I heard the term disease mongering on a talk radio show. What does it mean?

The expression disease mongering was first used by the now deceased journalist Lynn Payer in 1992. She wrote a book entitled Disease-mongers: How Doctors, Drug Companies, and Insurers are Making You Feel Sick.

Disease mongerers describes the idea of convincing healthy or slightly ill people that they are really sick. Some experts refer to this as the selling of sickness. The purpose is to increase the number of people in need of treatment. The benefit is to those who market and/or who sell treatment.

The way this is done is to take a common symptom such as back pain and turn it into a disease that requires treatment. In some cases a normal body function is portrayed as though something could be wrong.

Disease mongerers advocate that all pain, discomfort, or perceived illness requires treatment.