What is Digg?Sponsored by Bing
When Should I Book My Flight Home for Christmas? view!
bing.com - Bing predicts if your fare is likely to fall by $50 or more within 7 days. Shockingly accurate.
243 Comments
- gonpost, on 10/11/2007, -5/+67Just to give a little more insight...my parents both work in the medical field, and so I hear about these things quite a bit.
"The number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections is 20 million per year."
The reason for this is people pester and pester the doctors/nurses for such medications, even though the hospital workers know that it is pointless to give antibiotics to someone with a viral disease. Also, some doctors will give medicine out because the patient simply won't come back, and will go elsewhere, leaving the doctor with several less patients. It simply hurts business. To be honest, it's most often the fault of the patients if they take antibiotics for viral diseases. And no, a doctor doesn't make any money off of lying and telling a patient to take medication, because they only write prescriptions. The pharmacy makes the money...it bugs me when people say they do.
"The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million per year."
Most of these are cosmetic procedures, wanted by the patient. Once again, if the patient didn't want it, they don't have to have it. There are, however, a few bad surgeons who will operate on dam near anyone for the sake of getting cash, I'm sorry to say.
"deaths caused by conventional medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year"
Anyone could have twisted that statistic to incredible lengths...that's such a vague statement that I wouldn't take it for a grain of salt unless I had a thorough explanation. Maybe it is true? I don't know...the point is, that needs to be explained much, much more.
While there are bad doctors out there, if patients were more educated (even just a little bit...I'm talking a good health class during high school or two), the American medical system would be much better off. They would be able to spot those "bad doctors" more easily, and would know to not demand or request pointless things (such as antibiotics for viral diseases). They could also do themselves a big favor and take care of themselves in the first place... As far as other problems, I suppose you could talk about the making of hospitals into businesses that is beginning to happen a bit. My mom quit as a nurse downtown because she was being stretched too far taking care of patients because the hospital wanted to save money. She felt like she wasn't able to give anywhere near adequate attention to the people in the hospital. - djsputnik, on 10/11/2007, -13/+59from the department of pulling things out of our ass. . .
go figure, sick people who see doctors often die - mykool, on 10/11/2007, -29/+71The media needs to make up it's mind...is this the leading cause of death in the USA or obesity? When you figure it out let me know. The simple truth is the USA is probably one of the un-healthiest places to live. Because of a corrupt government that causes healthy food to be more expensive than junk food. Sorry Pizzler, but your view is askew. The doctors would have more time and fewer patients in the USA if the citizens of the USA would eat healthy.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -20/+55I never get bored of these negative moaning threads about the US.
/ - Jack9, on 10/11/2007, -9/+38It also happens that the American medical system is also the leading cause of LIFE. I've personally witnessed over 25 cases where someone went to a hospital with a life threatening condition where I was present (like the 5 times I was definitely GONNA DIE...tetracycline allergy put me in respiratory and pulmonary shock, temperature of 109 due to bacterial infection, tumor removed from my HEAD, 2 open heart surgeries) and the person walked out. How many people have died in the hospital? nearly everyone I know. Does that mean that the medical system is the the leading cause of death? The leading cause of death is that people aren't perfect, not even doctors. Nothing to do with the system. People eventually DIE regardless of what you do to keep the game going and there's more and more sick people or people who think they are sick (thx Mexico) and that means more people get treated as best as humans can do. You can't test someone for an allergy when the condition is severe, so you get more and more reactions and surprise surprise, the hospital can probably treat you if you there is one. I'll take my chances here. Marked inaccurate.
- weizbox, on 10/11/2007, -6/+29This has been posted before.... multiple times.
Even if its the same topic and conclusion, something a little newer than march '04 would be nice... - rubberbrush, on 10/11/2007, -4/+25Isn't there a bit of bad logic in here? You go to the doctor when you're sick. If you didn't you'd be dead when you were 35 or 40 probably. The average age is in the 70's now.
So off to the doctor to cure you. It works 10 times say...extending your life. On the 11th time it doesn't work and you die. It appears to me people have been helped, overwhelmingly, by medicine.
Now of course it could be much better, but saying that it's one of the leading causes of death seems wide of the mark somehow. - bgfinkel, on 10/11/2007, -6/+26the US medical system may be the leading cause of death (i don´t know how accurate this is, or what they call a ¨Kill¨), but it is also the leading cause of healing and life (miscarriage, anyone?)
- bovox, on 10/11/2007, -2/+14No, he is not.
Read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. That book will blow your mind. Also, research the 2007 Farm Bill. Although I do not believe that there are insidious forces in a government conspiracy to make us all fat. I DO believe that the politicians make decisions based on how to generate the most income for corporations, which translates to jobs for their constituents and campaign contributions--a win-win situation. Unfortunately high fructose corn syrup is the biggest moneymaker product--and one of the unhealthiest. It's the main ingredient in pop and ketchup. Look at the Farm Bill and you'll see that the biggest subsidized crop is corn. - DietCoke597, on 10/11/2007, -3/+15Yep, good ***** plan. Only rich white people have babies, everybody suffers and gets stuck at the bottom of the social ladder. You and Onyxblaze here are ***** retarded. Just because you're born poor doesn't mean *****. I thought we, as Americans, should take pride in class mobility, but you closed-minded screw-the-poor ***** are ruining it. I hope you feel like a big man wiping your ass with gold leaf at night while people in the world die of starvation. How self-centered. You're complaining about there being other people at the doctor's office when you're there? WTF, do you think they built the clinic with you in mind as the only patient? The world was not created for you. Its filled with people much stronger yet much worse off than you are. And the economics you're discussing are severely flawed, I believe edd17 made a good point.
- PoodleMomma, on 10/11/2007, -4/+12Believe it or not there are a lot of physicians who DO give a *****. There are all kinds of doctors out there, and I guarantee you more that care than do not. Take that from a nurse who works with them everyday. You obviously DO NOT know WTF you are talking about. Moron.
- ice109, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10you people are dumb, you should check the credibility of the site before posting. This site is a front for a vitamin store.
- DietCoke597, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9Eh. While I agree that there are flaws in the U.S. medical system (if you can call it that, its privatized and there's no central hospital system or anything), I'd like to know what a "death due to conventional medicine" is considered. If they're counting everybody that died in a hospital, they suck. People are going to die in hospitals. Of course there are preventable accidents, but there are people who also die of incurable diseases, fatal injuries that couldn't be saved, or simply a natural death due to complications of old age. The fact that you're in a hospital probably means that your life is at risk already, so the fact that many people die there shouldn't be surprising. I think this article is a little over-hyped.
Anyways, the amount of people who are saved each year by hospitals here in the U.S. greatly outnumbers the amount that die there, due to accidents, natural causes, what have you. This article almost tries to make it seem like going to the hospital when you're injured or sick is a liability because the doctors are going to prescribe you arsenic instead of penicillin cause they're greedy corporate slimeballs. Seriously, no. I'm no patriot or anything (America has some serious problems), but I know how quickly anti-American anti-corporate propaganda spreads on Digg, and this is an example of it. Marked inaccurate. - Gigs, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8He explains the 783,936 death breakdown on the second page of the article, into various catagories including surgical.
- mikev, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9These places are unhealthy because of their lack of wealth. America is a terrible place to live out of all the developed nations because everything relies too much on money and too little on the people.
- AXNJAXN, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9@mykool
How can you even say the USA is a less healthy place to live than somewhere like Sudan or Ethiopia? There's no comparison. Until you see more starving children than fed wandering around naked, don't tell me the USA is worse than those places. - jacesKINGS, on 10/11/2007, -6/+13Doctors are there because they take the time to dedicate themselves, and spend 13 years of their lives in college and medical school.
Dumbass. - ButterBuddha, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8115,000 deaths from bedsores???
- judsond, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8I have read the book. It's good, but that doesn't mean that organic produce is more expensive than scary soy/corn chicken mcnuggets because of some government action. Organic produce is just actually harder to grow. Everything isn't actually the government's fault.
- etnu, on 10/11/2007, -3/+10I remember when we were respected by other countries. It was around 2001.
- kidjay, on 10/11/2007, -5/+12what ridiculous charlatanry is this? is this a Scientologist's magazine?
the medical system in the US is broken and completely ***** up without question...but to say its the leading cause of death is just ridiculous. also note that this article is from 2004. - stklaw, on 10/11/2007, -5/+11"He wouldn't have died if..."
I'm sick of this ***** - Ifishbein, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6The leading cause of death in the world is life. It's true!
- armourer, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7CNN called, Nancy Grace wants her story back
- AbsurdParadox, on 10/11/2007, -5/+11Its the government playing favorites that IS evil, and this is called Corporatism. Even the idea of a "Corporation" is a government-created fiction.
The want to make a profit is a good thing, and competition in the market an even better thing (just look at computer technology, as that market is highly unregulated). What else do you think advances our society?
Again, people always want to blame the big business for problems, and its really big business and big government working together. You'll never get rid of big business, and you wouldn't even want to, but we CAN get rid of big government. - beatleman, on 10/11/2007, -4/+10You just have to love articles like this one with sensationalistic conclusions that really don't make any sense when they're broken down. What they forget to mention is that people don't go to the hospital because they feel great. Usually the people in a hospital are more than "a little sick." And when a dying patient comes in and the doctors give him whatever drugs they think have a chance of saving him/her and the patient dies anyway, something tells me the authors of this study put it down as another "death by coventional medicine."
There's no denying our medical system needs a lot of changes, but articles like this do absolutely nothing for the cause except cause confusion.
P.S. I'd love to see more information about the 7.5 million that had "unnecessary medical and surgical procedures." How do they determine what's unnecessary? If a guy gets a skin biopsy for a suspicious mole and it comes out benign, was that procedure "unnecessary?" - jacesKINGS, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6im a neurologist, and i make 800,000 after taxes, which is 40%... i am away from my family for 24-30 hours at a time when i have call-duty, and i dedicate my life to my patients... dont say ***** before you know the facts man
- cuoops, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7It's not the leading cause. Heart disease is. It's caused by unhealthy choices.
- EXreaction, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6You must never visit grocery stores. Yes, it costs a hell of a lot to make something really good to eat (I do know, I am a cook), I will give you that, but even for something really good it would hardly cost more than $5 a person if you make enough for 4-5 people.
Seriously, it is people that think like you who are extremely overweight. They don't buy anything healthy because it costs them so much to make enough to feel full, so they go out and buy calorie loaded McDonalds food and gain weight faster than you can blink.
The most important thing when you eat is that you need to remember that you do NOT need to stuff yourself to the breaking point. Some people eat more in one meal than most people would have eaten in 3 days a few hundred years ago! - digitalmoto, on 10/11/2007, -7/+13seems like this problem could be in any country, not just the U.S. - adverse drug reactions is no doubt a major problem - especially when there are multiple doctors involved, prescribing different things to people. Complications from drug interaction should not be underestimated
- benjpw, on 10/11/2007, -6/+12This is on a vitamin site. Obviously it is biased. This is no different then all the other Digg articles published in favor of Ron Paul on libertarian sites or the 9/11 truth sites, ThinkProgress, or that stupid WorldNetDaily.
- satanatnmtedu, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Consider the source. This website SELLS SUPPLEMENTS. So, one would expect that they would be against federal regulation. And, they have an interest in people distrusting conventional medicine and drug companies.
I would feel much better about this article if the group had nothing to gain from it. But, there is a significant conflict of interest which throws up all sorts of warning flags. And, it makes me question the sources and results. - JettaMan, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6A corrupt government that causes healthy food to be more expensive?! While I agree that the government should have nothing to do with the food industry (or any industry for that matter), I sincerely doubt they have done anything to make specifically healthy food more expensive. But yes, government should be hands off when it comes to various industries.
- EXreaction, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Yes, because posting facts about what is going on in the US makes us haters.
- lagrange, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5
CDC Study Overstated Obesity as Cause of Death
From: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/health/20041123-0553-health-obesity.html
A prominent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may have overstated the number of obesity-related deaths in 2000 by as much as 20 percent, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
An analysis of the study, which was released in March and predicted that obesity would surpass tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death, found that mathematical errors may have inflated the 2000 death toll attributed to obesity by 80,000, the Journal said. It sourced its report to CDC documents reviewed by the newspaper. - Jo9100, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6nothing about America. only the US
- AladinSane, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5I have an idea for the author of this article: next time you're sick or injured, try staying home. Then let us know how that works out for you.
- jschrab, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6I use to work in pharmacology related IT in the early '90s. The company I worked for sold what was essentially a "consultant pharmacist in a box"; a piece of software that would review a patient's drug profile, detect potential drug interactions, infer health conditions based on drugs being administered, and make comments and recommendations for therapy changes that represented the best knowledge of the profession at the time.
It was scary to watch. As people age, the number of different substances that one can end up on over a year's time is crazy. The point being that the opportunity for interactions becomes increasingly high - our company believed that the figure went as high as 30% mis/over-prescribed. Again - my knowledge is early '90s. 15+ years later now, who knows.
One thing that I got out of the work experience for myself was the importance of telling ALL your doctors what prescriptions you have. As you get older, you may end up seeing 3 or 4 specialists - easy. Many times a Doctor will prescribe a drug not knowing a patient's full drug profile - and unknowingly prescribe a commonly known (to pharmacists anyway - a pharmacist's drug knowledge can dwarf a general MD's) drug-drug interaction.
This is why an increase of *properly well designed, with privacy concerns addressed* information systems in the medical industry are SO badly needed. It's unsafe as it is now.
The second thing I learned was "While you are young, do what you can - WHATEVER you can - to not have to be on these meds in the first place!" - djAnakin, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6You people are pathetic. You bitch that there's too much food here, but if people were starving, you'd bitch about that too.
- bIuebonics, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5pure sensationalism. the us is not one of the unhealthiest places to live. the last time i checked, you can buy a salad at mcdonalds (why you would is beyond me, but it's there). go to the grocery store and check out the food there. just because it isn't labeled organic does NOT mean it's unhealthy. you can go to the grocery store and buy a normal head of lettuce, some carrots, peppers, tomatoes, and onions for fairly cheap and eat healthy to your hearts content. you have more access to healthier foods for cheap than many places in the world. the reason obesity is a problem is because people are either lazy or have no self control. america isn't an unhealthy place to live, it's just that many people who live here CHOOSE to live an unhealthy lifestyle.
- f4st4word, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4"And no, a doctor doesn't make any money off of lying and telling a patient to take medication, because they only write prescriptions. The pharmacy makes the money...it bugs me when people say they do."
It bugs *me* when people ignore the role that many doctors play in our hopelessly corrupt health-care system. Many doctors receive gifts, travel, and yes MONEY in some cases from the pharmaceutical industry in return for prescribing drugs. One of my parents and several relatives work in the health-care industry, and they readily admit this problem exists.
There are many health-care providers that are doing the right thing and saying no to this bribery:
http://www.nofreelunch.org/aboutus.htm
but there are plenty more who are more than happy to accept bribes.
Just because your parents are honest doesn't mean this industry isn't corrupt and desperately in need of fixing. - HappyScrappy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7I tell you what. Don't go into the hospital and die of the disease you caught instead.
Then you won't get a vicious bacterial infection ("death by medical system"), you'll instead die of disease.
This article presents a stupid argument. Which is too bad, since the issue of our medical system deserves serious attention.
And I don't mean stunts like taking 9/11 first responders to Cuba for medical attention. Trust me when I say Cuba has nothing on the US in trying to figure out if dust causes long term health problems. - oliofactor, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4IT may be the case that many people die from medicines, But how many peoples lives are saved? Are more people living because of the medicines that otherwise wouldn't have lived? If this is the case and the people with adverse reactions to the meds(death) are less than the people saved then I say this study is without merit. There is only so much people can be expected to do in regards to saving lives, yeah there are going to be mistakes made, doctors and researchers aren't perfect, the products on the market are the best avalible. Believe me if you die from taking a medicine it doesn't look good for the drug companies, if you stay alive then there is a chance you could need their meds in the future.
That being the case I will say that If there isn't profit in saving a life then nobody is going to invest in this area. Its human nature, the best minds want to be paid for their contributions, if we want cancer remedies relying on drug companies isn't going to work unless compensation is involved. You can't expect people's livelyhoods to be reduced because you want a corporation to give things away, a business wouldn't exist if it gave away it's products for free.
So in the mean time if you dont want cancer, quit smoking and eating McDonalds, otherwise I say survival of the fittest. - SouthsideIrish, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Agreed, but Michael solution is a complete disaster too.
- jmpeagle, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5precisely who is this "group of researchers"????
- Ebulating, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I have always wondered how the hell doctors get away with prescribing antibiotics they know are useless, with the excuse that the patients pester them until they give in. Well they are the doctor, they know more and should say NO. Prescribing antibiotics for viral infections ,IMHO, would seem to be breaking the Hippocratic Oath, because they are harming society as a whole by increasing the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
- f4st4word, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Amen! I challenge anyone with a soul and a brain to watch that movie and tell me that our healthcare system is not a complete disaster.
- lagrange, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Study finds government overstated danger of obesity
CHICAGO (AP) — Being overweight is nowhere near as big a killer as the government thought, ranking No. 7 instead of No. 2 among the nation's leading preventable causes of death, according to a startling new calculation from the CDC.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Tuesday that packing on too many pounds accounts for 25,814 deaths a year in the United States. As recently as January, the CDC came up with an estimate 14 times higher: 365,000 deaths. - nullcodes, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4A third world country like sri lanka has a life expectancy that is only a few years less than the US. Yet it spends 150 times less PER person on healthcare. Now granted salaries of health care professionals is a lot less (40 times less) over there .. but come on .. 1/150th th of the expenses? Ok, so maybe it costs a crapload to squeeze out a few more years of living .. but then how about this? Singapore spends 1/5th the amount and has a HIGHER life expectancy than the US. China too is a "low spend, high wellbeing country". Source: http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/spend.php
- edd17, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4There are always going to be the kind of jobs that are low paid around, you rely on the people doing these jobs completely. I was never able to figure out why people have such disdain for people who are essential for society to work.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 244 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is