In "Learning to love the secret language of urine", Reisman discussed using urine in diagnosing patients. Because he had been inspired by a nephrologist to study "urine's subtle language," he learned more about urine. He claimed that urine can tell him the problems not only of urinary track infection but also of other parts of the body. He averred that urine is one of the most indicators for him to patients' problems.
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My response
Although this is a weird topic, its weirdness has attracted my attention. Reisman thought that his job in "urinalysis" is like a sommelier. I don't know what did he have in mind. One thing for sure is that he is lucky that he weren't born in the time that physician still had to taste urine. The idea is just disgusting.
Save for the idea that physician in the past had to taste pee, I quite like the idea of urinalysis. According to Reisman, urinalysis can tell more about our health condition than merely urinary tracks infection. This will help us to prevent our disease from an early stage. If urinalysis can detect possibility of cancer, humans will get a lot of benefit from the advancement. Say, if I wanted to know whether I have cancer, given that the accuracy is the same, I would do urinalysis because it would definitely cheaper, and it would be easier. Besides if it's easy then it can be included in annual check-up program.
Recently some of my relatives have fallen sick. Although they went for annual checkup every year and always resulted in healthy, they are not actually as healthy as the result showed. I just think that it would be better if doing all the analysis is so easy that every program can be included in annual checkup in an affordable price. I am not really sure how could it work.
When I was studying in college, I attended a lecture about health care market in southeast Asia. I was told that Thailand's hospital has either largest or second largest market capital in the area. The future was really good. It's still good now. However, when we focus on medicine graduates, they have to struggle even after graduation. Without having connection, the path of success is more or less sealed. Physicians don't think of the welfare of patients as the priority. I think the situation in Thailand might be aggravated in the near future.
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Reference
- Reisman, J. (2016, November 23). Learning to Love the Secret Language of Urine. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/learning-to-love-the-secret-language-of-urine/2016/11/22/f9c09914-adac-11e6-a31b-4b6397e625d0_story.html?utm_term=.9aa2f75eaad4
I thought Den's summary captured the weirdness well enough that I was motivated to read his source. My hopes were not disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI was next reminded of the TV series House M.D., which is about Doctor Gregory House, a rather unpleasant person who is the brilliant head of the diagnostics department at a hospital - pee is one of their regularly used diagnostic tools, along with MRIs and other fun things. I liked the first three or four seasons of House M.D., but the later ones got a bit weird - he was much better indulging his opiate addiction and getting on with the drama than the boring story of his attempts at recovery from it.
Interesting to know the advantage of urine. As a normal person, I never care about urine anymore. However, it may be good for me to be able to investigate my health by looking at urine because this may be easier and faster than going to the hospital.
ReplyDeleteThis sound interesting but I still don't know whether it is correct because it is sound so weird that everything can diagnoses from pee. Even though some health problem can but I think not all of them.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, this topic remind me of the people who drink their own pee. I don't know why I think about this. Some people believe that the fresh pee is good for your body. I also have some colleagues who tried to drink their own pee. Have you guys ever heard about this?