Re: More Ritalin Nonsense

"Steven G. Tyler" <sgtyler@EROLS.COM> wrote:
[clip]
> anything to be concerned about. Quite by accident, I came across a news
> report that stated that PSA tests had something like 40% false
> positives, and recommended a second test. A quick call to the specialist
> confirmed the report's info, and a second PSA test brought the numbers
> back into the routine range. The primary care physician later confirmed
> that the manual examination he had conducted prior to the "high" PSA
> test could have caused such a false positive.
[clip]

I think more to Ed's point here is that you should not have been expected to
stumble across a news report that made you question your doctor's (two of them)
opinions in order to take a simply blood test and avoid an expensive, painfull biopsy.

I would not categorize the two doctors as being conservative. I would put their
scheduling you for a surgical procedure when a test is 40% false positive
without first confirming the results with a $20 blood test completely irresponsible.

I am also a medical skeptic. I do not believe that all doctors are corrupt,
only that societal pressures to "do the right thing" have forced many more
procedures than are necessary, and many more drug prescriptions than most of us
need. Read any of the lastest literature on antibiotic resistance and it will
scare you to death. We have turned some once nearly defeated infectious diseases
into antibiotic resistant killers again due to an overuse of these drugs. Staph
has not been a serious killer in over 75 years. It is starting to become one
again, and the place you are most likely to be infected with an antibiotic
resistant strain is in the hospital.

YiS,

-Tim

--
Tim Hewitt, Scoutmaster
Troop 350, Old Orchard Beach, Maine
Eagle '74

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