[lit-ideas] Re: Diabetes (paging David Ritchie)
- From: Teemu Pyyluoma <teme17@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:39:32 -0800 (PST)
David, thanks for reply.
The link didn't open, but I think I found it on youtube. I'd like to expand a
bit on "a cultural element at play in the defining of some ailments." If the
cultural element at play in early 20th century Britain was class, what is it
now? Invidualization?
The idea that some diseases are caused by life style, such as lack of exercise,
obesity, etc. is not problematic in the sense that it is untrue, but I do find
it problematic because it is too vague. And I am guessing that approval of such
vague diagnosis is linked to the general social ranking of life styles of the
patients, that is for example the pathologies of lower classes are more easily
assumed be caused by their lifestyles.
There is an economical side to this. To the extent pathologies are common,
economies of scale can be used to develop relatively affordable standardized
treatmens to the illnesses. Most people can not afford invidual pathologies.
But this urge to generalize may in turn lead to worse diagnosis, and
parodoxically to more expensive, in terms of time, money and suffering,
standard treatments instead.
Yours,
Teemu
Helsinki, Finland
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