Secret Health Fears

Our secret health fears

 

In public surveys, Americans consistently place cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes at the top of their list of health concerns. It’s not surprising that people are worried about these epidemic conditions, but there are plenty of more personal (and less rational) health fears that nag at us every day—yet seldom turn up in surveys.

The Internet certainly hasn’t helped quiet these fears. Recent research about so-called cyberchondria suggests that the Web has a way of convincing people that minor symptoms are potentially lethal. The staff at Health.com may be indirectly responsible for the spread of cyberchondria—but we also suffer from it. In this slideshow, our staff members describe their secret health fears.

Rosanne Lufrano

 

The fear: Contaminated drinking water. Ever since the nineties, when bottled water burst onto the scene, I’ve eyed tap water with fear and suspicion. I won’t even drink unfiltered tap water from my own home; I use a Brita pitcher.

Reality check: Rosanne’s fear isn’t that irrational. In 2008, the Associated Press reported that a “vast array of pharmaceuticals” (including antibiotics, anticonvulsants, and sex hormones) had been discovered in the drinking water of at least 46 million Americans. (The unmetabolized drug residues made their way from humans to wastewater and into reservoirs and watersheds.) The drug amounts are so tiny as to be harmless in any one dose, but some experts are concerned about the cumulative exposure.

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