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They only looked at death, and only two causes of death - cardiovascular and cancer over 10 years. That makes for a pretty stupid study if you ask me..

There are tons of other problems that won't cause death but nonetheless will bother you or subtly impact QOL without you even knowing. Thyroid issues are one. It won't save your life but it will make it a lot more enjoyable and maybe make you more productive too. There are other causes of death too.. so the conclusions they are trying to draw seem completely invalid to me. The study showed equal mortality from 2 sources, it did not show that checkups are pointless..

A lot of the complaints about unnecessary follow-up etc. are down to cost not inconvenience. In most cases, the only follow up is a blood test which is quick and easy. Even a ultrasound/CT is like 1hr. It only becomes a problem when you have to pay $1000s for it.

Whole article is just a gross misrepresentation.



Apropos to a submission about Vitamin D that was a couple of links above this article is the fact that it ignores quality of life.

Sometimes it seems that medical researchers don't actually care about health, they only care about numbers, because numbers are easy.

During an annual checkup a couple of years back I mentioned that I had "been feeling down and sluggish quite a bit lately" and my doctor said "hmmm, might be vitamin d, we'll see with your bloodwork".

Wonder of wonders my vitamin d was low, I started supplementing it, and once my levels got back to normal I unquestionably, irrefutably, CAUSATIONALLY, felt better. My quality of life improved.

I didn't know Vitamin D was tied to energy and mental health issues. Sure there are at-home tests now, but there weren't any back then and I wouldn't have known to take one anyways.

How many people are living shitty lives because of something simple that could be caught during an annual blood test?

Researchers: "We don't care, those numbers are hard to get. Deaths are easy to count."




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