STATISTICS: ARE THEY BEING USED FOR THE GOOD OF PEOPLE?

 

 

Should we take statistics to heart?  When a doctor tells you that the statistics are in your favor should you agree and select that treatment?  These are questions you should ask yourself before making any medical decision. Medical statistics are created from people grouped together.  What about the odds of 70% in your favor and the 30% that is not in your favor?  How do you justify those groups of people that do not make it? What do you tell those family members?  Statistics are not done as individually where they take into consideration of what your blueprint is. Life is not one fits all, not everyone wears the same size, so why do we group people together and not take in account of their conditions such as if they have heart issues or others, and treat the whole body.  Functional Medicine takes this into account and does not group you within a statistic and treats you as an individual.

 

We generate a lot of numbers in medical research. In the end, what they all come down to is some estimate of the odds: chance, not certainty. In the face of the incredible complexity of human physiology and disease, we have no other tool to help guide our decisions. But these numbers conceal as much as they reveal. For medical consumers and practitioners alike, they can blind us to essential realities, foremost among them the limits of medical knowledge.

We see this in our own use of statistics, how seductively they lead us to say things like "The studies say you have a 70 percent chance of survival." But the studies don't actually tell us this. Statistics tell us nothing about the individual. They can predict the behavior of large groups, and that's all.

 

There's a 40 percent chance of rain today over our forecast area, but does that tell me if I'm going to get wet? Being 40 percent rained on isn't an experience any of us has to worry about. Neither is being 30 percent dead.

 

What it comes down to in the end is that the numbers aren't really the point. Life is, after all, a series of gambles. How lucky do you feel?  Remember that there are no guarantees. So why not educate yourself on other options other than what your doctors’ statistics state.  Knowledge is power not statistics.