[lit-ideas] Re: Life or Death
- From: "Judith Evans" <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 20:33:52 +0100
Irene (re screening)> Cost-benefit.
that's the argument here, yes.
> >Some (apparently)
> >require (in the US, anyway) the prophylactic removal of the
> >ovaries and womb.
> >
>
>
> I never heard that.
I didn't till recently. Apparently BRCA2 gene mutation
(hereditary) leads to a generally
substantially higher risk of cancer of various kinds but
particularly
breast and ovarian cancer.
> You said your osteoarthritis was caused by falls. Falls is
plural. Maybe you just ran into >some bad luck.
(Actually I retracted that, because I'm not 100 per cent sure)
yes there was more than
one fall but there wasn't a sequence of falls that required
investigation.
> "Arthritis" is caused by injuries. Osteoarthritis is not.
"Arthritis" is the umbrella term, osteoarthritis is a type of
arthritis. On injury as a cause of osteoarthritis (not the only
cause) see
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/uvahealth/adult_orthopaedics/osteoart.cfm
http://www.mobictablet.com/mobicWeb/jsp/osteo-risk.jsp
http://www.hqlo.com/content/1/1/64
http://www.physioroom.com/injuries/knee/osteoarthritis_knee_sum.php
(etc.)
>men who are runners have *less* hip arthritis than men who are
not runners.
sports people and perhaps particularly runners and footballers
tend to get knee rather than hip injuries (in my experience and
based on what I've read in our papers; I didn't check on the web)
>OA is multifactorial; injuries is not a factor.
Osteoarthritis has more than one cause, injury is one ("injury"
here = either
a discrete injury of a fairly severe kind that leads to arthritis
later, or repetitive
strain injury -- repeated minor injuries -- that lead to it
sooner).
(It seems osteoarthritis is an umbrella term ["a loosely defined
group of diseases"];
that explains the somewhat different usages of the term -- by
doctors here -- that had puzzled me.) (I do have more links but
don't really want to post them now.)
> Where are you getting that OA is caused by injuries?
(can be caused by) you want even more links? (Injury is *a*
cause, not, osteo is caused by injury;
I said "*my* osteoarthritis was caused by...", not, "(all)
osteoarthritis is caused by".
> Physical therapy maybe. Beyond that, what can they do?
the physio I had not only reduced the pain, it stopped it. And my
cartilage
stopped creaking as I moved, which is a nice bonus.
> Diagnostic testing of the sick doesn't help them get well.
True. But it does (with luck) show what's wrong with them and
what treatment
would be appropriate.
>It only "manages" their condition, which is to say, dispenses
varying
>degress of insulin (hands out drugs). Only weight loss and
exercise
>can erase diabetes,
a diagnosis tells them they should lose weight, exercise more
(here, some cases
have been managed without drugs, I believe). Ah, you say, they
should have
known that anyway. But perhaps not: not all who get diabetes are
obese, not all who are obese, get diabetes. Obsessive
prophylactic dieting and exercise may not in fact be helpful
for people at low risk of diabetes.
And cancer, well, perhaps you haven't know anybody who had breast
cancer, had an op, was alive and well and working full-time
twenty years later. (OK I've only actually known one person like
that, I have known others who survived more than five years and
were fit and well.)
> Medical care keeps people alive despite their best efforts to
keep themselves sick.
epileptics? people with cerebral palsy? people with lung cancer
not caused by smoking? people with hereditary heart defects?
non-obese people who get breast cancer? people who live in
polluted environments? Coal miners? Asbestos workers? (and so
on).
> People like Tony Snow are not helped significantly by medical
care, which is to say, his >cancer is still prominent and getting
worse, and presumably he's getting the best care >available.
I don't know about his kind of cancer, also I don't know what you
mean by "significantly".
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
