For years I’ve considered the so-called ‘placebo effect’ to be one of the greatest confirmations of mind-over-matter power. The idea that the placebo is the most successful healing drug in recorded history says more about medical science than almost any other phenomenon.Still, I’m alarmed at an article in yesterday’s New York Times stating that half of all doctors in the U.S. routinely give their patients placebos. We’re not talking sugar pills here. We’re talking prescribing antibiotics, sedatives, headache pills and pain-killers to patients when the doctors know full well these drugs have no effect on the patient’s illness.
Antibiotics seem to be a favorite, and doctors prescribe them for a wide range of viral infections even though antibiotics have no effect on viral matters, only bacterial ones. Plus, antibiotics are dangerous. Period, end of story.
For example, an American doctor, William Schreiber of Louisville, Kentucky, danced around the obvious ethical implications. First he told the Times he didn’t believe the study’s results. Then, when asked how he treated fibromyalgia or suspected psychosomatic illnesses, he admitted: “The problem is that most of those people are very difficult patients, and it’s a whole lot easier to give them something like a big dose of Aleve. Is that a placebo treatment? Depending on how you define it, I guess it is.”
I suspect that the "whole lot easier" response is typical for half of his professional peers. But a sugar pill is one thing. Antibiotics and sedatives are something else entirely.
3 comments:
After reading the article i can not believe that educated profesionals disperse medications like candies.I guess the only "good thing" is this ius not happening only in USA.Denmark.Israel,Britain,Sweden and New Zealand are having the same "candy distribution"system too.The other side of the coin is this practice is responsible for creating the "Super bug" .Bacteria no longer influence from the doctors medication.The modern medicine is without any more "magic bullet".We need inventors of the late Lois Pastour scale.Here is great toughts on the subject of the very scary convergence of the "super bugs" and "super crops".Welcome in the "genetically altered future".I bet that non of us knows what is on the shelves in your supermarket.No labels ,no warnings.It is the way the Big Goverment subsidised farm industry want it.Here is the short article from Charles Mangulis published a few years ago in N.Y Times Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose an increasing health risk, and the advent of genetically engineered crops may hasten this threat. Many of these plants are engineered with the aid of antibiotic-resistant ''marker'' genes. Scientists warn that in an environment where bacteria readily exchange genetic material, these resistant genes could move into disease-causing bacteria and make them resistant as well.
Labeling of genetically engineered foods is particularly crucial for people in higher risk groups. Moreover, with antibiotic resistance already on the rise, we should question the need for this engineering of food, given the potential threat to human health.
I couldn't agree more, Ludmil. The widespread dissemination of antibiotics is dangerous in many ways, and I'm glad you pointed out the 'super bug' angle.
It's all big business, or so I believe. If someone were to develop a cure for cancer, or for the common cold, or probably anything,he/she would be eliminated or bought off fast.
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