On Preventative Medicine

[lhynard]

Generally, it is a good thing. I have always been strongly in favor of as many tests possible even if one does not have any symptoms of a disease. However, a few weeks ago, at mmeguilotn's house (with sadeyedartist), I was discussing with her father, a physician, this, particularly regarding MRIs. He changed my view on it. He was sharing how human beings are very unique creatures. Everyone of us has as many oddities in our insides as we do on our outsides. Some of us just have random bumps and such on our internal organs. There is a lot of variety. What ends up happening is that an MRI will reveal a bump that is really nothing, but to find that out for sure, invasive surgery must be performed. Surgery is never safe. It also costs a lot of money and takes a lot of resources and time. And all of this may end up revealing that nothing was wrong at all. Hopefully, the patient will have had no damage done by the surgery. Regardless, he or she will now have scars and lots of after-surgery pain and/or soreness.

So, I now am thinking that MRIs should only be used if there is reason (i.e. symptoms present) to suspect something is wrong.