AskMeAnythingAtAll

What are the long term side effects of chemo? Do you take that into account when you talk about wellbeing?

I'm not a doctor, but I would definitely encourage you to be aware of what you're getting into before you enter medical school.

There is no out-and-out partnership between doctors and drug companies, but the drug companies do anything and everything to court doctors and inform them about their latest advances. Drug companies fund studies and then circulate their findings in the most positive light possible, focusing on short term benefits and ignoring prevention as well as the long term health of the individuals being treated. In a nutshell, it's a partnership that emerges in the context of treating symptoms rather than people.

It does get pretty sick, though, sometimes. I've heard stories about drug companies putting on promotional events and giving away their swag. There is definitely some sense of rubbing each other's back. I'm not saying that doesn't happen!!

Anyway, if you're going into this field, you should know that your training will be focused on treatment, not prevention, of illness, and that you will essentially be forced to view things that way. Also, that is the wrong way to fight illness. It is putting out fires all day, that's all. That's not the way it should be, but that's the way it is.

With all of that being said, you can be one of the good ones by getting through, earning your stripes, and then telling off the self-important clowns who allow all of this to transpire.

Doctors are not supposed to be janitors, cleaning up after the toxic effects of industrialization, but right now, that's exactly what they are. Most of them give in at some point and sell their souls, but you can be the exception to that rule!

All the best!

There is no cure for cancer, period.

But companies definitely do profit from the disease being "treated."

Think about what you're asking. That replacement tissue has to come from somewhere. Unlike replacing a part of your car, it has to be grown, not manufactured. So, those cells need conditions identical to those found in the body, where the tissue is meant to be. But obviously, a Petri dish is not the same as a human body, so recreating those conditions is going to be next to impossible, and the tissue produced is always going to be second-rate, at best.

Not so. Recently, mammograms came under fire because they were detecting growths that were not likely to become malignant tumours and which therefore did not require treatment at that stage.

This was a clear example of how early detection generated false alarms, causing thousands of unnecessary treatments. We're talking millions of dollars here, and thousands of lives disrupted for no good reason. All because people like you, who were trained to speak exactly the way you're speaking right now, put too much faith in your methods and ignored the bigger picture.