Fashionable 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 little thing we discover wants fixing.

My visitor at this time, 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 Analysis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker, she explains how screening checks, shifting definitions of “regular,” and the rise of psychological well being labels can flip atypical struggles or idiosyncrasies into issues in want of remedy. We dig into every little thing from most cancers and diabetes to Lyme illness and ADHD and focus on how prognosis actually works, why screening can typically hurt as a lot because it helps, and methods to 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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