Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far, The Problem With Getting A Diagnosis & Why Early Detection Is Not Always A Good Thing with Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan #553

Identifying very strongly with an illness can heighten your symptoms because it sort of focuses you on your body and it gets in the way of recovery. You know, if your illness is your identity, then how do you move forward? Hey guys, how are you doing? Hope you're having a good week so far. My name is Dr.

Rongan Chatterjee and this is my podcast, Feel Better, Live More. Might our healthcare system in some ways be making us sicker rather than healthier? In the UK, autism diagnoses have increased by a staggering 787% between 1998 and 2018, and one in five people have now been diagnosed with some form of mental health disorder. But what if some of our health struggles aren't necessarily diseases to be cured? but rather normal human experiences that are being overly medicalized.

This week, my wonderful guest is Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan, consultant in neurology and clinical neurophysiology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, who specializes in the investigation of complex epilepsy and also has an active interest in psychogenic disorders. Her latest book, The Age of Diagnosis, Sickness, Health, and Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far, aims to challenge long held assumptions about medical progress and change the way we think about our health. In this truly thought provoking conversation, we explore a variety of different themes, including why giving someone a diagnosis is never neutral, how the definition of Autism has dramatically expanded over the past few decades, why screening for diseases like prostate cancer can often lead to unnecessary treatment, the potential problems of genetic testing, and why early detection and treatment are not.

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