Right….
Doctors provide the following preventative treatments for money alone:
1. Vaccines to prevent serious, life-threatening (and expensive) illnesses
2. Aspirin (dirt cheap) to prevent heart attacks and strokes
3. Diabetes medications to prevent serious complications (kidney disease, neuropathy, blindness, heart attacks, strokes)
4. Mammograms to prevent breast cancer (life threatening, debilitating)
5. Colonoscopies to prevent colon cancer (life threatening, debilitating)
6. Cheap blood pressure medications (thiazides) to prevent heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease
And on, and on. If doctors truly were participating in a nefarious plot, why would we provide any preventative treatments at all?
The fact is, people today lead sedentary, TV filled lives munching on high carbohydrate, high fructose corn syrup containing foods and smoking healthy cigarettes. They get fat and out of shape. Yet, people are living twice as long as 100 years ago. Bodies aren’t perfect machines (though they are damn close), and break down. That is a fact. Just like your car breaks down even if you take good care of it (and more quickly if you don’t), your body breaks down and needs the help of a mechanic (doctor).
That said, every time I see a patient in clinic, I encourage them to lose weight, exercise, quit smoking, drink in moderation and eat healthily. I cannot go to their home and follow them around to make sure they do those things.