Brad McCormick asked: > Why can't we declare a > *WAR AGAINST UNHEALTHFUL LIFE STYLE*, like > the war against terror, drugs, etc.?
Because there's no money in it -- on the contrary, there's a lot of money in selling unhealthful stuff and then tinkering with the resulting symptoms. Note that mainstream medicine has declared a "war on cancer", coming from the wrong side (tinkering with symptoms, doing mammograms until they get cancer from the x-rays, etc.), because there IS money in that, like in the "war on terror" (armaments and "security" industry). In general, if you want to make money as an industry, NEVER remove the causes of the problem you are being paid to solve (because that would put you out of business), but only tinker with symptoms while perpetuating (or even fostering) the causes. > The NYT yesterday raised the bar, with an article on > something new dentists are encountering: "Meth mouth" -- apparently > persons who use methamphetimine(sp?) wreck their teeth > down to the roots thru > some combination of dry mouth encouraging infection, > irresponsible attitude resulting from drug > use causing them to not do their dental hygiene (Who cares?), > caustic substances in the drug itself, etc. This stuff makes > mouth look like the person got caught in an IED event or > something -- there's a picture in the article. Perhaps dentists should stop installing mercury in people's mouths so there would be less "demand" for methamphetamines in the first place. But that would be bad for dentists' (and others') business... > I have long thought that something else should be done: medical > research funding should be primarily channeled toward the most > socially constructive and pressing issues, rather than to solving > "gee whiz" but epidemiologically peripheral problems. Again, follow the money. Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
