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Jane Gross shared a story where her mother uttered the phrase, "We live too long and die too slowly." If you have aging parents or are planning on aging someday yourself, I recommend her book A Bittersweet Season, Caring for Our Aging Parents --and Ourselves. Jane's mother in her late 80s had many things that were "wrong with her" but none of them were killing her. Prolonged senescence introduces frailty in a way that we, as a society, aren't prepared to manage either as caregivers or healthcare providers.
The medicalization of aging launches a long slow death with only a passing nod to quality of life. I was reminded of her book while reading a recent New Yorker article by Atul Gawande, Overkill, An avalanche of unnecessary medical care is harming patients physically and financially. What can we do about it. I blog specifically about the specificity of economics, culture , and history in Alzheimer's Disease but even generalized geriatric care on the far horizon of aging isn't being discussed in a meaningful way.
Bonny P McClain, freelance writer, analyst, and content media specialist.
Thoughtful discussions about content development and outcomes analytics that apply the principles and frameworks of health policy and economics to persistent and perplexing health and health care problems Comments are closed.
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In a world of "evidence-based" medicine I am a bigger fan of practice-based evidence.
Remember the quote by Upton Sinclair... “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” |