Ten Pills a Day Keeps the Doctors in Pay

Posted on May 22, 2006 by glasscastle

WASHINGTON — What preventive health measures would save the most lives
for the least money?

The top rank goes to taking aspirin daily to prevent heart attacks and
strokes in men over 40 and women over 50, according to a study reported
Wednesday on the Web site of an alliance of health insurers, state health
departments, academics, and trade groups.

"Trade groups" is a euphanism for the pharmaceutical industry; in other
words the people who bring you this list are the insurance industry,
the AMA and the drug companies.

Below
are the top 10 preventive measures in rank order. Preventive measures
that are ignored by more than half of those who’d benefit from them are
indicated by asterisks.

  • *Daily aspirin to prevent heart attacks and stroke in men over 40
    and women over 50.
  • Childhood immunizations for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough,
    measles, mumps, rubella, polio, hepatitis B, etc.
  • *Tobacco-use screening and brief counseling by doctors.
  • *Routine colorectal-cancer screening for adults 50 and older by any
    recognized method.
  • Hypertension screening via routine blood-pressure tests and medication
    if necessary.
    Annual flu shots for adults 50 and older.
  • *Immunization of adults 65 and older against bacteria that
    cause pneumonia and related diseases.
  • *Screening and brief counseling of problem drinkers by their
    physicians.
  • *Vision screening for adults 65 and older.
  • Cervical cancer screening for sexually active women and
    women over 21.

Interesting list. Come to think of it, all of the measures bring
direct financial benefit to at least one of the sponsors of the study, except
the anti-smoking provision (#3), which
further discredits the judas goat/sacrifical lamb of American Big Business,
the tabacco companies, already so discredited (but still making billions) the additional dirt is invisble, but also directly benefits the allied constituency of
America’s trial lawyers.

Whatever happened to eating fruits and vegetables, getting a good eight hours of sleep, losing weight, getting off your
duff to take a long walk or throw a frisbee around, and physical and mental
techniques for stress reduction? Guess the fruit and vegetable lobby needs
to upgrade their efforts and sponsor a few studies of their own…

article from the Boston Globe
This entry was posted in Technology. Bookmark the permalink.