PRESS RELEASE
A DOCTOR’S CONTROVERSIAL PRESCRIPTION FOR STAYING ALIVE
What we don’t know is killing us, according to author of Stupid Reasons People Die
Bend, OR, Mar. 2007--- A new book by physician, John Corso, M.D. challenges popular beliefs about what it takes to preserve and restore health. With stinging candor and wry humor, Stupid Reasons People Die, An Ingenious Plot for Defusing Deadly Diseases looks at how we aid and abet a small gang of killers responsible for the premature deaths of Americans in their prime. Instead of relying on benefit programs to decide their fate, readers are given a prescription for accessing the best modern medicine offers in early detection and treatment of the most common, deadly diseases.
The book begins as a mirror, reflecting prevalent attitudes and expectations that make us unwilling co-conspirators, and a healthcare system that is not designed to keep us alive. Next, Corso hands readers the essential weapons for self-preservation: the knowledge and the authority to act.
“In a country with the most advanced medical knowledge, technology and treatments, it’s stupid to die before our time from a preventable or treatable disease,” Corso says. “Yet people do it every day, thousands of them. And right now, 50 % of adults don’t know they are walking around with a time bomb that medical science can detect and defuse.”
Corso is one of the vanguards in re-creating private medical practice to serve patients rather than being restricted by managed care mandates. For a small monthly fee, patients have access to around-the-clock access and appointments that last as long as necessary for education, preventive and therapeutic care. He is a national speaker, promoting less dependence on third-party payers to decide the level and extent of medical care.
Book Q & A
Q. What is your message here?
A. That many people die before their time from diseases that could have been detected and treated. And many are very health conscious people who are oblivious to the fact that they’re carrying medical time bombs. They also don’t know there is amazing state-of-the-art technology that can detect these diseases in time to diffuse them.
Q. Has this been a secret?
A. To many, yes. Physicians and patients have allowed our disintegrating healthcare system to dictate the content and scope of healthcare. Sadly, this system is built around managing costs not saving lives. We have a situation where the economic bottom line is: the sooner you die, the less you’ll cost the system.
Q. Are you saying the system is out to kill us?
A. Of course not, you can’t assign morality to a system. It is simply the best design we have come up with to cover escalating medical costs. I want to enlighten and inspire people to find out all that is available right now, today, and consider their lives worth investing in when the system can’t do it for them.
Q. Was this triggered by some personal experience?
A. The personal experience of 20 years in professional practice. After slogging through the trenches of a system that isn’t able to meet the needs of my patients. Managed care allowed me ten minutes to assess, diagnose, make clinical decisions, educate the patient based on myriad factors and then record it all according to their specifications. A patient comes in with a sore throat, you don’t have enough time to ask about other symptoms, do a strep test, write a prescription…next?
Q. Is the book based on this frustration?
A. No, that was simply the springboard. The book is focused on arming readers with information that will give them the ability to decide the content and scope of their healthcare. I changed my practice accordingly – I no longer look to managed care and benefit restrictions to dictate the level of care patients need. My hope is that patients will take back control of preserving their health and extending their lives because there is already the technology and medical advances to do just that. Third-party payers delay reimbursing for the best that’s available for as long as possible. A staggering number of people die, waiting for managed care to catch up with science.
Q. How would you describe the benefits of reading this?
A. I would like people to take a close look at their beliefs, behaviors, and expectations that are cutting their lives short. I would like them to value their lives more than anything else they own. To value their lives enough to take the controls away from the system even if it means investing a little out of pocket to get the optimum in prevention, intervention and treatment.
Q. Are you promoting specific technology?
A. I think of the book as a survival guide. I am promoting informed self-advocacy which includes knowing what is available that is not on the standard benefit menu and therefore may not even be mentioned by their physicians. It begins by helping readers understand what their basic beliefs and assumptions are about preserving their health.
Q. You named one chapter, “ Mother Doesn’t Care If You Live or Die.” That doesn’t seem to relate to the concept you’ve described.
A. I prefer to let readers discover the connection but basically it illustrates how many folks are looking for health in all the wrong places. This is a serious book with a strong dose of humor reflecting the absurdity in human nature.
Q. Are you saying this is not another eat-right, get-fit, lose-weight, don’t-worry, be-happy book?
A. Not even on the same shelf. It’s a ‘get-smart, take-control, how-to’ book on diffusing your own medical time bomb.
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