So a doctors' forum slams and slanders a colleague for recommending Tea for common cold.
The objection is defending drug therapy for every illness. As for common cold, a BMJ study of around 2000 kids under 5, divided into two groups, usual CPA- PPM, vs no treatment , found longer duration of illness in treatment group. The reason they found was kids feeling well and continuing to play at times of peak viral multiplication and metabolic load, thus slowing recovery. Superiority of no treatment is legion.
One of really honoured tenets of modern science is that any and all treatment must hold itself against a placebo!
What then is Allopathy?
The integration of pathology and clinical skills gives a unique perspective on the disease, it's extent and nature, sometimes at biomolecular levels, calcium channel and dopamine re-uptake, sometimes at the organ level and so on. That essentially is the bedrock of modern medicine.
The integration of pathology and clinical skills gives a unique perspective on the disease, it's extent and nature, sometimes at biomolecular levels, calcium channel and dopamine re-uptake, sometimes at the organ level and so on. That essentially is the bedrock of modern medicine.
But all this science is inside the doctors minds, clinics and laboratories, and powers a trillion dollar economy- giving many businessman doctors a thrill like factory owners and road contractors talking of big money like the latter. None of this goes INTO the patient.
What goes in, (leaving surgicals aside), is the so called drugs, which through years of canards, poor teaching of history of medicine and repeated lies is somehow believed to be 'original' pharmacology.
Truth is most of modern pharmacy, is simply lifted from time honoured practices, and common sense. Simply because lotio-calamina is mentioned in medical textbooks doesn't take anything away from the fact of it being used by Greek civilization for thousands of years as a skin remedy.
Truth is most of modern pharmacy, is simply lifted from time honoured practices, and common sense. Simply because lotio-calamina is mentioned in medical textbooks doesn't take anything away from the fact of it being used by Greek civilization for thousands of years as a skin remedy.
A legendary German pharmacy researcher of 18th century to which most of currently known drug therapies and extracts thereof, taught to medical graduates are attributed, mentioned thousands of medicinal plants, mostly exotic, and their medical uses. Many argue that to know such a vast range of plants many of which did not grow in Europe, and to even find one property of each by trial and error - for example which one would heal wounds, and which should be tried for relieving constipation, would have taken many lifetimes. This book clearly mentions on the first page, the original source as the Indian text Yajurveda, the famous Indian work that he had spent more time translating, than any real research. His actual work for which he deserves full credit however, is creating a compendium with drawings for identifying each plant. Such is the source of 'original' 'angrezi' pharmacy.
Modern medicine continues to extract active chemicals from plants, from the by- now vast database of botany accumulated over the years. Still some cagey civilizations like the Chinese continued to hold on to treatments like 'xinghausu' and punished it's divulging to white colonialists, by death who they wanted to die of malaria anyway. Researchers went in the garb of travellers and hunted down the secret roots and extracted Artemisinin. Even bark of the cinchona tree was a direct lift from native southeast Asians.
When modern medicine is a vast complication of thousands years of human experience with his vast
environment, why this sudden buffoonery of 'original allopathic medicine' like a Jihadi quoting the Quran to justify killing the human race?
Modern medicine continues to extract active chemicals from plants, from the by- now vast database of botany accumulated over the years. Still some cagey civilizations like the Chinese continued to hold on to treatments like 'xinghausu' and punished it's divulging to white colonialists, by death who they wanted to die of malaria anyway. Researchers went in the garb of travellers and hunted down the secret roots and extracted Artemisinin. Even bark of the cinchona tree was a direct lift from native southeast Asians.
When modern medicine is a vast complication of thousands years of human experience with his vast
environment, why this sudden buffoonery of 'original allopathic medicine' like a Jihadi quoting the Quran to justify killing the human race?
De-novo trials of newly synthseised chemicals and Molecular engineering has but given many a drugs in cancer and immunothearapy but not before causing, a Thalidomide disaster or making money through obfuscation and suppressing evidence of harm, till it became too obvious for eventual withdrawal of many a misadventure. COX -2 inhibitors are the case in point, where pharma obstinacy kept selling the drugs in poorer countries when evidence in the west lead to banning them, citing bribed or simply sluggish local national drug controllers.
Doctors are expected to somehow acquire wisdom as they age, having spent time with the patients during the course of their recovery or otherwise. With age, most get minimalistic, in terms of pharmacological adventurism, realising futility, or miniscule benefits, or cost benefit inferiority, intolerability, or simply too much harm.
This is perfectly legitimate course of evolution expected of a man of learning as that which makes him a doctor, and much of his respectability comes from the much vaunted 'experience', as he ages into the profession.
This is perfectly legitimate course of evolution expected of a man of learning as that which makes him a doctor, and much of his respectability comes from the much vaunted 'experience', as he ages into the profession.
Developed nations have evolved advanced scientific and statistical tools tools to rubbish questionable pharma bravado. So qualitative research, multivariate analysis, meta-analysis, Forrest charts, regression analysis, etc continually weeds out useless therapies.
Cochrane initiative, a graveyard for most of the pharma jihadists, is rarely visited or used in day to day working. Cochrane too has its critics because often enough it finds the only and time tested therapy, to be useless , which continue to be legitimately used anyways- despite Cochrane.
Then there is also the course of dogged refusal of existence of perfectly scientific fields of Allied medicine, which are very much part of a medical curriculum- physical therapy, dietetics, etc but studied by medical graduates with much disdain as many poorly educated, examination centric ones, confuse it with alternate medicine, by some even as flimsy excuses like less exam worthy 'last chapters'.
Even for themselves, most doctors when they fall ill, there are very few who actually trust their own medicines. More often than not most refrain from taking drugs, and boast that they got well on their own. There are the pill poopers, among doctors too but a fine minority.
Even so, their 'double standard' is reflected in reflected in their outright pharmacological approach when they write a prescription for their patients. And that is the sad part of medicine, where much of malpractice, profiteering, bribery and intention-to-treat comes in, in the garb of 'Pure Allopathy' or arrogant 'allopathic Jihad'.
Modern medicine is about being updated about medicine, seeing through pharma marketing games, and doing the best for your patients regardless. Nowhere in the whole range of medicine does it say that you will Not snap relocate a dislocated shoulder, and prescribe drugs, or surgery instead. It is very open about every prescription, it must carry non- pharmaceutical physical therapy, advice on dietary corrections, preventive strategies like full sleeve shirts to avoid mosquito bites, natural commonsense approaches like switching off AC in asthmatics with cold-triggered asthma, seasonal precautions and vaccinations.
Many so called medications, coming in tablet and syrup forms to masquerade as 'modern drugs' are simply time honoured ayurvedic medicines. Post endoscopy or ERCP patients complain of sandpaper like feel in their throats are given 'curcumin' tablets which is 'pure turmeric paste'. Most digestives prescribed to children contain jeera, heeng, sounf, ilaichi, etc, albiet with their English names to soothe the pharma jihadists, after they jeopardise many a colicky kid with intestinal obstruction with their over-enthusiatic dicyclomine prescriptions.
Most nose decongestant drops contain eucalyptus oils, and with perfectly good allopathic logic and reason- what works for the patient is medicine!
Most nose decongestant drops contain eucalyptus oils, and with perfectly good allopathic logic and reason- what works for the patient is medicine!
Medicine is not the science of stupidity. It does not cremate commonsense in cremaffin. If guavas relieve an old man's constipation, well so be it, let it be prescribed, and written proudly and boldly on the prescription. I understand the science behind his constipation, and I am happy to 'increase roughage', the doctor must prodly proclaim.
Incidentally, courts take a much harsher view of these pharma jihadists and their misadventures, when no therapy or home remedy is forsaken for expensive drugs and such agents. When a NICU doctor lost a ventilated baby to consolidation, and the expert pointed out failure of the consultant in writing on paper and documenting if position was actually changed, chest physiotherapy instituted, or only brutal, suction was understood to be the end of airway secretion introduced by the plastic tube acting as foreign body, he is reasonably penalised for failing to institute physical therapy, and for his poor understanding of his own intervention.
Most patients bringing in their kids from abroad to Indian doctors fossilized in pharmacy are shocked at the fearlessness with which Indian doctors prescribe drugs, and very openly narrate how all that their doctor ever did was talk, suggest massage, fomentations, sauna, dietary medications and home remedies.
Not that medicine and all doctors are evolving with 'evidence based medicine', some choose to remain rooted in useless, sometimes harmful drugs, some for pecuniary benefits, or simple laziness in updating themselves, holding on to some insane moral flagstaff of ethics ' as if the 'Hippocratic oath' bound them to pump chemicals into little patients.
Such pharma jihadists must be sidelined in the medical fraternity and one must listen to the brave new world of highly knowledgable, and experienced stalwarts like Dr Pramod Jog , president IAP and his revolutionary new approach to respecting time honoured therapies which may NOT be drugs!
