February 25, 2009
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Is our society too dependent on medicine?
I can’t believe people really ask this question. Maybe people would rather go back to the way things were, say, at the turn of the 20th century when the life expectancy was 46 years. By those standards, I’d have been dead 6 years now. People are living longer, healthier lives – despite all of the hype about all of our unhealthy habits. Why would they say “50 is the new 30″ if we weren’t healthier than our parents’ generation?
I’m amazed at the ignorance of people. Who knows where we would be if not for medical science.
I am dependent on insulin. If not for insulin, my life expectancy would be much shorter. Sitting in a lotus position saying “oohhhhmmmmmm” isn’t going to cure my diabetes.
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Comments (4)
I apologize if my question offended you. As a full supporter of medical research and the like, I only intended this question to spur some thought. Certainly, it would be utterly foolish to completely abandon medicine. But I also believe there are cases where medicine is not needed but used anyways; thus my question on hyper-dependence.
This is not ignorance. =)
I think I’ll quit taking my blood pressure medicine and K will quit taking her thyroid meds and we’ll see which one of us dies first. Actually, not even close. I would probably last a good year; K not even a month.
@Sapphirelle - I wasn’t offended in the least. I was not only responding to your question, but to some of the other responses. I have known people who have told their ailing parents to throw away all of their medications and start using some kind of folk medicine. I actually had someone tell me to stop using insulin. Some medicines could be avoided if lifestyle changes could be made. I probably could have postponed my dependence on insulin if I had made some lifestyle changes. But it’s likely I would have eventually come to depend on it (diabetes is very strong in my family).
@Gneiss_Guy - LOL Well please don’t test that theory!