You should probably not read this book if you are a hypochondriac or get nervous learning unfortunate medical facts. Ehrenreich shares some alarming information in Natural Causes. Information like: at any moment macrophages, a vital part of the intricate and bizarre system within you which is supposed to keep you healthy may instead decide to betray you and actively encourage the growth of cancer.
You may remember Ehrenreich for Nickel and Dimed, a book from several years ago which detailed her reasons why no one can survive on minimum wage.
But back to your body trying to kill you.
The book is full of truly unsettling statistics and pronouncements. We learn that many doctors only give you an annual physical because you would be outraged if they told you such exams are pointless. We learn that some experts believe that current medical technology is so highly sensitive that we are detecting and surgically removing, or treating with dangerous chemicals, growths that are either entirely benign or would have gone away on their own. Fun, right?
Never believe 100% of what someone tells you without checking into it a bit first. And I'm not referring to the medical industry right now, I'm referring to the author. I would have had a lot more faith in her view if she hadn't said right off the bat that despite being a breast cancer survivor, she has now given up mammograms because she would rather not experience the stress of false positives. She is now in her upper 70s and I get it, that's not young. But to say that you are more comfortable with dying from a treatable disease than undergoing uncomfortable and potentially stressful tests every now and then is a bit worrisome. So while a lot of what she has to say is perfectly accurate and definitely food for thought for anyone who wants to keep themselves healthy, don't let her talk you into skipping your checkups without considering what that could mean for you.
In addition to the sometimes questionable view of medicine, the book ends up jumping around to a few different topics. By the end of the book, it's become about the "self" and whether or not humans have a spirit separate from their bodies. One of the things that bothers me the most when reading is to come across someone who has decided they are too smart for religion. Ehrenreich tells us that the Bible never mentions an immortal soul. And sure, she's not the only person to smugly point this out. But if such stubborn literalism is all you can scrape up to say on the matter of Christianity vs. atheism/agnosticism/science/blahblahblah, then you are simply choosing to ignore the entire message of the New Testament. Or are you maybe just not that smart after all? This is like saying Louisa May Alcott didn't care about the rights of women because she never used the word "Feminist" in Little Women. Go ahead, I have a bridge to sell you.
And let's not forget the fact that Ehrenreich thinks there is no reason doctors should be forced to learn how DNA and human cells work. Call me crazy, but that's something I don't really mind my doctor understanding. Otherwise it seems like a slippery slope to him telling me my humors are misaligned and I need a good leech treatment. What next, my mechanic will tell me to get an oil change or else the gnomes that make my engine work will be unhappy?
But at the end of the day, the premise of this book is not wrong. You can eat a vegan diet, exercise 6 days a week, and still drop dead of a heart attack or get cancer or get hit by a bus. And then there are people like George Burns, a man you can't even picture without his famous cigar, who lived to be 100. Guess he had good macrophages.
I received my copy through NetGalley.
Rating out of 5 stars: A surprisingly high 3 1/2
No comments:
Post a Comment