Quote:
Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I understand your point. My problem with the way medicine offers conclusions is that its very reluctant to admit the socially unpalatable finding implicit in its research (you're probably not going to get a disease from 99.9% of the things you do until you're quite old). The findings are always subtly geared toward making the readers as hyper-vigilant as possible, which, I think, actually causes our taxes to go up. Frivolous visits to docs and E/Rs are a fairly sizable chunk of medical costs each year.
I also have a problem with dumbing down data for the public. Why not tell Joe Shmoe he probably won't see any problems from weekend binge drinking or an occasional suntan or cigarette? It's true. Why do we always inflate the dangerous aspects of things?
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I'm noting that you said this the next time the fat debate comes up. We've got a major obesity problem in this country because people don't think that extra donut is going to have an impact one way or another. And yeah, they're probably right about the single donut.
But then, the causal link between obesity and morbidity is about as tenuous as second hand smoke and cancer, so no worries.
