Mass Listeria: The Meaning of Health Scares

Description

Life expectancy has increased dramatically in the last fifty years, yet we have never been so obsessed with our health. As our state of health improves, our anxiety about our health does not decrease, but on the contrary increases almost exponentially. The less likely we are to die in the near future, the more avidly we consume information about what may go wrong with us. The media whips up scare stories about potential epidemics-from listeria to salmonella poisoning and mad cow disease-and we believe them implicitly. Hardly a month passes without the announcement of some dire new threat to our wellbeing, or some miracle cure.Why are we now so obsessed with health matters? Should we be worried, or are we worrying without reason? In his controversial and highly provocative new book, Theodore Dalrymple takes a scalpel to many of the current assumptions-and myths-about health matters that so preoccupy us. As his many readers will know, Dalrymple does not mince words. His conclusions are bound to provoke a storm of comment.