[Bossybabe]

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.  
Voltaire

Has anything changed?

[MrPin]

Bossybabe, on 07 April 2012 - 03:40 PM, said:

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.  
Voltaire

Has anything changed?

Yes! They now have a mortal fear of legal action!

[porca misèria]

Bossybabe, on 07 April 2012 - 03:40 PM, said:

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.  
Voltaire

Has anything changed?

Yes. Some of them are now women.

[Britney's Piers]

They don't cure diseases, they "treat" symptoms. If they cured them, they wouldn't have a job anymore.

[The Masked Tulip]

I was talking to a doctor last night about how the UK/EU is trying to raise the quality of emergency cardiac care in the Caribbean.

He was saying how the UK/EU is trying to get people trained up on how to first respond to chest pains, how to ressusitate people, give them aspirin to dillute the blood vessels - cheap, practical AND proven methods to save lives.

But he went on to say how some of the big US health firms are moving into the are big time and their focus is all on expensive drugs and heart transplants rather than the cheap, practical and proven preventive treatment - i.e. stopping things getting so bad that more expensive and intensive action is required.

[MrPin]

It has certainly become more of a "business" rather than a "service" Mr Tulip, and Mr Britney!

This is called consumer choice!

I would really want to be looking at hospital brochures, if I had a life threatening ailment!?I think not!

[Secure Tenant]

They consultants swan around this town in 4x4's with blacked out windows. Yet its the sickest town I've ever seen. Many hobbling about, overweight and with dodgy bones and joints.

Even I think I could cure some of them (if caught early enough) with Vit D and iodine supplementation, removal/elimination of wheat or white flour from the diet.

The Industrial Medical Complex?Or rather the Pharma Fast Food Supermarket Medical Complex?

This post has been edited by "Steed": 07 April 2012 - 04:51 PM

[Neptune]

"Steed", on 07 April 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

They consultants swan around this town in 4x4's with blacked out windows. Yet its the sickest town I've ever seen. Many hobbling about, overweight and with dodgy bones and joints.

Even I think I could cure some of them (if caught early enough) with Vit D and iodine supplementation, removal/elimination of wheat or white flour from the diet.

The Industrial Medical Complex?Or rather the Pharma Fast Food Supermarket Medical Complex?

By the time your forty the only person qualified to be your doctor** should be yourself. The Internet makes this infinitely easier.

(** I'm talking GP here not specialist consultant or surgeon )

[Bossybabe]

porca misèria, on 07 April 2012 - 04:05 PM, said:

Yes. Some of them are now women.

More than 50% of med students are female nowadays.

[Bossybabe]

Neptune, on 07 April 2012 - 05:20 PM, said:

By the time your forty the only person qualified to be your doctor** should be yourself. The Internet makes this infinitely easier.

(** I'm talking GP here not specialist consultant or surgeon )

I'd be a bit worried about diagnosing my own Alzheimer's, even with t'internet! I do most other diagnoses on myself.

[Executive Sadman]

Trouble with quacks is that they are technocrats. They see everything in isolation, in laboratory conditions, and ignorant of other concerns.

Seems hardly a week goes by without the BMA calling for smoking to be fully criminalized (because obviously that works with other narcotics, prohibition of alcohol etc)

Ignoring the futility of it, what about freedom to do what i damn well please with my body.

Same with the Police. Sure they could get crime down if they had complete control in a police state, but i consider my privacy more important than living in a crime free world.
Same with the transport people. I know im more likely to die doing 80mph than 40mph, its a risk im happy to take.

Technocrats maybe scientifically correct. It doesnt mean they are 'right'

[Neptune]

Bossybabe, on 07 April 2012 - 05:46 PM, said:

I'd be a bit worried about diagnosing my own Alzheimer's, even with t'internet! I do most other diagnoses on myself.

Why worry about that? You'll forget all about it in no time.

[JoeDavola]

My Dad just turned 60.

Diagnosed as Diabetic about 7 years ago - taking increasing amount of medication, having more and more health problems as a result of diabetes.

The 'Diabetes Nurse' told him to eat a good helping of carbs with every meal. Doctor just gave him increasing numbers of pills. I had been trying in vain to get him to switch to a Paleo diet, but no luck.

Finally a few months back things declined to the point where he got scared enough to try Paleo. Lost a stone and a half in three months. Blood sugar better than it's been in 10 years. Just reduced the diabetes medication by half, with a view to reducing it further depending on how things go.

At 60, he is slimmer than I can ever remember. If he loses another half stone, he'll be the same weight he was on his wedding day 30 years ago. It took years of me telling him that the doctor/nurse were wrong; he didn't believe me for a long time.

Needless to say now he does!

[ChumpusRex]

JoeDavola, on 07 April 2012 - 10:34 PM, said:

My Dad just turned 60.

Diagnosed as Diabetic about 7 years ago - taking increasing amount of medication, having more and more health problems as a result of diabetes.

The 'Diabetes Nurse' told him to eat a good helping of carbs with every meal. Doctor just gave him increasing numbers of pills. I had been trying in vain to get him to switch to a Paleo diet, but no luck.

Unfortunately, this is the problem. Doctors all know that one of the most useful things for diabetes is weight loss, which is most easily achieved with a careful diet (containing lots of complex slow-release carbohydrates, such as whole grains, etc.), appropriate exercise, etc.

The problem is that advising a patient to take up such a diet is totally ineffectual. This has been trialled over and over, advising people to eat a good diet and lose weight, simply doesn't work (because the advice isn't followed until it's bordering on too late).

The difficulty is that many pills (including various anti-diabetic medications), but also statins, do work. The fact is that the most effective thing a doctor can do is prescribe sugar lowering drugs, blood pressure lowering drugs and statins, to a patient with type 2 diabetes. It's not that losing weight doesn't work - it does. It's just that *advising* weight loss doesn't.

[24gray24]

Science has advanced a hell of a lot since Voltaire's day. In his day, they didn't know about scurvy, thought diseases were caused by bad air (rather than bad water) etc.

It's like saying machines in the 18th century were slow, inefficient and broke down a lot, has anything changed? They still do, but the advances have been gigantic.