This time of year, one main goal for many people is to avoid getting sick. In an attempt to prevent illness, people stock up on different medications that are said to prevent its consumer from falling ill.
A conversation I had once with a doctor leads me to wonder if this is the best way to go about remaining healthy.
To get to my point, I will have to tell some details that might be considered less than attractive to most people.
If you get nauseous just thinking about disgusting things, you might want to skip the next few paragraphs.
A few years ago, I noticed one day that the big toe on my left foot was hurting anytime anything came in contact with it. I did not know what it was, so I gave it a few days without mentioning it to my mom.
This was a bad idea because it turned out that I had just gotten my first ingrown toenail.
Any ingrown toenail hurts, but mine hurt exceptionally badly. It hurt so badly because my decision to refrain from telling my mom about it for a few days gave it time to become infected. Needless to say, we made an appointment with a foot doctor right away.
After the doctor examined my foot, he told me that I had come in just in time. It turns out that I had developed a form of Staph Infection called MRSA which, with a little more time, could have caused me to need part of my toe to be cut off.
My mom had never heard of MRSA before, so she asked the doctor for more information about it. He told us all the boring scientific stuff, but one bit of information really stuck with me.
The doctor said that MRSA, along with other forms of Staph Infection, did not even exist when our grandparents were born. Throughout the years, people began using antibiotics almost like candy. Anytime a person reported any signs of discomfort, doctors would prescribe them an antibiotic.
With too much of this, new viruses such as Staph were formed. Essentially, people’s desire to remain healthy led to more ways to become sick.
Another aspect of the medical field that amuses me is the constant creation of new ways to diagnose people with behavior and movement problems.
One very popular example of this is the debate over whether ADHD is a proper disease or an excuse for people who have trouble paying attention because they cannot keep themselves calm.
I believe ADHD is a real disease, but its diagnosis probably gets abused. I have been around people who will not sit still, and it is obvious that they are not just showing off.
I have also been around the type of people who use it as an excuse to be all over the place with no retribution.
Another phenomenon that has been created more recently is Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). This one is a little more personal in my case because I have been accused of having RLS a few times.
Part of me believes RLS is just another one of those disorders made up by doctors to shut the mouths of people who look for explanations about every unusual behavior they might possess.
An article I recently read mentioned that it is hard for people to believe RLS should be a real diagnosis because the disorder seems to have just appeared overnight.
It stated that 20 years ago, few people, including doctors, had even heard of RLS.
There seems to be a trend within all these diagnoses. It seems that constant worrying leads to the creation of more illnesses, diseases and disorders.
My girlfriend’s mom is a prime example of this. She cannot sleep in a hotel room without drowning the room in Lysol beforehand.
With all of these thoughts, it seems obvious that the more people worry, the more unnecessary diagnoses the world will accumulate. I am the kind of guy who does not freak out about germs and whatnot.
I live by the old phrase, “What doesn’t kill me will make me stronger.”
Plus, if you spend all your time worrying about what might happen, you will leave no time to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.
Jay Ballard is a freshman majoring in chemistry. He can be contacted at [email protected].