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| Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman) | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 4 reviews)
Sales Rank: 15332
Category: Book
Author: Md, Nortin M. Hadler
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Studio: The University of North Carolina Press
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
Label: The University of North Carolina Press
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 392
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0807831875
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.10973
EAN: 9780807831878
ASIN: 0807831875
Publication Date: June 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Unfair to patients and doctors September 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dr. Hadler's second book on the same subject is an expansion of his diatribe against doctors (including, by extension, himself?). As with the first, he selects data to make his arguments, and omits those which disagree with him. As a consequence, the poor patient is left knowing far less than before starting, despite Hadler's promises to educate everyone. This is not to say that there are no useful points in the book; it is simply that given the unbelievably pompous and arrogant style, it is virtually impossible for one without great medical sophistication to make hide nor hair of it. Finally, his solution to the health care dilemma, to tax everyone 12% and pay only when the treatment satisfies Hadler's criteria of excellence, is sophomoric and useless.
 Great book with a giant hole August 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a tragedy! This is a book everyone in America should read, but after covering the major killers and the major scams involved in treating them, the author goes on and on about relatively minor illnesses and waxes extensively, it doesn't matter that he's right, about the disease that is the Capitalist system of expendable workers,drug companies etc., and the age old struggle between labor, management and poverty that makes people sicker than anything else. I agree, but why in God's name did he leave out Cancer, its diagnosis and dubious treatments, the other major killer he doesn't cover in a comparable way, thus doing a disservice to the readers he purports to help?
This flaws the book beyond belief. It could have been a best seller read by the millions who need to read it instead, in all probability, it will remain relegated to a smaller Univ. press readership because the editors didn't have the sense not to publish it until the other important major killer had been covered. That would have made it a supreme piece of muckraking that might help rein in the insatiable monster that is the Health Care industry in this country and maybe the world.
So no thanks to Dr. Hadler for getting so carried away with himself he drops the ball, and no thanks to the editors who let the book out without completing the job.
 Essential ! August 18, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's a vicious circle: the medical technology exponential growth needs to be sold, health news (the great majority not exactly exempt) being issued all the time everywhere. At the core, our anguish concerning our frailty - and mortality: we want to live better, and longer. Our limits as human beings (who eventually become sick and die) are irrelevant.
Elaborate laboratorial exams, expensive and unproven procedures are so finding their indications (a lot of them even becoming almost "compulsory"). Scientific articles are reshaped as a official way to reflect these certainties. And who is bold enough to contradict?
Nortin Hadler is one of the rare voices who raise against those established truths.
Relying heavily on sound medical literature (the same literature who - thanks to statistics "miracles" - yields otherwise dangerous conclusions), in a language sometimes excessively technical to lay people (althoug doing his best to clarify it), Hadler, a renowned professor, open our eyes and helps us in our hard decisions about our health, even if they are against the mainstream.
A MUST READ! April 30, 2008
34 out of 37 found this review helpful
If you want to save yourself from being labeled with a disease you don't have and take medications you don't need, then you must read this book.
Worried Sick is a follow up to Dr. Hadler's The Last Well Person. It has updated research information and written for the public at large. In this book, Dr. Hadler examines many of the common diagnoses and treatments and questions their validity and scientific basis. He shows clearly that many of them are not founded based on science, and that treatments are of questionable value, and possibly harmful.
Here is a brief overview but you really need to read the book for the whole story.
1- Heart bypass surgery and angioplasty: Dr. Hadler explains how bypass surgery has not been shown to be of any use. In fact, some patients whose chests were simply opened and closed had similar improvements in their level of pain after the surgery. However, those who had the surgery experiencing dementia (40%) and difficulty returning back to their regular jobs. Although, the efficacy of this treatment has never been proven, it and angioplasty continues to account for 500,000 procedures a year in the US.
2- Type 2 diabetes: He mentions that increase blood glucose level is an expected part of aging, and the effort to regulate blood sugar with medication has shown no effect in terms of preventing damage to the eyes or kidneys or preventing heart disease or stroke. In fact, ten years of intensive therapy offered no real advantage to 1000 middle aged hyperglycemic (high blood glucose level) people. So, why would anyone want
to be on therapy and suffer the side effects of medications that have no real benefits? He says changes in diet, weight loss, and exercise have are a much better approach. Also what is considered a high blood glucose level? Those levels are set by committees, not necessarily based on scientific medicine, but many times based on influence by pharmaceutical companies.
3. Hypertension: Dr. Hadler also points out that high blood pressure is another area where science has not proven that by lowering the mild high blood pressure one can really make a difference in preventing heart disease or damage to organs. He recommends for people who have diabetes and hypertension and are elderly to be treated, if regular exercise, weight loss, and diet modifications do not help. But, to be focused on keeping the blood pressure at 120/80 and getting medication to those who are 140/90 and higher, and who have no symptoms and are feeling well, is not supported by research. One thing research has shown is that a cheap first generation diuretic works just as well as the latest and very expensive anti-hypertension drugs.
4. Ruptured disc: He points out that the concept of ruptured disc as cause of back and leg pain was proposed some 70 years ago and should have remained there. There is no evidence that a ruptured disc causes any harm. All the spinal changes due to age detected in an MRI or CT scan are normal. Some 200 randomized studies clearly show that all the treatments ranging from spinal manipulation, shots, and surgeries are of no benefit. All studies have shown that patients who refused treatment recovered as well or better than those who were treated. He recommends taking Tylenol for the pain and discomfort and getting back into one's regular routine and job.
4. Knee and shoulder pain: he also points out that knee pain is of the same case. The current diagnoses, such as a torn meniscus or torn rotator cuff, and treatments are of no value, and perhaps the solution is to take some Tylenol fro the pain and keep going until the individual recovers, whether it's back or knee pain.
5. HRT therapy for post menopausal women: here is another area which is touted as a way of preventing heart disease and osteoporosis in women. He points out that not only this has failed, but the equipment they use for testing is not accurate most of the time, and that the medications used for it don't really work. Exercise is a better alternative. Also hip replacement surgery could easily be replaced with pinning the hip,
which is less costly with a faster recovery rate.
6- Cancer screening: Like Dr. Welch, author of Do I Need to Be Tested for Cancer, he too finds no scientific basis that screening well people for cancer has any benefit. He calls it, "looking for a very small needle in a big hay stack."
There is much more in the book that you need to read for yourself, and I highly recommend that you do. I used to trust my doctor and the medical system until I began to have back pain. Due to improper diagnoses and treatments I developed pain in my neck, legs, arms, hands, and became completely disabled. That's when I realized I needed to take charge of my own health. This is where physician and health educators like Dr. Hadler provide a great service. By the way, he is also a consultant to ABC News. You can watch his commentaries and read his writing at ABC News website.
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