Old 10-10-06, 12:15 PM
  #24  
phoebeisis
New Orleans
 
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Modern medicine is still kinda primitive.

Modern medicine is still kind of primitive.Medical doctors(as opposed to surgeons) have only been able to do "net good" since about 1945; this is when the 1st antibiotics-penicillin- became widely available(there were sulfa drugs before the war, but they weren't widely available in the USA). During the 1918-1919 flu epidemic in the USA(500,000 deaths in the USA) patients were bled(a pint or so)-IN THE USA- by well intentioned MDs-not quacks.
Vaccines have been around much longer-200 years-but they are preventive measures-rarely used for active disease, so I'm ignoring them.It wasn't known how or why they worked when they came into use.
Until ~1990 peptic ulcers were treated -in the USA and elsewhere- with antacids,mild diets and a whole host of RISKY OPERATIONS WITH SIGNIFICANT MORTALITY and extremely significant morbidity.At any onetime at least 1,000,000 folks in the USA carried that diagnosis. In the early 80's an Australian MD started claiming that he had discovered the cause of ulcers, and it wasn't stress of or spicy diets, it was a bacteria. Well it took him 5-10 years, but he finally was proven correct and now Peptic ulcers are treated with antibiotics.
My point is that modern medicine is a very new.It isn't a science, but it is now science based.MDs-even very young up to date ones-just don't know what they don't know. Just because there isn't a lab test for FM, it doesn't mean that there isn't any pathology.
The fact that FM cases are much more common in females could indicate that it is an autoimmune disease-which are 3-4x times more common in females.It almost certainly isn't one disease, but....
Now Gulf War Syndrome is a different story. The fact that it is much more common in reserve units than in active military has been interpreted to mean that the reservists are looking for a free lunch. They are using it as an opportunity to cash in after coming back to unsatisfactory lives after the deployment. Now others interpret it by saying that active military folks are being discouraged from claiming "Gulf War Syndrome."
No question there are plenty of hustlers milking both for all they are worth.
Soon, there will be tests that actually "show" pain.Areas of the brain that are considered to be related to pain will "light up" if the pt is feeling pain.It will be much harder for folks to "fake" pain.You can have pain without pathology in the area feeling the pain(folks feel pain in a leg that has been gone for a long time).
It is probably better for MDs to take pts at their word in respect to pain.Someday, they will be able to prove or disprove the pain-but not just yet.
Luck,Charlie
PS-Now you can disprove disabilities-hire a detective with a camera.

Last edited by phoebeisis; 10-10-06 at 09:47 PM.
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