THINKING ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN

Sally Lorimer, Stan Cohen 

You may have read or heard about shark attacks. They're gruesome and gory. Does it mean you should cancel a beach vacation, that you shouldn't go in the ocean at all? Do plane crashes scare you so much, you can't get on an airplane or that you worry the entire time you're on one? Or you've listened to the ads or read the internet about the possible side effects of a medicine or a vaccine, so you're afraid to take it?

As thinking, feeling humans, scary things surround us all the time. Walking through some neighborhoods can seem dangerous. Driving to the grocery can be frightening, especially for teens who have just gotten their permits. As parents, we might worry more about the kids driving than they do.  

How can we deal with these fears? Take shark attacks. In 2009, there were 28 around the United States. Most beaches had none. In that same year, Dr. Gary Marshall of the University of Louisville points out, dog bites occurred 4.5 million (4,500,000) times. Fortunately, a lot of these were minor, but they happened much, much more often. And air crashes? In one year (2005), 321 people died in airplane accidents (many in small planes)—compare that to the 43,443 who died in motor vehicle accidents that same year.  

As Dr. Marshall points out, we think about what grabs our attention on the news. We don't dwell on some problems and events that are more common. We fret about the 17,034 who were murdered, but what about the mental health problems that led to over twice that number of suicides (33,289) in the same year (2006). We have learned about peanut allergies and the 75 deaths they typically cause in a year—and we've established policies to protect those who have peanut allergies. But the 27,531 who suffer from accidental poisonings don't get nearly that attention. 

The problem is that this same kind of thinking can interfere with good medical care. Parents are reluctant to give their children vaccines because they've heard that there can be problems. And even though the claims about vaccines causing autism have proven to be falsified, parents still delay getting their children or themselves vaccinated, which has caused unnecessary illnesses and deaths. That's true in IBD as well, where getting vaccinations (immunizations) can prevent unnecessary infections.

And scary things that have been said about medicine side effects, particularly cancer has caused many to stop their medicines or seek other therapies that haven't worked. As a result, their diseases worsen and cause more complications later on. This has been true in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), where some patients refuse effective medicines, like the biologics and return months later with disease complications. The biologics do have side effects, just like all medicines, but they are rare. They may even delay needed surgery.

But just like we do when there's the possibility of a shark attack-we don't have to avoid going to the beach. But we have use caution and go where there are life guards scanning the area.