Holy Smokes

The number of people that smoke in this part of the world, makes me realise that it is not only the europeans that do it like a religion. In California it is like a sin to smoke in public, but here it is like a sin the other way around. Though things are changing, but then it is irony when people get burned because they are smoking while they are on Oxygen treatment. And some of them, have the home night oxygen because they cannot breath without it, and then they smoke like chimneys throughout the day. But then, what the hell, if people didnot abuse themselves, there would be no need for all this medical care and where will the doctors go!!!

Sometimes I think what would happen if people stopped smoking, drinking alcohol, having high cholesterol fast food and taking/seeking drugs. It would almost be a perfect world without the top 10 diseases. And we doctors willbe out of business. There is not much business in health maintainnce anyways. And it is this kind of behaviour which is funding our education and the upbringing our children. I think we doctors should thank these people for smoking. A truly thank you for smoking.

Recently it came out in the news, that slowly we are able to identify the genes that make us suspectible to a certain number of disorders/diseases. And so people started publishing it and there was an interest to commericialise these tests so that people can determine by genetic testing where do they stand in terms of suspectibility. Well, the insurance companies are not that far behind and they have made plans to characterise these people are 'pre-diseased'. As a result now, these very people will not be covered by insurance and the companies will not pay for their care. One would think that the insurance is more like an insurance from disease and they would want to identify who is suspectible and make a case for the early detection of the disease process, so that costs of health care and other indirect costs can be kept down. But no, we have to condemn these people to their gallows. Who in their right mind is going to screen themselves for these genetic diseases.