For the health of it

I recently read an article in this month's Men's Health about some common illnesses that doctors often misdiagnose: Allergies, torn meniscus (knee pain), sinus headach, bronchitis and appendicitis. The article also included some surprising statistics: 40 percent of men believe they have been misdiagnosed in the past, 72 percent of men who have doubted a doctor's diagnosis at least once and 50 percent of men who sought a second opinion.

A few days after this article, one of my teachers at school was detailing her new venture into Bioelectrical Impedience Analysis. To put it very, very basically, this measures the route of an electrical current in your body. Fat impedes the current, muscle conducts it. The more fat you have, the less current you'll conduct.

Why this is interesting is that with this analysis, doctors are able to pin-point your fat-to-muscle ratio so accurately that they can literally tell you what foods are best and worst for your body.

A by-product of this is disease process -- or rather managing or eliminating them. For example, the health industry is overrun by the pharmacutical industry, which has created a new medication for patients who may be pre-hypertensive. PRE-hypertensive. In other words, your numbers aren't THAT high yet, but you're on your way, so why not start some meds now.

Don't get me wrong, high blood pressure is a big deal. It's the equivilent to a ticking time bomb. But why would you want to start injecting meds into your body before you have to? If someone could tell you exactly how to change your diet and get control of your blood pressure, wouldn't that be the better solution?

Hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes are the three evils in my family history, same with hubby. Luckily we have no big "C." All three of those can be managed or even eliminated with a good diet -- the right diet. And if we care enough now, we may die happily of plain old age.

Of course, this started a chain of thinking that has lead to yet another article I'm writing for the part-time gig about when to consider a different treatment for a diagnosis. There are some disease processes that absolutely require a certain regime of medical attention, no question. But what about the rest? And how many other people have started thinking like myself and my teacher?

Is the medical community the last word in MY health?