April 24, 2005
Soapsick
Now I know why I definitely felt my creatinine levels rising after last week’s House. A study of 200 physicians by Norwich Union Healthcare found that 90% had seen patients reporting symptoms similar to those they’d seen on TV, or read about in newspapers and magazines. Hmm, come to think of it, I’m also starting to feel the effects of red tide poisoning...
This isn’t all bad, as the BBC reports:
Dr. Ian Banks, president of the Men’s Health Forum, said he thought soap story lines had saved a lot of lives and could improve public awareness of health issues “far better” than government health agencies.
He said: “Men in particular tend to present late with symptoms, which means their chances of survival, especially with the more serious cancers, declines quite rapidly. What the soaps do is highlight the important symptoms that people can ignore for quite a long time.”
Dr. Doug Wright, the study’s author, cautioned soap addicts against scaring themselves to death. He obviously hasn’t watched House.
Posted by Stephen at 8:14 PM in Humanity | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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