Trendy medication has given us unbelievable instruments to see contained in the physique and spot illness sooner than ever earlier than. However with that energy comes an issue: the extra we glance, the extra we discover — and never every thing we discover wants fixing.

My visitor immediately, neurologist Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan, argues that our tradition of over-diagnosis is leaving many individuals extra anxious, extra medicalized, and typically much less wholesome. In her e-book The Age of Prognosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sickershe explains how screening exams, shifting definitions of “regular,” and the rise of psychological well being labels can flip strange struggles or idiosyncrasies into issues in want of therapy. We dig into every thing from most cancers and diabetes to Lyme illness and ADHD and talk about how prognosis actually works, why screening can typically hurt as a lot because it helps, and how one can know when a label is and isn’t helpful.

Book cover for "The Age of Diagnosis" by Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan, featuring an abstract line drawing of a seated figure with text about medical labels and health.

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