h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*sidles in quietly, having at least made the second LED*

Matina, is there any tea left? I've got a skritchy throat. Oooh, a spacey looking cup! !

I'll just sit over by the palm so I don't infect anyone...

2nd LED is good for me. It's been a long couple of weeks here in the plains

i managed to be unsubscribed from the last thread and thus missed the jump. oh well. out with the old.

Sometimes I hate the public. Yesterday I found business cards lying in the floor, on tables, etc....all with Bible verses on them. I suppose the reasoning is that our do gooder would force whoever found the cards to read scripture. This happens frequently. I'm sure the perp thinks he/she is being clever and racking up brownie points with the almighty.

Then the copy machine stopped working and I couldn't figure out what was causing the problem. So I called the repairman. He came in a while ago and started taking parts out to find out why it wasn't initializing. Yep. He found scripture cards shoved into the mechanism in two places. I guess it's the Christian thing to do to vandalize public property. And I don't have a security camera pointed at the copy machine, so I don't know who it was. But we're going to politely inquire. If we can smoke him out, I'll charge him for the service call. I'm thinking whoever it is will be happy to admit it....let us all know how holy and pious he is.


Congratulations, GDZ on your FTTF mug.

*waits to read Mol's notes*

Make that a

*waves to Lady C since our IM capabilities have bitten the dust*

*slips in so very quietly, and lurks behind a potted palm ... *

hi ,
wanders in with a clean mug and a cheerfull grin .
couldn't help noticing there was a room for fish husbandry, how strange!

best fishes.....tod

* rushes in, fashionably late, brandishing a doctors note that excuses me from having to wear the blue Zeuss pants

*flaps in, muttering something about having been singing while the change of threads took place*

May I add my request to see Mol's notes to the growing chorus? And picking up on one of the things that was mentioed, tell you that that Chinese whispers at the Library of Doom has caused it to be known that I have a very 'exotic' chest. Well, I say Chinese whispers, but I mean one pronunciation-challenged colleague!

Oh eep, there's only one week to the opening of my next show! How time flies...

[MTG{KEA}]

Evening all! Nice to meet you (sorry,not a librarian )Will a Quilter (recreational one) do?
Thanks muchly for the warm welcome.*gravitates to the samovar*(hope it's English Breakfast tea). x jolly

I'll admit that what I said about traditional vs. modern medicine was a bit facile, but I stand by my assertion that what we now call alternative medicine was (and in some cases, like accupunture) around long before people started synthesizing drugs, prescribing them for everything under the sun, and (although not true for every doctor, certainly) not treating the underlying causes.

There is plenty of historical evidence for this shift to medicalize the patient and the body, but most of it's dreadfully boring. A refreshing change to this, however, is Laura Thatcher Ulrich's excellent and readable work, _A Midwife's Tale_. Although it is from a bit later down the time road (at the turn of the 19th century) it is does a really terrific job of showing how the shift from traditional medical practices to more modern ones.

Brought my own mug- says "busy bee".(that's me)<lurks behind potted palm - its getting crowded back here...

Aren't most drugs derived from herbs anyway? long before it was fashionable my mum used herbs to treat kidney stones and poor liver function.Worked for her! She's never seen a doctor or been in hospital and she's 88 this year. Makes sense to get the body at optimum strength and fitness before compromising it with drugs that often have side effects necessitating more medication.

you changed it while I was cycling. I have been refreshing every 5 minutes for the last 24 hours and stoped for a few so I~ could gte some exercise

Well yes - traditional medicine (and by that I mean the sort that's been around for centuries) isn't based on science. It's just doing what we've done for centuries.

And *of course* we should do all we can to keep our bodies healthy- before we turn to drugs. I don't think that you'll find any doctor who argues with that.

There's certainly gender and sociologlical elements to medicine - as there are to anything. Though the last 2 years of graduates from medschool in the UK have been mainly female, so things will change. I felt the sexism in O and G very strongly.

Yes drugs are derived from herbs - many of them - but many herbs are also posions, and eating foxglove leaves will give you exactly the same signs and symptoms as an overdose of Digoxin, which is made from foxglove leaves.

Except I can control how much Digoxin I give you - you can't control how much *exactly* is in Foxglove leaves.

Tradiontal/Alternative Mediicne, claims to treat underlying causes - but it doesn't exaimine them scientifically and seek to rectify them.

Of course some of medicine - prescribing Digoxin for heart failure for instance is just treating the symptoms and not the causes.

The causes of heart failure was probably the 20 years of smoking, eating fried food and boozing that caused the heart attack that weakened the heart that led to the heart failure.

But some of medicine *is* addressing the underlying cause. Take liver cancer for instance?

What's the underlying cause - well one of them is chronic Hep B and C infections.

What's the underlying cause for that? Injecting drugs with unclean needles, unsafe sex and dirty needles and being unlucky and having contaminated blood transfusions.

Well you'll find 'conventional' doctors removing the liver cancer and treating it with chemotherapy. Also treating the Hep B and C with anti viral drugs, even though the patient feels well at the time to prevent the progression to liver cancer, and also working in public health to promote needle exchanges, and in the blood transfusion service to keep the supply of blood safe.

PS - I wonder if one of the 'advantages' of the NHS is limited medicalisation of everyday life?

Limited acess to doctors - for instance a long waiting list to see a child psychiatrist means less children are on ritalin. Women here only see an Gyneacologist when they have a problem - and have screening at a GPs once every 3 years, in childbith it's normally conducted by midwifes and doctors are only their for the problems..

I'm going to ponder that.

In the mean time I'm going to curl up with my back issues of the BMJ and NEJM that I' haven't been reading cos of exam revision.

surely common sense has to rule when it comes to traditional vs. modern medicine . if the patient has a serious medical condition , then modern powerfull drugs should be taken as prescribed by a gp . at the same time a healthy diet coupled with some excersize will only do you good .
much of the health food/alternative theropy industry is unregulated leaving it open to snake oil salesmen to con people .
ben goldacre writes a column in the guardian that exposes just this sort of thing . he also exposes large pharmesutical companies for using flawed data in trials . its allways worth a read .

best fishes ..tod

sorry about the spelling ! if i have'nt got a dictionary to hand its gonna be bad.

"lurks behind potted palm - its getting crowded back here..."

Hi Jolly, so nice to meet you, behind the palm!

I'm hesitant to mention this, seeing that it's too late now, but I was sort of self-quarantining (is that a word?) to keep everyone from getting my cold!

Matina, may I help make some more , I think I'm going to need a samovar-full, all by myself!

*nods in agreement*

Modern medicine should really limit itself to actual diseases and not-non-disaeses..