Health Viewpoints If you asked my doctor, he’d tell you that I have a number of chronic “diseases”—hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid), hypercholesterolemia (blood cholesterol levels higher than considered normal), and eczema. Yet I take no medication whatsoever, not even over-the-counter drugs, feel great most of the time, and have no limitations on my life. My son Ethan was diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger’s when he was five years old.
The doctors told us we would have to put him on powerful drugs that could cause all sorts of side-effects but without them our son wouldn’t be able to function in society. Today Ethan is eighteen years old and one of the healthiest teenagers around. He also takes no medications, has no limitations on his life, and he’s the kind of kid who gets straight A’s without studying, is effortlessly good at most sports, and designs aircraft and race cars in his spare time.
So, what is a “disease”? Professor Jackie Leach Scully wrote an interesting essay on this topic a few years ago which I encourage you to read. She explains that while the definition of disease changes with the human and cultural context “we must have a reasonably clear idea, first what a disease is, and second, which diseases are most worth the investment of time and money.” This highlights the practical matter of labelling a set of symptoms as a certain “disease” so that treatments can be marketed to combat it.
The labelling also enables us to track stat.
