For example, MRIs of many middle-aged people with no back pain at all show bulging disks or some arthritis. These “abnormal findings” become a “disease” and a “diagnosis,” which leads to treatment in the form of surgery or a steroid injection. The rate of spine surgery in the United States is about double that in Canada and Europe and five times that in Great Britain, calculates Richard Deyo of Oregon Health & Science University. One nationally renowned and respected back surgeon, who gets frequent requests for second opinions from patients who’ve been told they need an operation, told me that
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