How to counteract the internet's "disease" banner ads

Are you getting these ads on your header that ask if you want to take a test to see if you are depressed, have some disease, etc?

I keep getting these ads every time I log on. To better understand these ads, I took one of the tests and was surprised at how subtle and pervasive the suggestion is that we all have the elements in us to be sick - to be very sick and at any time.

The pervasiveness of ads that encourage us to buy medicinal drugs by selling sickness is increasing. An article "Drug ads sell a problem, not a solution" shares this information:

"We're increasingly turning normal people into patients," Dr. Lisa M. Schwartz of the Dartmouth Medical School, said "The ordinary experiences of life become a diagnosis, which makes healthy people feel like they're sick."

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The industry says this is all about "educating" the consumer. But an ad executive was more candid when he said - boasted, really - that the goal is to "drive patients to their doctors." Reuters Business Insight, a publication for investors, explained that the future of the industry depends on its ability to "create new disease markets." "The coming years," it said, "will bear greater witness to the corporate-sponsored creation of disease."

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This is why more than 200 medical school professors recently called for an end to prescription drug ads, and why close to 40 health and seniors groups have joined them. Even the American Medical Association, many members of which have close ties to the pharmaceutical industry, has urged restrictions.

Every time an ad comes up now, I am on the alert to dissolve the subtle suggestion that disease is inevitable. I mentally affirm that health is our natural state, that we are capable of reasonable care, and we can be free from the fear of the "corporate-sponsored creation of disease."

Christ Jesus' statement "....and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" comes at us like a fresh breeze! Let's hope this truth pervades our health care system, media and advertising.

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