August 5, 2002

UNHEALTHY MESSAGES

GETTING PROGRAMMED MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT

By Barbara Lewis

Most of us are encouraged to think and behave in predictable ways. Our parents teach us rules and values. Our genetic makeup undoubtedly plays some role. Society expects and rewards certain modes of behavior. And increasingly, mass media influences us to believe and desire whatever serves the interests of big business.

Thanks in part to the growing power of our electronic media and the high-paid imaginations of people who create ads, we are almost continually being programmed with one message or another. One common estimate is that each American views, on average, about 3,000 ads every day.

Think about it.

A message seen on television may be seen again as a pop-up on the internet, on billboards, on taxi cabs, on subway walls or on the shopping bags we are given at stores. People happily wear ads on their t-shirts and tennis shirts and sneakers. Entire buses are given over to ads.

The potential for ad placement is growing. For example, there is a New Jersey- based company that has developed a way to stamp ads onto the sand at beaches. The main targets are women and children.

What do beach-goers think? They seem to like these ads. Not minding this gross invasion of privacy, even at the beach, some carefree souls take pictures of the ads as they stroll along.

With the power of media growing and consolidating so rapidly, what does all this programming mean to us? To our daily lives. To our health?

In my world of music, the result of such aggressive programming is often a sadly diminished artistic experience. When only a handful of musical "artists" are pressed into our consciousness a hundred ways each day, we cannot help but believe, (if we do not know otherwise) that they are the best of the best.

This limited scope means that we are missing the diversity of life-experience that broader listening options can offer us.

While such programming in music limits our scope, in medicine the results can be much more serious. It can mean a lot of unnecessary surgery and useless or dangerous drug prescriptions. And it can mean the difference between life and death.

Recent health news tells the story. For years, women have been programmed by doctors, by ads posted in their offices, by medical reports on television, by friends, by "common knowledge" to believe that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was the best way for post-menopausal women to remain healthy. Now women are learning how little research supported that information. Women are also learning how much damage may have been done to some on HRT.

Why was that unsupportable message blasted at us for so many years? Why did it become such a powerful program? Why did so many doctors follow blindly? Why did we continue to listen without questioning?

Hysterectomy is another woman’s health issue that fits this mold. We are learning now that of the more than half million women who have hysterectomies in the U.S. each year, perhaps one third of them do not need it. And many are not informed of either the risks or about optional treatments, before surgery.

While women may suffer the most torment from unjustifiable surgery, (unnecessary breast removal is yet another example), men are not immune to these problems either. Prostate surgery is a good example.

Many men who had this surgery (and suffered the impotence and incontinence that often accompanies it), may not have known that there are other less invasive options to consider.

They may also not have been told that, in some cases, the best route is to "wait and see" how the cancer develops. Cancer of the prostate is known to develop very slowly and may never require surgery.

Programming is a big part of our lives now. Major companies may call it “effective marketing.” Sometimes it is a good old-fashioned lie or half-truth supported by lots of money and power.

What can we individuals do to counteract this growing invasion of often harmful information?

First of all, we need to become more aware of the power that these messages can have. Consider the programs that you may have accepted over the years. Make a list, if you like, and question the foundations of that information.

As a musician, I deliberately look for unsung singers and other musicians who are NOT in the mainstream. I inform myself about, and support, those artists whose music has both substance and entertainment value.

As with music and the arts, we should be prepared to believe less quickly what media feeds us about medicine and seek more options. When it comes to health, for our life’s sake, we must question even our most trusted assumptions.