Fed-up doctor says health industry turns healthy people into sick patients

Wednesday, March 28, 2007 by: M. T. Whitney
Tags: medicalization, fictitious disease, disease mongering

A new book from veteran physician Dr. Nortin Hadler of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill questions the health scares propagated to the public by the health care system. Entitled "The Last Well Person: How to Stay Well Despite the Health Care System, Hadler states that "wellness" has become an unreachable achievement, thanks to medical institutions doggedly discerning every human imperfection as a symptom of disease.

Jump directly to: conventional view | alternative view | resources | bottom line

What you need to know - Conventional View

• According to Hadler, the medical profession has taken every step to make Americans believe they are subject to risks to their health.

• "No infant can simply be fussy and no child can simply be fidgety, obstreperous, or below average in performance. We are told that all these are symptoms of disease, or harbingers," Hadler wrote in an editorial posted on the web site ABCNews.com

• Hadler says that the health industry has "medicalized" the idea of well-being, pushing the idea that everyone holds a burden of having something wrong with them.

• In his editorial, Hadler says that previous examples of "medicalization" included calling thinness a problem, whereas today the idea of previously-promoted idea of being "fat and happy" is now considered "being obese and unhealthy."

• "There is no better scientific support that screening you for high cholesterol, diabetes, osteoporosis, or breast and prostate cancer will help you than there is for nutraceuticals, Asian cures, poking and prodding, Echinacea and garlic, glucosamine, vitamin E and the like," Hadler states in the editorial.

What you need to know - Alternative View

Statements and opinions by Mike Adams, author of Natural Health Solutions and the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing About Them

• The medical industry knows that to generate more profits, it must "medicalize" normal life experiences by turning every emotion, behavior, habit and mood into a "disease" requiring chemical treatment.

• Direct-to-consumer drug advertising plays a crucial role in the marketing and propaganda of fictitious diseases. Without television, magazine and newspaper ads, drug companies would not be able to so strongly influence consumers into thinking they have diseases when they really don't.

Resources you need to know

• See the hilarious Disease Mongering Engine at www.NewsTarget.com/disease-mongering-engine.... where you can instantly invent your own fictitious diseases.

Bottom line

According to a well-received critic and member of the health care profession, the idea of wellness has been bastardized by the very profession that aims to promote it.