Without technology, would we be unhealthier or healther?

           Technology has changed our lives in many ways. Both in positive and negative ways. But overall, has it made us unhealthier or healthier?

           Many people will argue that the advent of new technology such as the mobile phone and the car has actually led to society being unhealthier and that we need to move away from becoming reliant on this technology in order to boost our health. The fact that 29.6 million people in Britain owned a car in 2009 can be linked to the rise in obesity and heart disease in the adult and child population. You could argue that even the short walk to the bus stop or to school twice a day would increase the amount of walking that children do. There are campaigns at the moment on the radio that remind parents to turn off their car engines when they are waiting outside schools waiting for their children in order to cut down the amount of pollution. If children were encouraged to walk to school more then they would be getting more exercise and equally there would be less pollution around schools.

                 Microwaves are another technological invention that could have led to health problems in both the adult and child population. How many people now regularly cook everything from scratch? Making fresh soup is now a thing that is left to people who have talent or desire to be able to prepare food from scratch and make it into a healthy soup. Most people who want a nice bowl of warm soup in winter would opt for a nice Heinz can that they put into a bowl and fling in the microwave for it to be cooked perfectly within 3 minutes with barely any effort.
But all this pre-prepared food can't be good for us. How many people would be able to pick up a swede and know the best way to cook it, and more than that, use it as a key ingredient in a nutritious meal? How many preservatives are needlessly added to our tinned and frozen food to keep it fresher for longer that wouldn't be necessary if we all just cooked our food from scratch?

Our brains are also being affected by the use of technology. Have you used a map recently? Done some mental arithmatic? How about used an encyclopedia that wasn't Wiki? The ability to write at length by hand is now becoming a lost art. The skill, and pleasure of sitting quietly and reading a book at length is now seen as less useful than being able to pick up the latest smart phone and "google" what you want.

                   However, technology has changed the way doctors approach making a diagnosis, it has changed how we discover facts and figures about our bodies and how we make changes to our health. Instead of visiting a trusted professional to make a judgement about our symptoms and waiting sometimes months for results of a test, most people will go to the internet as their first medical port of call. Normally to discover after a short questionaire sponsored by a drug company that they are likely to die of some horrible disease last found in the back of beyond in 1952.
              The internet has enabled doctors to communicate their ideas and findings far more easily and to communicate with doctors and other health professionals the world over. Conferences between medical professionals can now enable knowledge to be shared quickly and easily. Surgeons can now record their surgeries to show future surgeons and other learners how to carry out procedures. Test results can be shared with doctors far quicker saving the patient the long and worrying wait for test results. X Rays can be studied on High Definition screens that multiple health professionals in various locations can study which saves the transfer of a hard X Ray copy to 3 different locations before a final decision is made.

                 Operations that previously would have caused patients to be admitted to hospital for weeks and leave eventually with a large wound that could lead to further complications can now be completed with patients leaving with 2/3 stitches after a few days.

So has technology caused more problems than it has fixed? Has it actually saved more lives in the long run than it has caused health problems? Would we be able to reach people at quickly in an emergency situation? Would we be able to pinpoint tumours within millimetre accuracy and use radiation therapy to cure people? Would we be able to keep people alive while we take a heart from one person and transport it across the country to save another persons life?

What do you think? Has technology solved more problems than it has caused?