Health

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has recognized the health benefits of moderate boozing; [it] declared in 1992 that there was "a growing body of scientific research and other data that seems to provide evidence that low levels of drinking decrease the risk of death from coronary artery disease." The New England Journal of Medicine recommended moderate alcohol consumption as one of the nine "primary prevention" methods for avoiding heart disease and concluded that low-to-moderate drinkers have up to a 45 percent lower chance of being hit by a heart attack.

Sane or insane, persons possess more self-control than we are willing to accord them. The idea that mentally ill persons lack self-control is a modern view, alien to people in less advanced civilizations. The doctrine that the so-called insane person cannot control his ("psychotic") behavior, rather than that he does not want to control it, is, in my view, a postulate parading as a factual proposition. The evidence points decisively in the opposite direction. Under extreme threats to life—as in a concentration camp—mad persons suddenly "recover" and cease to display symptoms of their "disease."

When government forces the taxpayers to pay for other people's medical care, it will inevitably try to control their behavior ... [T]he government could outlaw tobacco ... But why stop with tobacco? Diets heavy in fat may contribute to the development of heart disease and premature death. Should the people who raise beef cattle and make ice cream have to repay Medicare? ... Should we all have to follow a government-prescribed diet so our fellow citizens won't have to pay for coronary-bypass operations? It is hard to see where the principle stops being applied.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Frosted Flakes cereal and Pop Tarts are healthy foods, but foods containing large amounts of nuts are not ... Currently, in order to use the term "healthy" on a product's packaging, the product ... must not exceed three grams of fat ... [T]his means products like almonds and avocados, which both have enormous health benefits, would be considered, "unhealthy" ... [T]his is certainly not the first time government science has been found to be inaccurate, one thing that is certain, the FDA's current definition of "healthy" is absolutely nuts.

Medicare and Medicaid ... "cover sicknesses caused by obesity including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease ..." In other words, the government subsidizes people's poor lifestyle choices. Predictably, government officials are clueless. "Obesity has become a crucial health problem for our nation, and these findings show that the medical costs alone reflect the significance of the challenge." That's how Tommy Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, sees it. Never mind that a "nation" cannot have a health problem. Only individuals can have health problems.

There exist more unjustified uses of the state's coercive power in health and medicine than in nearly any other area. In the United States, governments routinely forbid competent adults from making medical decisions that affect no one but themselves. Libertarians maintain that such laws are unjust ... For example, the government denies patients ... the ability to determine their course of treatment. Proponents argue that such laws exist to ensure the safety and effectiveness of medical products. Libertarians argue that those laws cause more morbidity and mortality than they prevent.

[F]or Albright to say that food and medicine were not embargoed is to evade the fact that critical public-health needs could not be addressed because of the sanctions. Preventing a society from purifying its water and treating its sewage is a particularly brutal way to inflict harm, especially on its children. Disease was rampant, and infant mortality rose, at least in part because of the sanctions. And let's not forget ... the U.S. bombing ... James Bovard documents that the civilian infrastructure was deliberately targeted and that the health risks to the Iraqi people were anticipated.

The ongoing Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) project has found both saturated and unsaturated fat intake linked to better heart health, that a high-carb diet is a better predictor of health risks than fat consumption, and that the health benefits of fruit, vegetables, and legumes like beans and chickpeas may plateau at three to four servings per day ... Looking at the link between macronutrients and heart disease, researchers found high carbohydrate consumption—defined as diets where more than 60 percent of calories come from carbs—increased the risk of overall death ...

The American public tends to think of the FDA as a protector against dangerous side effects, as we saw with Thalidomide decades ago. But how many Americans have died because of lags in approval? ... The FDA's ban on advertising aspirin as an effective preventer of first heart attacks may have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans every year. But because it's easy to identify those harmed by side effects, and difficult to identify who might have been saved by earlier introduction of Septra to the marketplace, the FDA tends to be over-conservative in its regulatory process.

The health of human beings is a joint product of their genetic inheritance (advice: choose healthy and long-lived parents), their way of life (the poor person who eats regularly and in moderation, exercises, does not smoke, does not drink to excess, is married, and does not worry overly much is likely to be healthier than the rich person who does the opposite), and their wealth ... That individuals in rich nations are, on average, far healthier, live far longer, and can do more of the things they want to do at corresponding ages than people in poor countries is a rule without exception.

Proponents justify a [smoking] ban by arguing that secondhand smoke is a health risk. But all sorts of human activities are risky—from contact sports to rock climbing, from skiing to swimming, from riding a bike to having sex. Yet many people swim, bike and play football because they take pleasure in doing so, and that's their choice. In a liberal society, people are free to make their own risk and lifestyle choices—including whether to smoke ... [A]ll sorts of activities impose risks on others, and again, those people bear those risks willingly.

Historically, behavior classified as mental illness or a form of mental disorder has been wide ranging, including refusal to support oneself through work, reckless gambling, drug habits, unconventional sexual practices, ... and political nonconformity ... Although Dr. Szasz never denies that people can have real problems coping with life and dealing with others, he denies that those problems are properly regarded as a form of illness ... [A]lthough ... some organic conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, can influence thought and behavior, he argues that the behavior is never a disease.

I remember from my childhood that old geezers in their 70s didn't go biking ... They sat around on the porch in their rocking chairs. Partly that was the style of the times but partly ... because old people did not have the energy and vigor that they have today. Much of that has been due to medical advances that not only added years to our lives but life to our years. Doctors and hospitals have helped but much of the improvement in our health has been due to pharmaceutical drugs that keep us from having to go to hospitals, and have enabled doctors to head off many serious medical problems ...

"Safety" issues are ideal for talkers because nothing is absolutely safe. A vaccine may save the lives of 10,000 children but, if five children die from the vaccine itself, that can set off loud denunciations of "corporate irresponsibility" and "greed" on the part of the companies that produced the vaccine. Some people die from reactions to peanut butter. If the government banned every food from which some people can die, we would all die of starvation. If they banned every vaccine or drug from which people die, more people would die from diseases.

[W]e turn next to advertising and inquire whether smokers—especially underage smokers—were so misled that they could not have assumed the risk of smoking. Beginning as early as 1920 numerous epidemiological and experimental studies on the health hazards of smoking were reported by the media, and by 1962 more than 7,000 publications were examining the connection between smoking and health. A 1954 Gallup poll indicated that 90 percent of Americans had heard or read that cigarettes can cause cancer ... Even children—allegedly brainwashed by crafty ads—were aware of the risks.

[H]ealth is not merely the absence of disease. It is vitality and a sense of well-being. Health is partly about eating a healthy diet. Regular daily exercise and minimizing the poisons we take into our bodies, such as sugar, alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, are also very important. Health is about getting adequate sleep, and also about having a sense of personal life purpose and maintaining an optimistic and positive attitude. Most importantly, our health and well-being are our own responsibilities. Our doctors cannot assume these responsibilities. Nor can the bureaucratic "experts" ...

Borlaug: ... Even if you could use all the organic material that you have–the animal manures, the human waste, the plant residues–and get them back on the soil, you couldn't feed more than 4 billion people ... If people want to believe that the organic food has better nutritive value, it's up to them ... But there's absolutely no research that shows that organic foods provide better nutrition ... If some consumers believe that it's better from the point of view of their health to have organic food, God bless them. Let them buy it. Let them pay a bit more. It's a free society.

Reason: In the 1960s people like R.D. Laing and Michel Foucault agreed with you that psychiatry was a form of social control ... What would you say are the basic differences between their views ... and yours ... ?
Szasz: Although we agreed on the criticism of traditional psychiatry, they somehow never made it clear that bodily diseases—pneumonia, cancer, and so on—are real, but mental diseases are metaphoric diseases, in the sense of a "sick" joke. They are ... not medical problems in that they do not involve somatic, organic etiologies and are not amenable to a somatic, organic resolution.

Why are cities across America considering bans on e-cigarettes and vaping? Is it to protect public health? While that's what you typically hear, I think there's another important explanation. After all, there are lots of unhealthy products that nobody’s trying to ban ... [A]nti-vaping activists [are saying] that just like regular cigarettes, e-cigarettes could be dangerous for people's health or that they could send the wrong message to kids ... Doesn't it seem wrong that these big businesses get to decide what you do with your body and your property? Isn't that for you to decide?