Tuesday, June 24, 2008

What it means to be well

Dr. Abigail Zugar compares and contrasts to doctors' books on health and wellness in today's New York Times. The two books offer close to an opposite approach to health; one advocating screening tests and careful monitoring of the body's systems and the other advocating that the over-medicating of relatively minor problems is causing more harm than good.

Dr. Zugar points out that the contrast points to a discussion about what exactly is wellness? Is wellness the complete removal of disease or is it learning to cope with illnesses without becoming a perpetual patient? What is the emotional toll of always thinking, or even worrying, about health and illness?

Thought-provoking reading: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24book.html?ex=1372046400&en=8feef82ac9684dd2&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink.

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