Reserve it at BN.com & pick it up in 60 minutes at your local store.
Enter a zip code
(Hardcover)
At a time when access to health care in the United States is being widely debated, Nortin Hadler argues that an even more important issue is being overlooked. Although necessary health care should be available to all who need it, he says, the current health-care debate assumes that everyone requires massive amounts of expensive care to stay healthy. Hadler urges that before we commit to paying for whatever pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment tell us we need, American consumers need to adopt an attitude of skepticism and arm themselves with enough information to make some of their own decisions about what care is truly necessary.
Each chapter of Worried Sick is an object lesson regarding the uses and abuses of a particular type of treatment, such as mammography, colorectal screening, statin drugs, or coronary stents. For consumers and medical professionals interested in understanding the scientific basis for Hadler's arguments, each topical chapter has an accompanying source chapter in which Hadler discusses the medical literature and studies that inform his critique.
According to Hadler, a major stumbling block to rational health-care policy in the United States is contention over the very concept of what constitutes good health. By learning to distinguish good medical advice from persuasive medical marketing, consumers can make better decisions about their personal health and use that wisdom to inform their perspectives on health-policy issues.
Reviewer:Carole Ann Kenner, DNS, RNC-NIC, FAAN(University of Oklahoma College of Nursing)
Description:This is a guide for consumers to better understand healthcare options, navigate throughout the maze of jargon, and advocate for their own health.
Purpose:The book presents the common issues that most consumers face in healthcare today. Its purpose, though, is to assist the public in making informed healthcare decisions. These worthy objectives are met.
Audience:Although the audience is consumers, health professionals can benefit from looking at healthcare issues from a consumer perspective.
Features:Topics range from the aging population and healthcare needs through interventionists in cardiology as cash drivers in healthcare, to the disease du jour such as cholesterol, breast cancer, and dying. The topics of alternative therapies and insurance are thrown into the mix. Using a teaching approach of a healthcare professional having a conversation with a patient sets the stage. Each chapter contains scientific support for the argument presented. Then a so-called "shadow chapter" follows that presents important scientific papers for more in-depth review of the material. The only shortcoming is that little acknowledgement is given to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) core competencies that drive healthcare today.
Assessment:There is no direct competition for this book. Its unique perspective is a breath of fresh air for critically examining healthcare topics such as cardiac problems and the new specialization of interventionists. It presents options to consumers and encourages them to make informed decisionsabout their own health. The physician author makes clear the consumer has rights to demand good healthcare.
Nortin M. Hadler, M.D., is professor of medicine and microbiology/immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is attending rheumatologist at UNC Hospitals. He is author or editor of numerous books, including The Last Well Person: How to Stay Well Despite the Health-Care System.
Reader Rating:
See Detailed Ratings
September 08, 2009: This tome on the over-treated, over diagnosed, over drugged world of America is interesting. The author's premise is that we are beset with rampant Type II Medical Malpractice - the performance of unnecessary testing, diagnosing, and prescribing. He seems to perceive that we are, as a culture, drug addicts of the first order, responding to the programmed prescription of pharmaceuticals by doctors who mindlessly follow the lead of drug companies and studies financed by the same folks. In the course of this herd-like plunge off the cliff, we are engaged in a huge wealth transfer from all of us to the medical establishment. What is our reward? The lowest life expectancy of any major country!
Of course, this is the issue of the moment for our new President Obama, who seems obsessed with expanding this process.Whether your concern is cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, breast cancer, prostate cancer, dietary supplements, hormone replacement therapy, osteopenia, backaches, over or under-working, or whatever, Dr. Hadler offers a critical evaluation of the practical realities of studies, most of which are read to mean that current treatments are no better than placebos.Dr. Hadler's view seems to be that we all live, on average, to be about 85. By that time, we will all have our fair share of diseases and will die from one or more of them. We will be best advised if we have a trusted physician who will evaluate our maladies, advise of the realities of the treatments, and then let us take a proactive role in our own self-medication. He nowhere exactly says this, but the result seems clear enough.This is a marvelous book that should be must-reading for anyone who is concerned about any of these things - which is all of us. For me, Dr. Hadler's excellent analysis made me revisit my own mother's breast cancer treatment in the 1950s. I think that she endured a mutilation that was probably needless, did not extend the length of her life, and surely devastated the quality of her life. I hope that you are all spared such a fate. Read about being worried sick!
loading...
loading...
loading...
