDC classification: 362.10973
Contents:
The Methuselah complex -- The heart of the matter -- Risky business : cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure -- You are not what you eat -- Gut check -- Breast cancer prevention : screening the evidence -- The beleaguered prostate -- Disease mongering -- Creakiness -- It's in your mind -- Aging is not a disease -- Working to death -- "Alternative" therapies are not "complementary" -- Assuring health, insuring disease.
Summary: At a time when access to health care in the United States is being widely debated, Nortin Hadler argues that an even more important issue is being overlooked. Although necessary health care should be available to all who need it, he says, the current health-care debate assumes that everyone requires massive amounts of expensive care to stay healthy. Hadler urges that before we commit to paying for whatever pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment tell us we need, American consumers need to adopt an attitude of skepticism and arm themselves with enough information to make some of their own decisions about what care is truly necessary. Each chapter of Worried Sick is an object lesson regarding the uses and abuses of a particular type of treatment. For consumers and medical professionals interested in understanding the scientific basis for Hadler's arguments, each topical chapter has an accompanying source chapter in which Hadler discusses the medical literature and studies that inform his critique. According to Hadler, a major stumbling block to rational health-care policy in the United States is contention over the very concept of what constitutes good health. By learning to distinguish good medical advice from persuasive medical marketing, consumers can make better decisions about their personal health and use that wisdom to inform their perspectives on health-policy issues.
Item type Current location Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Book Book East Bookmobile
In East Office 		300-399 362.1 HAD Available 30904000265113
Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references (p. [311]-353) and index.

At a time when access to health care in the United States is being widely debated, Nortin Hadler argues that an even more important issue is being overlooked. Although necessary health care should be available to all who need it, he says, the current health-care debate assumes that everyone requires massive amounts of expensive care to stay healthy. Hadler urges that before we commit to paying for whatever pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment tell us we need, American consumers need to adopt an attitude of skepticism and arm themselves with enough information to make some of their own decisions about what care is truly necessary. Each chapter of Worried Sick is an object lesson regarding the uses and abuses of a particular type of treatment. For consumers and medical professionals interested in understanding the scientific basis for Hadler's arguments, each topical chapter has an accompanying source chapter in which Hadler discusses the medical literature and studies that inform his critique. According to Hadler, a major stumbling block to rational health-care policy in the United States is contention over the very concept of what constitutes good health. By learning to distinguish good medical advice from persuasive medical marketing, consumers can make better decisions about their personal health and use that wisdom to inform their perspectives on health-policy issues.

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