Examples Of Biological Diagnoses

Biological diagnoses are the product of technological, political, and cultural contexts that makes up sociocultural products. Furthermore, biological diagnoses creates new realities and ways of being for the patient who has been diagnosed with said disease/illness. An example of a biological diagnoses that demonstrates that it is a sociocultural product and that it shapes new realities would be celiac disease. Celiac disease is an immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. In the United States, it is a common disease that affect more than 200,000 people per a year. This disease produces a diagnosis and treatment that is subjected to the society and cultural context where the person lives.
The society in which
one lives in changes how a diagnosis is interpreted and how it should be treated. Annemarie Jutel summarizes this by stating, “Diagnosis provides a cultural expression of what a given society is prepared to accept as normal and what it feels should be treated.” (Jutel 2011, 3). Celiac disease is a good example of this because in the United States it is looked at as a “normal” disease to have. It’s not considered taboo. In contrast, if one was diagnosed with celiac disease in a small village in Africa it would be very unusual. Most of the villagers wouldn’t know what gluten is and how it can affect one’s immune system. It would be difficult for the person to live a gluten-free life due to the different way society looks at food and consumer goods. The cultural differences between the United States and a small African village would also create a different way of treatment for the disease. In the African village, celiac disease would most likely go undiagnosed. If it is diagnosed, it would be very difficult for the person to live with a gluten-free diet do to the amount of resources that are provided such as medical care, food labeling and packaging, and food options.
In the United States, someone who has been diagnosed with celiac disease puts them into a “classification”, a categorization.
Ian Hacking states that “Social changes creates new categories of people.” (Hacking 1999, 1). Social change has occurred within the last 50 years in America’s society when it comes to healthy living. Especially within the last decade, America has been making a push for organic food. Organic meat, organic vegetables, organic fruit, all organic ingredients. Restaurants pride themselves by stating that they are “All natural, 100% organic”. Because of the push for healthy eating, someone who has been diagnosed with celiac disease is segmented and organized into a person who is more-so interested in being healthy and eating healthy. When one states that they are “gluten-free” it’s looked more at as a lifestyle choice and not by medical reasoning which has caused an issue for people who can’t have gluten. For instance, when someone once told me that they are gluten-free, I asked them to specify whether it was a lifestyle choice or if they had celiac disease. This is an issue for someone who has celiac disease because when they tell someone they can’t eat gluten it takes away part of the power of their disease since most people will think they are gluten-free by choice. There’s a mis-classification due to this. Culture classifies gluten-free as wanting to be healthier; while the diagnosis classifies being gluten-free as a medical condition that acts as a
roadmap for the person with celiac disease. This roadmap outlines a way for the person with the diagnosis to act in society.
When someone is diagnoses with a disease such as celiac, it shapes the person’s reality. Not everyone who has celiac disease has the same reality. Dick Willems argues that even though two people may have the same diagnosed disease, they are not the same disease due to the different treatment practices. “In taking different drugs, however, they are engaged in different practices and thus have, in practice, different asthmas and different airways.” (Willems 1998, 116). Although Willems discusses asthma, “different practices… different asthmas” still holds the same truth for someone with celiac disease. One person who has celiac disease may not treat their disease like someone else who also has celiac.