Do you think health magazines/websites make people worry for nothing?

Where did you pull that 99% out of?

Only 1 percent of people with skin cancer suffer from this condition.

@rockfan
Then that 99% would only apply if you already knew you had skin cancer, but not sure what kind of skin cancer.

Well they can’t “make” any one worry.

In general it is better to be informed. What I have a big issue with is touting and advertising of new drugs. Especially when there are so many undesirable possible side effects and how many end up being recalled after people have suffered. The one I always hear in my head… “Did you have a mesh sling…”

I hope all your worry is for naught @rockfan.

I think it’s good to be aware of the signs and symptoms of illnesses, so that you can get prompt treatment if you need it. If you are the worrying type, you worry anyway, no matter what is written in the magazines you read.

In the UK we have a national health service and there is a different approach than a privatised healthcare system. The NHS does not drum up business – there are quite enough patients already. But there is still good money being spent by the NHS on socal marketing campaigns like this. TV adverts and everything. So my point is that even a strapped for cash system like ours thinks that having people aware of the danger signs is worthwhile.

I do. You research enough you can convince yourself that you have a problem.

Here in the UK there has been an advert shown on TV regularly about coughing and how, if you have had a cough for three weeks or more, it could be a sign of throat cancer (or lung cancer? I forget which). My dad was at the docs last week for sinus problems and they got talking about that advert and the doc said it was the bain of his and other doctors lives as everyone was coming in panicking about their coughs!!!

Generally, it’s good to be aware of symptoms and not to brush certain niggles under the carpet but I think the media and google searches (I saw a FB status recently that said ‘the fastest way to convince myself I am dying is to type my symptoms into Google’) do a great job of scaring the bejesus out of people!!