I also think that some of it is less profit-driven (on the part of physicians, anyway) and more fear of reprisals, such as lawsuits. I feel that many doctors truly do want to help, but they have this thing called a "standard of care," and if they don't treat to the norms in this, their malpractice insurance may go up or they may get sued. Therefore, they treat to what the recommended norms are. They order every test, and they treat any tiny thing that might be considered abnormal, even if it is a very mild abnormal, such as my "pre-hypertensive" one-time only BP of 120/80. In that way, I totally agree with the central thesis of Overdiagnosed, which I am reading right now.

However, I also find a really interesting dichotomy here. I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis and celiac disease. I had to battle for more than 20 years to get doctors to do the right tests to finally diagnose those as I got sicker and fatter. Every doctor I visited told me all my issues were related to my weight. I couldn't get a doctor to test anything other than the standard things: TSH, CRP, blood lipids, blood glucose because they had the preconceived notion that fat people were sick, and that every symptom I ever experienced came from being fat. That was my ongoing diagnosis: fatness. I even had one doctor point out that my CRP was very high (a sign of inflammation and potentially some form of autoimmune disease), but he didn't look any further than the abnormal CRP result, concluding that my weight was most likely contributing to my inflammation. I'm the one who went on and did the research of my symptoms over years, any abnormal test results, etc. in order to guide my doctors towards an appropriate diagnosis.

It took me 20 years to talk a doctor into testing my T3 and T4 and looking past my fatness. It took me about the same amount of time to finally get someone to look at my digestive issues and my history and to perform the proper tests for celiac disease.

Still, thyroid medication (especially the natural stuff I take) is cheap. There is no medication for celiac disease - quitting gluten is the solution. No money there for Big Pharma, so the Big Pharma execs sitting on the committees that set the norms for the standard of care that doctors so fear not meeting aren't setting standards for diseases that don't pad their pockets with tons of drug money.

The only true path for anyone in this healthcare system is to be as informed as possible and to fiercely advocate for themselves. It's a screwed up and harmful system.