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Rammya Mathew has highlighted what we need to do, not just to reduce the carbon footprint of healthcare (a vital step towards health for all) but also in exposing the intellectual weakness of so much activity driven by "more is better". The absolute benefits of more and more drugs are small, the absolute benefits of so called early detection programmes are also small. These gains must be set against massive expenditures of money and carbon AND a massive increase in the fears people have. This renders people more dependent on medical intervention to investigate everything "just in case" it's a cancer or other condition. We are living longer and more healthily than ever, but the consumerist "more healthcare is better" approach makes people feel fearful and ill even when they are well.
We know that reducing health inequality and lengthening life is about economics; better working conditions, less inequality of wealth, better "public goods" including housing, access to green spaces, education, access to the arts, food of good quality and healthy neighbourhoods where active transport reduces the pollution from vehicles. Health is co created and consumption becomes less important.
Time for a sea change in how we do things? For both individuals and the planet we need more salutogenesis*, less pollution and much less of the carbon hungry disease mongering.
*Salutogenesis is concerned with the origins of HEALTH and focuses on factors that support human health and well-being, rather than on factors that cause disease.
Re: Rammya Mathew: Climate action will require radical reform of how we practise medicine. Less is often more
Dear Editor,
Rammya Mathew has highlighted what we need to do, not just to reduce the carbon footprint of healthcare (a vital step towards health for all) but also in exposing the intellectual weakness of so much activity driven by "more is better". The absolute benefits of more and more drugs are small, the absolute benefits of so called early detection programmes are also small. These gains must be set against massive expenditures of money and carbon AND a massive increase in the fears people have. This renders people more dependent on medical intervention to investigate everything "just in case" it's a cancer or other condition. We are living longer and more healthily than ever, but the consumerist "more healthcare is better" approach makes people feel fearful and ill even when they are well.
We know that reducing health inequality and lengthening life is about economics; better working conditions, less inequality of wealth, better "public goods" including housing, access to green spaces, education, access to the arts, food of good quality and healthy neighbourhoods where active transport reduces the pollution from vehicles. Health is co created and consumption becomes less important.
Time for a sea change in how we do things? For both individuals and the planet we need more salutogenesis*, less pollution and much less of the carbon hungry disease mongering.
*Salutogenesis is concerned with the origins of HEALTH and focuses on factors that support human health and well-being, rather than on factors that cause disease.
Competing interests: No competing interests