Prevention vs Treatment

[Guest guest]

I submitted the following email early in the week; however, I never saw it

appear on the list. I am therefore re-submitting it.

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As many are probably aware, there was a campaign going around the social

networking site, " facebook " last Thursday and Friday designed to raise awareness

about breast cancer by asking women to update their status with one simple word:

the color of their bra. The email message going around stated " some fun is going

on.... just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing

else. And send this on to ONLY girls no men .... It will be neat to see if this

will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it

takes before the men will wonder why all the girls have a color in their

status... Ha ha! pass this on " . It took me a while to figure it, and I found it

very intriguing (I figured out the " underwear " factor early on); but, with some

additional clues, and a few hints from female high school facebook friends I

finally did. But, enough of that.

The Campaign re-opened an issue I have thought about off and on over the years.

Both the Scoliosis Association and G. Komen for the Cure Foundation put a

great deal of emphasis on awareness and early detection. Treatment for both has

been, and still is " barbaric " in many ways (and as we all know it is not a

" cure " ). Both often have major self-esteem issues, and both disproportionately

effect females (scoliosis being 10 to 1 based on most available statistics).

Does that mean that scoliosis is a " women's health issue " ? In many ways I think

so. Furthermore, it often seems to me that the medical community puts more

emphasis on " treatment " than prevention with women's health issues (I discussed

this with a college friend via a facebook message, and she told me that this has

been a hot topic with women's groups for several years, and things are just

starting to change).

It is well known that most cases of scoliosis are idiopathic (of unknown cause).

It is also known that there are hereditary factors, and as I noted that it

disproportionately effects females. My questions are WHY does it

disproportionately effects females, and in that same line why are a small

percentage of males effected? I have never seen any clear cut answers to these

questions. Would more attention by the medical community to prevention answer

these questions? Would males effected by this, being " on the inside " becoming

general advocates to " women's health issues " further move things along on this

matter?

Thoughts? Comments? Additional information?

-- S.