"doctor" means teacher

[miriam_e]

I just looked online for some information for a friend who had a brain scan in an attempt to find an explanation for her terrible headaches. Apparently she has a lesion in her right basal ganglia. Now that area is a fairly large and complex part of the brain so it could have many possible effects. I was trying to learn more about it and found a site called Medcyclopedia. It had some tiny thumbnail images that looked like they might be of use, but unfortunately I would have to register in order to view the full-size images. I always find this compulsory narrowing of audience annoying, but annoyance turned to disgust when I found that in order to register I had to "prove" I was a professional by clicking the aortic lumen in the image presented, only to find that the page was so incompetently designed that it didn't work on any web browser other than Microsoft's awful and dangerous InternetExplorer, which fewer and fewer people use these days.

What is with medical groups that they are so loathe to disseminate information to the public at large? Don't they know that the word "doctor" originally meant "teacher"? Everywhere around the world there is a shortage of medical doctors. And the doctors themselves generally would like to be able to spend more time with their patients and less time on trivial things. They also bemoan the rise of nutty strains of "alternative" medicine, such as chiropracty or homeopathy, but they seem utterly opposed to disseminating the very knowledge which would drive back such superstitious beliefs.

Sometimes I think the medical profession is its own worst enemy.

Comments

Re: about chiropracty

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Damn. I just realised I blathered away simply telling anecdotes, but anecdotes are not evidence and should convince nobody. Unfortunately we are storytellers and we naturally give and receive stories more easily than proper evidence.

So here is why I'm sure that chiropracty is superstition and not something real. I've read and heard the results of more than one study, but here is the one I read that impressed me the most. I think they began with a few hundred people who were randomly divided into 3 groups. The people in first group were given manipulation by a normal chiropractor. Those in the second group were seen by somebody who was not a chiropractor, but still touched them and talked to them. The third group came to the waiting room, but never got any "therapy". It was a long time ago that I read this study, so I can't remember the details anymore, but the upshot was that spinal manipulation had no effect at all.

Hmmm... I should try and find some of the research on the net so that I can be more precise.

Okay, here is a distillation of hundreds of studies on the effectiveness of chiropracty:
http://www.rsm.ac.uk/media/downloads/j06-04spinalmanip.pdf
The overview is at:
http://www.rsm.ac.uk/media/pr189.php

Of more concern though, is the fact that spinal manipulation can cause real problems -- even death through stroke, in the case of neck manipulation.
http://jrsm.rsmjournals.com/cgi/content/full/100/7/330

The conclusion is stated in the title: "Spinal manipulation doesn’t work for any condition"

Re: about chiropracty

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

You know I don't disagree with you about about chiropracty.

I'm less certain about what we call spinal manipulation. Spinal manipulation might be what we can call it now but I agree we don't have specific information about what exactly is happening when we do that. So that's an unknown.
Personally I think it works to relieve discomfort and sometimes pain temporarily. This is my personal experience and the experience of many people I've known. That isn't what one would call a "condition" exactly. It's a temporary change though it really may be beneficial for the moment.
I agree that there really can be dangers to doing it (whatever "it" is). Which is why I won't let just anyone mess with my spine.

I don't know about the "bubble popping" thing you mention but it does remind me of something.
I once was at work and my back felt misaligned. Given how stretchy I am it takes a deep stretch to fix something like that. I went into the office that had this little bit of wall I could grab onto and did a couple of twists and a sorta deep backbend walking myself down the wall. That seemed to relieve it.
Now the nurse, a man I worked with, was there and I had mentioned that my back was out and I had just fixed it. He tells me "you know your back is not "out", it's just gas being released". Personally I took offense as his tone sucked. He might as well have said "you know, you're an idiot and you're hallucinating, I'm so much smarter than you Ha Ha Ha".
Of course that could be my perception. :)
Anyhoo, I wondered about the gas theory. I've never heard it before. In any case whatever it is, in my case it can help. I don't really need a chiropractor for that anyway. Given the way I am I could jump off the chiropractors table and have anything he or she had fixed go right back out minutes later. Which is part of why massage, relaxation, exercise, stretching has more use in my life.

You know though, I'd take hanging upside down by my feet any day over someone popping my back. I really should get some gravity boots, or whatever they're called.

If a friend asks me to pop their back I'm still gonna do it, but I will check up on that research.
And I'd love to know more about the bubble theory.

Oh also that reminds me, a friend who's a masseur told me that the muscles will form adhesions tween the fibers if they're kept in the same position for a while, and not stretched out or rubbed through. Which thing kinda freaked me out. I've seen elders who were literally stuck in a sitting position. Now I knew how that happened and I don't *ever* want that to happen to me.
I wonder if some sort of adhesions might be happening internally near the spine or what feels like near the spine too.

ps.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

I like your stories. :)
Do feel free to blather on.

And thank you for the links, I'll check em out.

Re: ps.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Eek! Don't encourage me. heheheh :)

Re: ps.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

:)

Re: about chiropracty

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

From http://www.rsm.ac.uk/media/pr189.php
"Sixteen papers were included in the research relating to the following condition: back pain, neck pain, primary and secondary dysmenorrhoea, infantile colic, asthma, allergy and cervicogenic dizziness.
“Collectively these data did not demonstrate that spinal manipulation is an effective intervention for any of these conditions, *except for back pain* where it is superior to sham manipulation but not better than conventional treatments,”

Back pain is the only condition of those mentioned that I'd consider using spinal manipulation for. And apparently it's the only one it's effective for. Did they explain what are "conventional treatments"? It says it's not better than but it doesn't say it's less effective.

From http://jrsm.rsmjournals.com/cgi/content/full/100/7/330
"For conditions other than back pain, there is no good evidence for the effectiveness of spinal manipulation."

Well yah, I can't imagine why it would be effective for anything else.

Now the last article is rather concerning. Makes me glad that I've handled my stuff on my own.
I have let my dad pop my neck but he's very careful not to force it. It's been years since he's done that though, years and years.
It kinda reminds me of one yoga class I went to and the teacher got us into this position then said "turn your neck and look up" and I thought "really? that doesn't seem like a good idea" but I did it anyway and I couldn't turn my neck fully to the side and had big pain there for 3 days. That's what comes of trusting "authority" over one's own knowing. I made note of that. It's good to remember.

Re: about chiropracty

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Doing what feels right for our bodies so often turns out to actually be right. Of course we have to counterbalance that with what we've learned in recent decades about how often intuition can be completely wrong. But I don't really need to remind you of that. :) You strike me as having a very sensible outlook on taking care of your body.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

:) Thank you.
I figure intuition can only be improved by good information.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Well put.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Thankee. :)