Bio-sensing Briefs - Fewer Trips to the Hospital - Not likely!

Recently, someone asked me what my cholesterol count was and was astounded when I had no idea.  She was even more horrified when I rejected her suggestion that I rush to the clinic immediately to ‘get one’.  ‘How will you know the state of your health if you don’t?’ she asked.  Is it my Englishness that I don’t need to know every statistic concerning my body?  This tends to be my thinking, but I have been in North America for seven years now and wonder if perhaps during my absence, this particular characteristic has permeated the every day lives of Brits too.

I understand that there are machines available over the counter easily and cheaply, which read blood pressure,.  I can only imagine this leads to increased paranoia.  Perhaps our observation alters that which is being observed.  Since giving up ‘orthodox’ health care twenty years ago, my blood pressure has been measured once only. I was fully aware that my blood pressure had increased due to the fact that it was being ‘observed’.  I didn’t need a personal machine to tell me that; my body told me!  I make instant adjustments to bring my blood pressure down, and in severe cases, using EFT (meridian tapping) and NLP to scramble the neural pathways that allow the particular situations which led to that stimulation.

How does it assist people to receive an alarming reading from such personal machines?   What do they do to change their alarming state?  Do they think to breathe deeply, which is simple to perform and a very effective method that has been in use for aeons, or do they rely on being told it’s time to take one of various drugs to calm themselves.  I find myself wondering if there is a connection between the manufacturers of such personal health care machines and the medicine manufacturers.

The above musings were prompted by a very interesting article from TreeHugger.  It is featured in the beauty/fashion section, but is most definitely about health too.  It appears that researchers have developed a way to screen-print electrochemical sensors onto fabrics, underwear being the favoured apparel.

I can see that it would be useful to be able to determine how much alcohol we’ve consumed, but far from resulting in fewer trips to the hospital, I feel that it would instigate more.  The panic and fear instilled in people by such constant focus on ‘what is wrong’ with their health, rather than on ‘what is right’ removes us even further from being the natural healing machines that we are capable of being.  Listen to Your Body, Your Best Friend on Earth