If you spend any amount of time in a social setting, you realize that as the consumption of alcohol goes up,. so does the expertise of the people at the party. Thus we have so many men, late on a Sunday evening with greater football expertise than Don Shula or Chuck Noll. It’s more than common at a cocktail party or some sort of networking meeting. It doesn’t have to be politics or the entertainment industry or sports. Most people with either enough arrogance or alcohol [same destination, different vehicle], become experts in finance, medicine, nutrition and FITNESS.
While health is a profound issue and the discussion of bad health/bad luck seems to be part of the human experience, [misery loves company], the trends and supposed solutions to fitness problems create a feeding frenzy among party crowds. Everyone is an expert with not logic, evidence or analysis, but anecdote, testimony and appeal to authority. It’s like throwing baked hams to alligators. Toss some ideas in the pond, stand back and enjoy the action.
Although the comedy of this situation is profound, the lesson it teaches is important. If you sit back and listen, [it’s difficult not punching people,.. really it is], you will notice that the solution to any problem, such as insomnia, flabby arms, beer belly, tension headaches, bad shoulders, knee injuries, obesity, lack of energy, depression, anxiety, is usually ONE THING. Magically there is one simple solution to each of these problems. It is NEVER multifactorial.
So it goes like this-
Insomnia = Take herbal meds, never use drugs because natural is safe.
Flabby Arms = Do Pilates because it makes your muscles longer instead of bulky.
Beer Belly = The Deadly Gluten because GMO Wheat makes you fat.
Tension Headaches = Artificial Sweeteners are neurotoxins.
Bad Shoulders = You need surgery. It will never be better.
Knee Injuries = Surgery, then never bear weight on them again.
Obesity = Diet does not work for everyone.
Lack of Energy = Try Red Bull.
Depression = Selective Serotonin ReUptake Inhibitors.
Anxiety = Take your Benzodiazepines.
So literally, there is no need for health care, let alone a national program for health care when you can go to a party or business networking meeting and get one stop, concise, diagnostics with confidence, flair and a certain, “je ne sais quoi”.
The problem here is not misdiagnosis, which is nearly 100%, nor liability, [speak to your lawyer], but the assumption that every problem has only one factor that causes it. In reality most problems are multifactorial. There is more than one cause. So the need for years of education, internship, residency, combined with a keen sense of diagnostic methods may make finding solutions more efficient, but far from easy. But as I pointed out earlier, people like things simple. The also like an enemy. If things are less than satisfactory it seems aligned with much of human nature to place blame. If we can align ourselves as groups through social media and popular media with a common enemy we feel safer. We are not alone and a few thousand people can’t be wrong, can they?
“Half of New Yorkers Believe US Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 9-11 Attacks and ‘Consciously Failed’ To Act; 66% Call For New Probe of Unanswered Questions by Congress or New York’s Attorney General, New Zogby International Poll Reveals”. Zogby International. August 30, 2004.
Yes. Lots of people can be wrong and often are. [Examine how quiet 9/11 Truthers are every Anniversary of 9/11]
One of the seeds of this confusion is an odd flaw in personality. One of my co-workers years ago summed it up by saying, “They trust the last person they spoke to. This could be the Valet, Postman, Cashier, Homeless Man or ‘Some guy at a party whose brother is a Doctor’. What is consistent in this advice is how simple and direct it is. It doesn’t confuse us, challenge us, make us think or create more questions. Certainly hearing a guy at an Amway meeting telling you to avoid microwaves and invest in electric forks is far better than your Oncologist suggesting multiple treatment for what he feels is two distinct forms of curable malignancy. One statement is made with an egotistical ‘cock suredness’ and the other is based on education, evidence, experience, compassion and gut.
So realize that while we wish most things are simple, many are not. The one word solution to a problem may seem like magic, but it can be based on anecdote, illusion and lack of rational thinking.
