An article by Dr. Aaron E. Carroll in today's NY Times (The Trouble With Labeling a Health Problem a Disease, June 2) contains important information regarding the over-treatment of "conditions" that are often just variations of a normal physiology, but that have often been termed "diseases," and how the mere labeling of an individual with a "disease" often causes unnecessary life-style consequences. What follows is the final conclusion, which I believe bears repeating:
"Allowing the medicalization of normal variations in physiology to be transformed into 'treatable conditions' is leading to unintended consequences. We're spending billions of dollars on treatments that might not, or don't work. We're making people worry when they don't have to. And we may be causing actual health problems in the process. Our job as doctors is to make sick patients healthy not to make healthy patients sick."
"Allowing the medicalization of normal variations in physiology to be transformed into 'treatable conditions' is leading to unintended consequences. We're spending billions of dollars on treatments that might not, or don't work. We're making people worry when they don't have to. And we may be causing actual health problems in the process. Our job as doctors is to make sick patients healthy not to make healthy patients sick."
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