Are We Actually Sicker Because of Too Many Tests? The Shocking Truth About Overdiagnosis Revealed!
Ever wondered if digging too deep into your own health could actually backfire? Like, what if the very tools designed to save us end up making us feel sicker—and more stressed—than ever before? That’s the paradox we’re unpacking today. Modern medicine’s shiny gadgets and tests let us peer inside the body with unprecedented detail, but guess what? The more we poke around, the more we stumble upon “issues” that might not even be problems. It’s a bit like finding gray hairs and panicking they’re signs of doom, when really, they’re just… gray hairs. Neurologist Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan drops some hard truths in her eye-opening book, The Age of Diagnosis, revealing how our obsession with medical labels and incessant screening can turn normal quirks into scary diagnoses — making folks more anxious and sometimes outright less healthy. We’re talking about everything from cancer to ADHD, shedding light on how medical definitions shift, when labels help us, and when they just trap us. Buckle up—this one’ll make you rethink that “just one more test” urge. LEARN MORE
in: Health, Health & Fitness, Podcast
• September 9, 2025
Modern medicine has given us incredible tools to peer inside the body and spot disease earlier than ever before. But with that power comes a problem: the more we look, the more we find — and not everything we find needs fixing.
My guest today, neurologist Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan, argues that our culture of over-diagnosis is leaving many people more anxious, more medicalized, and sometimes less healthy. In her book The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker, she explains how screening tests, shifting definitions of “normal,” and the rise of mental health labels can turn ordinary struggles or idiosyncrasies into problems in need of treatment. We dig into everything from cancer and diabetes to Lyme disease and ADHD and discuss how diagnosis really works, why screening can sometimes harm as much as it helps, and how to know when a label is and isn’t useful.
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