Surprising read & change in stats for those who are paying attention to Mortality rates etc.
The US now ranks 18th …
http://www.mydesert.com/assets/pdf/J1199168113.PDF
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13497&page=R1
Slipped here as well: Infant Mortality Rate
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/09/us_infant_mortality_rate_lags_developed_world/
I don’t think Americans are familiar with the term ‘preventative medicine’.
I was reading something recently about how preventative medicine doesn’t change overall outcomes. I wish I could find it, but the general thrust of it was the money spent was wasted.
bc
Americans don’t like being told what and what not to do; particularly when it involves self-discipline or sacrifice. And there is more money to be made treating illness than there is in preventing it although the actual cost of illness bourne by society as a whole exceeds the profits generated by the specific market sectors providing health care treatment.
Predictable outcome as victims of our own success. It’s an expected bell curve when a country hits the apex of it’s success (experiencing a drop in mortality) followed by a fall when enough of the population can afford to eat excess calories of poor quality, get little/no exercise, and hope the medical system can save them when the diseases of excess show themselves in large enough numbers to impact morbidity and mortality rates.
$$$ wise, there’s big business in treating chronic disease, essentially no $$$ in prevention yet. Until that model changes, there will be little/no improvements on that front.
Buy stock in companies developing new and novel treatments for diabetes, obesity, and CVD. :fie:
‘Overall outcomes’? What is that, a euphemism for ‘we all die anyway’?
If it is, of course it doesn’t change overall outcomes and it’s money thrown away. But then, if that’s your opinion, one ought to just step in front of a train: It doesn’t change the overall outcome and it doesn’t cost a thing, allowing you to just pass that money right on to your kids (so they can waste it on not changing the overall outcome).
But are you seriously trying to tell me, or anyone, that cutting back on McDonald’s and getting in 30+ minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week isn’t going to improve your health, longevity, and quality of life?
And why pay for preventative medicine when you can go to the ER for free*?
Doesn’t have to be complicated to figure out why. Our country has junk food in every city on almost every corner, and American’s are friggen lazy bastards.
It’s bad enough here, aside from the China-mart aspect, I avoid Target and Walmart stores because almost every single time some obese ‘disabled’ person is running into people with their carts. I happened to run into one about 2 weeks ago, and about 30 seconds after I almost got run over one of them on a cart ran full speed into the back of a lady waiting in line to check out.
Its absolutely ridiculous how much our society caters to these people, and we throw them on welfare and public health insurance because they ate their way there…thus rewarding already poor decisions with money to continue eating like pigs without even having to bother with earning the money to buy food anymore.
Go live in Europe for a few years, and when you come back you see fatties EVERYWHERE here.
Why are you mad at me? I didn’t write the article or do the research, bro.
bc
That’s not anger, it’s disbelief. If I were angry, I expect both eyebrows would be at the same height.
Better yet, ya’ll push yourselves away from the table a little sooner and go for a walk. Then you won’t need new and novel treatments for diabetes, obesity, and CVD.
Clearly it is our gun culture that is to blame. 
That study, wherever you read it was wrong. There is a fair amount of discussion how much each individual preventative measure works, but there is little debate that preventative medicine as a concept is a way to go. US is frequently compared to Western Europe in terms of outcomes and outcomes to cost ratio. The European systems are generally set up with easy access to primary care (main delivery mechanism of preventative medicine) which is relatively inexpensive, gated access to specialists (expensive, usually deal with advanced cases where outcomes are already limited), and less investment/imposed limits on rescue care - trauma, heart attacks, advanced cancer, intensive care - that consumes a ton and does little if anything in such population based outcomes like general life expectancy. The US picture is very different: many don’t have a primary care doc or only see them when sick, try talking about diet concept in Southern states…,everyone wants to be seen by a specialist, and we spend a ton on rescue care. True preventative care is one of the key components in reducing our healthcare costs while boosting outcomes.
" . . . when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about . . . Yosemite?!!? :lol:
I ‘think’ I recall that study, and you are right…and in some ways wrong. One of the probs is we throw out terms like ‘preventive/preventative medicine’ and think it is all equal (if you do this, you will prevent that), and if it is the study of which I am thinking it was the one that said that with the cost and frequency of some tests (and mammograms come to mind from the study I am thinking about) the outcome of actually diagnosing disease X is cost prohibitive relative to the quantity and expense of the tests…a shit-load of tests for relative few diagnoses (or something like that…having to stretch to recall the article).
And for the record, I am pro-preventive/preventative medicine, but realize that some forms may be financial black holes with which no change in outcome occurs.
I believe this is the study that you mention.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0708558
It got a lot of play 2 years ago during the Obamacare debate.
As I mentioned above: The current model does not make that profitable compared to some patented molecule that treats/manages the above, hence if people wanna make $$$ in the future, invest in companies developing new and novel treatments for diabetes, obesity, and CVD. Sad but true. 
So, minimal funding and lip service given to “push yourselves away from the table a little sooner and go for a walk” and massive funds and R&D focused on drugs, etc to manage the diseases of excess and only a major change in paradigm and funding and a model to make prevention profitable will change that.
When specific screening measure is proposed, the cost to benefit ratio is generally an estimate. However, these estimates are made with best medical and epidemiological data available, with key requirements of being applicable to a large societal segment, have decent test accuracy or treatment potential etc. There have been measures suggested - and shot down before any implementation. Those that do make it mainstream should and do get reevaluated, see recent stuff on prostate cancer screening.
The thing is that most people associate preventative medicine with expensive tests. Smoking cessation, promotion of lifestyle modifications and diet, alcohol, seat belts usage, preemptive screening for depression, vaccination, teen sex and pregnancy ed, all of it is within a scope of preventative medicine, none of that is expensive, and little of that is done effectively. Cholesterol tests are easy to get, and generic pills cost pennies. Checking one’s blood pressure costs nothing; how many m4c members under age of 40 had their BP checked recently? The list goes on…
Did the article ALSO address WHY every world leader comes to America for surgery/cancer treatments/etc., INCLUDING Canadian leaders?
How long should I hold my breath, waiting to read THAT response in their study? :rolleyes:
I agree and inasmuch said so…I do think that some areas of PM are costly; certainly not all, maybe not even most. I remain hopeful that the expensive ones are evaluated without political strong-arming (for either side of the argument) and with the right scrutiny, and the ‘right’ PM evaluations/screenings are used for the ‘right’ population. Part of the problem I see at the bedside, however, is the issue of compliance: even with PM, whether someone chooses to have the illness/condition/whatever treated is a huge part of the equation.
The extremely sick thing is, twisted people that run this country are ok with that.