andrewducker | All men are created equal

As some of you know, Erin has PCOS. The solution to this is to basically give her drugs that return her body to normal levels of insulin/glucose so that her testosterone levels drop and she's normal again.

Now, I have insulin problems too. And according to recent statistics a large proportion is ending up with type 2 diabetes because of dietary problems. So it'd be great if we could brute-force a solution to this.

In some ways.

How far from the norm do people have to be before they are considered eligible? Do you allow people to self-medicate away their problems? Do we allow people to use this tech to make themselves thinner (or fatter) than normal by medicating? Is it reasonable to allow people to basically make themselves dependent on this technology so that their hormone levels are constantly monitored and adjusted and tuned to keep them at optimum levels.

More to the point, lets extend that to a general level. We're gaining more and more control over our bodies and brains. Are we going to take control of our bodies on a deep invasive level (eventually redefining what it means to be human) or are we going to decide that only certain changes are to be allowed? This underlies many issues facing modern politics, from cloning to genetic manipulation to human/machine interfaces. At some point this basic issue is going to have to be faced, or the decisions will be taken piece by piece and not in the directions we necessarily want them to.

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From:

cleodhna.livejournal.com

I have heard a doctor complain that he really does want to be able to tell people that they feel like crap because they eat crap, are overweight, and don't get any exercise, but of course, that'ss not what they want to hear. They want to hear 'You have XYZ syndrome. Here, take this pill. It will make you thin and happy'. I think a lot of this is down to laziness, and a lot of it is down to people wanting things not to be going right with them because there's something wrong with them, not because of some way that they behave, which they could change if they wanted to badly enough, or, in other words, that it's their fault.
Of course, for some people, there is actually something wrong, and if these people would benefit from being given medication, they should get medication, but as for the rest of us...
I think that it's a rather dangerous precedent, all of this self-medicating. It promotes the understanding that we are somehow not responsible, by the way we live our lives, the kinds of things we choose to put into our bodies, for the condition in which our bodies are, but that if we're fat and unheathly it's because there's something wrong with us and medical science can fix it. Even if it is explicitly understood that what we're doing when we self-medicate to alleviate symptoms that are directly caused by choices that we make, it encourages complacency. It probably isn't physically very healthy, as well. Further, it reduces the body's ability to adapt to new things if you're dependent upon all these drugs just to keep yourself in operating condition.
I don't think it's terribly wise to force the body to function in ways and on stuff it hasn't evolved to do. Millions of years went into turning us into the kinds of physical beings we are. In the long run, even if self-medication makes us feel like we're doing okay on high sugar, high refined carbohydrate, high fat diets, we're probably not, and certainly not as well as we would be if we were eating the kind of stuff our bodies really want.
And at worst we end up like Michael Jackson.
*shudder*

From:

andrewducker

When I first got glasses that reacted to the light a friend of mine told me that he'd never wear glasses like that, because your own eyes would stop adjusting to the light when they got used to the glasses adjusting for them.

I replied that this wouldn't be a problem because now I had reactalite glasses I wouldn't have to depend on my eyes reacting by themselves any more.

And yes, this can be a dangerous attitude. And yes, taking this to the bleeding edge of technology will undoubtably go wrong once in a while. But as we slide slowly into a posthuman future, I think that it's necessary for some people to be out in front and I'd like it to be a choice that people make, to mess with their bodies or not.

From:

heron61.livejournal.com

I think that it's a rather dangerous precedent, all of this self-medicating. It promotes the understanding that we are somehow not responsible, by the way we live our lives, the kinds of things we choose to put into our bodies, for the condition in which our bodies are, but that if we're fat and unheathly it's because there's something wrong with us and medical science can fix it. Even if it is explicitly understood that what we're doing when we self-medicate to alleviate symptoms that are directly caused by choices that we make, it encourages complacency. It probably isn't physically very healthy, as well. Further, it reduces the body's ability to adapt to new things if you're dependent upon all these drugs just to keep yourself in operating condition.

The growing range of drugs we have access to are actually allowing people to have far greater control over their bodies. One could easily make your argument about contraceptives or anti-depressants. Why should we be at the mercy of our bodies whims, regardless of whether those whims are getting ill from eating a certain type of diet or getting pregnant from having a certain type of sex? Much of human technology has been about learning how to modify our external environment, and it seems fairly obvious that artificial lighting, running water and indoor heat and ir conditioning are all positive changes we have made to our environment. I see nothing wrong with applying the same changes to our internal environment (ie our bodies).

From:

allorin.livejournal.com

Hi, cleodhna.

Firstly, I though that was a well thought out comment. You make some good points.

I have to be bluntly honest, we seem to be able to explain away any physical or mental aspect of our beings with a medical diagnosis these days. Whatever it is that's wrong with us, or we 'feel' is wrong with us, can be attributed to an illness. I'm not entirely sure I accept, agree, or like that. Sometimes, I do't think we accept enough responsibility for ourselves.

I'm slightly overweight. There's feck-all wrong with me, other than I don't exercise enough. It's called lazy-itis. It's curable - I can get off my butt and stop being such a lazy ass. I also have shit skin, which is far too greasy and prone to acne. I could get medication for this, but my personal choice is to try and eat a diet which keeps my skin as clear as possible. More on that in a bit.

That said, I do accept there are a lot of physical, and mental, illnesses that can directly affect the way we look and behave. Obesity itself isn't an illness, and as far as I'm aware, it isn't the sole symptom of any illness either. It can be a symptom, along with other things, of many illnesses. That's a crucial difference.

I'll never condone self-medication. For several reasons.

One: I would always worry about becoming reliant on the medication. Using it as a crutch. If you are ill, and it's being treated with prescription drugs - that's a science. If you're not a doctor, how can you possibly understand it, and know what's best? how do you know when you no longer need the meds? How do you monitor their effect? Think placebos, folks. Just popping a pill affects us, regardless of what's in it. Self-medication means you take something, and be sure it's having all positive effects, and never realise it's not.

Two: Further, it reduces the body's ability to adapt to new things if you're dependent upon all these drugs just to keep yourself in operating condition. Couldn't put it better myself. I'm a firm believer in taking as few drugs as possible. Everything we ingest, whether food, meds or other, has an impact on our physical self. Taking drugs to alleviate headaches, or combat poor skin (see, told you I'd come back to it), makes our bodies less capable of defeating these things by itself. IMHO, a strong mental attitude to becoming healthier is often better than reaching for the pill bottle as soon as something is wrong. That's often folks, not always. I'd never want someone to really suffer - some meds are more necessary than others.

Three: Genetics. I'm not convinced that, as a race, we do ourselves much good by increasingly becoming dependent on meds to alleviate all our aches and pains. I realise we're talking millenia here, but we're never going to develop our immune systems further if we continue to look to medication to solve every little illness we have.

For these reasons, self-medication seems to me to be a bad thing. Any and all meds should be prescribed by a doctor. I'm not even going to go into how reliable or qualified they are, though - that's a separate argument. The simple truth is, we're not responsible to self-med. Too many people, for too many things, would be too quick to reach for a drug solution to an otherwise solvable issue, be it over-eating, bad skin or whatever.