It all comes down to how you define cure. If you take a very narrow definition I think you will find that most diseases are not nor have ever been cured, merely treated by medicine.[/quote]
I would say an overly selective definition. A wide variety of cancers can be cured by a variety of means, not all cancers and not all the time, but technically one person cured of cancer fits the definition, and there are legions. Heart disease, arguably, isn’t a problem for the medical community as many people willingly indulge in behavior that leads to heart disease and defy the medical community in doing so. So, if you selectively throw out infectious diseases, ignore dietetic and behavior-related diseases like scurvy, and then ignore large groups of people who have had their non-infectious diseases cured, you’re left with people/diseases who aren’t cured. It’s like saying, “We don’t have quantum computers or cold fusion reactors, so what problems have science and engineering actually solved?”
Medicine has come a long way in the last century. Discoveries have been made which medicine back then hadn’t even conceived of BUT we are still in an infantile stage when it comes to a number of things and that includes a number of diseases.
You have to understand that medicine as you know it is still very new. It wasn’t very long ago that Galen and Aristotle were still considered THE authorities on medicine and science. The revolution in to what is considered modern science in the broadest of definitions happened only a few hundred years ago.
We are human beings trying to understand occurrences in what is arguably the most complex organism on this plant, human beings. It’s not going to take a few days or months or years to understand everything. It’s medicine, not fast food.
I know it’s hard for young people to think outside or beyond their lifetime as they are so used to having everything NOW, but it has taken century upon century of knowledge built upon knowledge to get to where we currently are today. The dark ages and some religion certainly delayed things but hopefully you get the main point which is that progress may appear slow in the time of the human life span.
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
postcrime wrote:
pookie- the purpose of this thread was not to bash the medical establishment and I never said anything to imply that that modern medicine sucks nor that the various treatments which fall short of cures don’t count for anything. the scope of my inquiry was limited to CURES and within that context it is not necessary to talk about anything else. reading comprehension dude
This is the internet. Everything is a pissing match.
It all comes down to how you define cure. If you take a very narrow definition I think you will find that most diseases are not nor have ever been cured, merely treated by medicine.
If that is your take then it is unlikely we will come up with many new cures for diseases. The easy ones have been done.
We still we come up with new treatments and preventions.
[/quote]
Precisely. Beyond a very few specific types of ailments (malaria and Quinone for example) a “cure” in the sense that you mean is simply impossible.
What you will have are treatments that are more effective, and eventually are almost always effective. That is what people are really indicating when they say “a cure for cancer”. A more, or extremely effective treatment.
[quote]Reef wrote:
Hopefully the recent news of diabetes being cured in mice pans out in humans.[/quote]
Dump the Carbs. Diabetes solved. Then lets get serious with the more ills that combat people who know enough to never get diabetes. Diseases out of our physical and lifestyle control, like cancer.
[quote]T-Nick wrote:
Reef wrote:
Hopefully the recent news of diabetes being cured in mice pans out in humans.
Dump the Carbs. Diabetes solved. Then lets get serious with the more ills that combat people who know enough to never get diabetes. Diseases out of our physical and lifestyle control, like cancer.[/quote]
Type I diabetes can’t be prevented right now and some cancers can almost totally be prevented, like lung cancers.
Hold on guys, he has a point. Nobody has even tried to cure ILS. Imaginary Lat Syndrome affects millions of Americans on a daily basis. Symptoms include being unable to walk through doorways, excessive curling, and not making gains.
On a serious note, what the hell is RLS, Restless Leg Syndrome? I swear the government is making up illnesses to sell medication to the depressed.
[quote]Scott aka Rice wrote:
On a serious note, what the hell is RLS, Restless Leg Syndrome? I swear the government is making up illnesses to sell medication to the depressed.[/quote]
I’d agree with you if my mother wasn’t afflicted. She actually complained about the exact symptoms before she even knew that it was classified as a disease.
It’s actually so bad that sometimes, she’s up all night, because she just can’t stand the feeling in her legs.
This whole argument comes down to how the OP defines “cure”. It seems that every example posters have given where diseases have been essentially eradicated, contained, defeated, has been dismissed by the OP as not fitting his definition of a cure.
I think that he has an image in his mind that a true medicinal cure is what Dr. McCoy used to do on Star Trek - diagnose the problem with a space-age scanner, and then dial up the proper antidote and administer it via a needle and the patient miraculously recovers within seconds. By this definition, it will be pretty tough to argue that medicine has advanced to the cure stage.
I know that I have had strep throat that was getting worse until a doctor prescribed penicillin. Within a few days of taking the medication, the strep throat was gone. In my opinion, I was cured by the medicine.
[quote]dollarbill44 wrote:
I know that I have had strep throat that was getting worse until a doctor prescribed penicillin. Within a few days of taking the medication, the strep throat was gone. In my opinion, I was cured by the medicine.[/quote]
Infectious diseases don’t count. Penicillin, the medical discovery that has probably saved the most human lives in history… meh, no big deal.
I think no one really gets the point of this thread…
[quote]Robert P. wrote:
Scott aka Rice wrote:
On a serious note, what the hell is RLS, Restless Leg Syndrome? I swear the government is making up illnesses to sell medication to the depressed.
I’d agree with you if my mother wasn’t afflicted. She actually complained about the exact symptoms before she even knew that it was classified as a disease.
It’s actually so bad that sometimes, she’s up all night, because she just can’t stand the feeling in her legs.[/quote]
I didn’t know that was real. Running or some kind of cardio doesn’t help this? Or is this some kind of neurological problem?
[quote]Scott aka Rice wrote:
I didn’t know that was real. Running or some kind of cardio doesn’t help this? Or is this some kind of neurological problem?
[/quote]
If she has the time, she jogs, usually about an hour. She also walks the dog for at least an hour every day.
I’m not sure what causes it, but so far she hasn’t found anything that really helps all the time.
I didn’t know that was real. Running or some kind of cardio doesn’t help this? Or is this some kind of neurological problem?
[/quote]
Not all of life’s problems are solved with cardio.
I can’t speak for Robert P.'s mom, but it must vary, I get the exact symptoms they describe if I’m up more than about 20 hrs. straight. I’m usually watching TV or goofing around on the internet so it doesn’t bug me tremendously, and it usually goes away after my walk to bed (lock doors, brush teeth, etc.).
I agree with your general sentiment too. If I hadn’t seen it described in the commercial, I wouldn’t have labeled my symptoms as a ‘syndrome’. However, if it woke me up at night or kept me from going to sleep (I’m a sound sleeper), I’d probably take some drugs to get to sleep too.
[quote]pookie wrote:
dollarbill44 wrote:
I know that I have had strep throat that was getting worse until a doctor prescribed penicillin. Within a few days of taking the medication, the strep throat was gone. In my opinion, I was cured by the medicine.
Infectious diseases don’t count. Penicillin, the medical discovery that has probably saved the most human lives in history… meh, no big deal.
I think no one really gets the point of this thread…
[/quote]
alright… i tried being amicable. you’re an idiot. that’s it.
[quote]postcrime wrote:
alright… i tried being amicable. you’re an idiot. that’s it.[/quote]
No shit. Tell us something we don’t know.
Or better, explain your particular insistence on “cures” to the exclusion of every other illness management method? Why cures, and why exclude infectious diseases? It seems that a lot of people are wondering the same thing I am.
[quote]HoratioSandoval wrote:
T-Nick wrote:
Reef wrote:
Hopefully the recent news of diabetes being cured in mice pans out in humans.
Dump the Carbs. Diabetes solved. Then lets get serious with the more ills that combat people who know enough to never get diabetes. Diseases out of our physical and lifestyle control, like cancer.
Type I diabetes can’t be prevented right now and some cancers can almost totally be prevented, like lung cancers.[/quote]
Type 1 Diabetes is passed along from parents that are either borderline Type 2 or are type 2.
Get rid of the carbs, type 2 goes away, then no type 1’s are born.
This stuff is simple, I don’t understand why its not commonplace.
Ive read a statistic that shows only 80 percent of lung cancer is from smoking. Lung Cancer is not preventable in 1 in 5. I will never ever get diabetes. I’ll bet my life on it. I’ll bet my nutts on it. But I have good chance I will get cancer one day and its completely out of my control.
Sorry If it seems I don’t have alot of sympathy for diabetes, but to be honest i guess I don’t. Its completely, 100 percent preventable.
Diabetes is 100 percent caused from bad carb consumption, and I’ll argue and back that up with anyone anytime.
