Author and rhetoric professor Colleen Derkatch joins us to discuss why wellness sells (and her new book by that name), how wellness culture promises an alternative to the biomedical/pharmaceutical model but fails to deliver, why it’s important to acknowledge that certain aspects of wellness culture are helpful to people even as we critique its harms, and more.
I'm wondering about those fluid or fuzzy boundary between illness/wellness and restoration/optimization as they relate to preventive care in mainstream medicine. If I take a statin for mildly elevated cholesterol, even though every other metric suggests that my cardiovascular system is disease free, am I engaging in wellness or optimization logic? What if I then take a CoQ10 supplement to mitigate the risk of side-effects from the statin? Am I creating problems where otherwise there would be none or am I acting upon foresight? This episode was very thought provoking.
I'm wondering about those fluid or fuzzy boundary between illness/wellness and restoration/optimization as they relate to preventive care in mainstream medicine. If I take a statin for mildly elevated cholesterol, even though every other metric suggests that my cardiovascular system is disease free, am I engaging in wellness or optimization logic? What if I then take a CoQ10 supplement to mitigate the risk of side-effects from the statin? Am I creating problems where otherwise there would be none or am I acting upon foresight? This episode was very thought provoking.