Friday, July 15, 2011

Researching Okay?

Researching after learning something is wrong would be much easier. If Doctors and researchers had full medical history and could go back through, investigating the past history learning. Had this person had a vitamin deficient or bone loss at a much younger age, or anything that could later in life become a problem that may need to be watched. Few people have complete medical records going back to childhood, there are many different reasons why people don't. Thankfully record keeping has gotten much better. Now the problem is many people can't afford to see a doctor with the cost of health care so high. Finding issues in the early stages isn't happening, instead problems are found too late or being missed all together. Reacting after the fact hasn't worked out very well so far, the learning curve is too slow, education of the facts is more miss then hit. Finding the real cause faster could make a huge difference in the outcomes for all of us.

Now I'm a nobody and not the brightest bulb on any tree that's for sure! I'm just saying what I think about what I've seen, heard and been told. So take this for what it is, my point of view. Maybe I'm wrong which I am quite a lot. This is my last post on this subject, I've come to the end of my research. Learning research works best the more information it has to draw from but with limited information it breaks down into, two people looking at the exact same information and not reach the same conclusion. Because it's more about the prospective of the information, then where when and who it came from what's gained is understanding that more and better sources of information are needed.

It seems people are trying to find something or someone to blame for what's happening, if we get rid of this one thing it would fix everything. There is a gap and a lot of what's happening is  best guessing and rounding up the usual suspects like smoking, bad health and eating habits and lacking proper nutrition as a child. Yes there are a lot more, but these three always seem to be on top of every list as a leading cause of just about everything. Starting with the first one Smoking and yes I smoke cigarettes. To be fair I smoked before I was born. Remembering the Doctor smoking in the office and people smoking in any store. Trying to find any group that has not been touched by carcinogen, is harder than I thought. Anything that burns produces carcinogen's there is no way around it, it's in so many things that are used in everyday. I do agree it should be at the top of every list, however we should call it what it is exposure to carcinogen's. Trying to blame a lack of knowledge on the past no one knew it was wrong then. Health science didn't know things were harmful until after people started dying, this is still true today. Trusting science now isn't that easy it's still more subjective then objective.*

*My point of reference is the study that came out about a year ago stating that forth and fifth hand cigarettes smoke is just as bad as second hand smoke. The study concluded this by
grouping all known burning carcinogen as one group cigarette smoke.  

2 comments:

Sherri said...

you are so right.... doing research is horrid anymore...at least where health topics are concerned....

i grew up not going to do the doctor, just like everyone i knew... we didn't go to the doctor for everything that bothered us... we went for annual checkups which usually meant shots, look in the eyes, ears, and down the throat... that was it...

i don't think i had blood drawn until i was sick with mono when i was 16... and i didn't get blood typed until i had my first miscarriage at age 20...

now after mono, symptoms of ms began creeping into my world but they weren't recognized as that... i was told i had carpal tunnel, tendinitis, tinnitus, lack of fluids (cramping), and just plain clumsy - not paying attention....

these things and more have made researching my own health difficult...

now i can only imagine trying to research health on a larger scale would be mind-boggling and so very frustrating!

Mary Mennenga said...

Sherri,

Researching would be much easier if we all had a health history. Instead of asking a patient to try and remember something from 20 years ago. Heck sometimes I don't remember what I did the day before yesterday!