Homeopathy

Did even read the link you supplied ? Or were you drawn in by the 'Doctors are the Third leading Cause of Death' tabloid headline and then failed to check out the sources, look in to the credibility of the author or even read the article itself ?

um, approximately that would be, yes, sort of, yes, yes and pfft, course i read it...

Again, did you read any of this, did you even bother to read the abstract ? Or were you drawn in by the '[I why most published research findings are false'[/I] tabloid headline and then failed to check out the essay itself ?

please see above (minus the pfft bit).

How do you think this essay is relevant to the idea that we are overmedicated ?

it isnt actually, but let me explain... in a sec.

Firstly, the headline is quite funny, a little misleading, no one is inventing diseases....

true. i worked this out. you worked this out, i hope that most people correct that kind of thing in their head.

so yea i kind of posted this lot inb a funny mood after i'd been reading a bunch of different things from different threads and forums and other places. what was striking me at the time and actually what my original rant (which i deleted) was about was my frustration that as a layperson it seems incredibly difficult to know what is correct in certain fields of interest or study. i was following links and came up with those three and posted them more as an illustration of my frustration than anything else. though there was a semblance of relevance in there. we've done comfirmation bias before and i failed miserably in your test. which, strangely is where my post came from. i was trying to disprove my opinions on a dietry choice as being more healthy than another. and what i ended up with was confusinon and frustration at not seeming to get a clear answer. it is possible to check every source and every study to find the methods and etc etc but like i said as a lay person with no experience or real understanding (and yes a short fuse for trawling) dam i was none the wiser. for me the links just kind of summed up my irritation, perhaps in a different way to how they irritated you. why i asked again if we are overmedicated? for me it was less about the actual use of medication (in the first article) simply the link between numbers of (apparently unnecessary) deaths and where they occur - in the medical facility. loads of people die in hospitals and on the table of an O.R every year. and of course you dont know if a person would have died if they hadnt recieved the drug that caused the fatal reaction etc. but for me it was easy to link the overmedicated word into that set of numbers in a very loose sense. the interventiion of the medical community and the deaths caused by it = overmedication or thereabouts.

the one about false research findings, i admit i stopped reading fairly quickly. i dint understand it. and no i didnt post it to be relevant to the overmedicated talk. more to highlight my annoyance at not finding simple answers. and when you find answers there are always conflicts and counter arguments and then can you (i) even believe the answers? no. apparently not. and therein lies my frustration. unless you are only using google to do mm to inch or £ to $ conversions it seems like you have to do endless trawling to find answers. and then you find opposing ones. and you (i) just go, "fuck it. i cant be fucked woith the amount of shit on the internet, why do people who are paid to do research end up with different answers? why cant people just publish true accurate findings?" - rhetorical question.

the last one about inventing diseases; like i sadi, i know they arent inventing, and i agree with what you wrote. the article was poor in my mind. maybe in this one we are being over media'd. as in is the media inventing stories to sell more papers?

anyway, it kind of reminded me of a chris rock sketch about medicval commercials. i've tried to find it but cant so it wont be so funny.. anyway, commercials listing listing syptom after symptom until you realise you have one symptom and need to get that drug.

"i heard one informercial the other day that said; 'do you go to sleep at night, and wake up in the morning'"

i listen to internet radio and some of the commercials on there are crazy, trying to get people to take drugs to lose weight telling people not to change their diet or lifestyle just take the drugs. "it speeds up your metabolism so you lose weight with no effort". personally i'd say tis was overmedicating. i mean, you can lose weight without drugs, and without the possibility of side effects of said drugs. and what about when the free trial runs out? you have to buy the drugs because they hooked you on the losing weight the lazy way.

my saying that im not discussing it was meant as in im not discussing the definition of overmedicated. theough clearly i have a little bit. loosley, my dea of overmedicated is something like this..... when medicines are used or the medical community are involved in a drug/surgical proceedural way (possibly a made up word there), when there is alternatives that are more 'natural' and arguably safer with less sideffects..... my idea of overmedicated would also include something along the lines of...... when the accidental death o f a person is caused misrtakenly by a mistake/adverse reaction to drug etc etc when in the care of the medical community...... examples such as the above, of drugs that make you lose weight by speeding your metabolism (which would, i imagine have knock on effects in the complex systems of the body). instead of perhaps just changing diet and lifestyle to lose weight?? or he example in the article giving numbers of people dying through adverse drug reactions, or while under anaesthetic etc etc.

im not trying to build a foolproof case here. or even a non fool proof case. i would hazard a guess that there are plenty of occasions when drugs and surgery aren't required, but given anyway. but i have no evidence to support what i said. it doesnt mean there isnt any, more that im not so bothered in trying to find it.

I am sure there is a decent argument to be made for the idea that we are overmedicated,

yes i agree. the difference is that you appear to be more concerned about it than i do. you want things to be supported and proven, and im just happy to have idle beliefs on subjects that dont feel of particular consequense to me (despite my ramblings above).

but these links look to have been dug up for their scandalous headlines

you are right here too, but i hope i have explained myself a bit better.