The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1927-09-15
Periodic Health Examinations
Part 2

Part 2
Statistics show that three to five
per cent of the population are in
capacitated through disease at all
times. Also, than an average of ten
days of the year is spent in illness
by every man, woman and child in the
United States. This enormous waste
could be materially reduced were
every person to receive a periodic
health examination and live up to the
instructions received at the time of
that examination.
Economic Waste of Disease
The loss in terms of money runs
into countless millions. The cost in
human suffering is incalculable. The
slowing down Of human progress is
staggering. And all could be cut
squarely in half were the value of
regular physical examinations fully
appreciated. But we reason from an
individualistic standpoint, we do not
apply the lessons Of the past to our
selves, we take chance. All three
are natural human weaknesses. And
those who let their weaknesses rule
them must pay the penalty for their
folly.
"A periodic health examination not
only prevents the so-called fatal dis
eases-it reduces those minor ailments
which in the aggregate constitute an
enormous economic loss in every
mans life. The greatest single cause
of dependence after middle life, with
the possible exception of losses
through bad investments, is sickness.
The man of means is the only one
who can "afford" to be sick, and yet
it is the man on salary, the business
man, and the wage Garner who is least
concerned about his health albeit he
can least afford to be i'll. A serious
illness of month in 80 per cent of
cases creates an economic loss which
the individual is fortunate to absorb
within year. And yet this loss in
fully one-half of all cases is prevent
able.
Why You Should Be Examined
One occasionally encounters the
argument that a periodic health ex-
animation is waste of money. The
burden of contention is "Why should
I spend fifty or hundred dollars a
year for such examinations when l
probably wouldn't have been sick any
how"
This reasoning would be entirely
sound could the word" probably" be
deleted. Furthermore the merits or de-
merits of any health measure cannot
be judged on an individual basis. Only
conclusions based on observations
covering 100000 cases have any value.
Of a given 100000 population we
know that certain percentage will
die this year, next year, and each
year thereafter of certain preventable
diseases. Some will die of heart dis
ease, others Of cancer, some of kid
ney disease, others of tuberculosis, and
so on.
Whether a certain person-you-
will die next year or ten years hence,
and what disease will cause your
death, is of course beyond human ken.
But you can make up part of the 1907
900 and you will eventually contribute
your figure to the list from whose
total the average human life expec-
fancy is calculated. Whether you are
among those who will bring up the
average or among those who will low
Ell it neither you nor anybody else
knows. All we do know is that you
have it in your power to raise it by
adding to your own span of years
through proper precautionary meas
ures, namely, periodic health examina-
tions.
Will You Be Living Next Year?
There are tens of thousands of peo-