Ummmm…machine? You say that the treatment has worked. Buuuut…ummmm…how do we know that you had gallstones?
You had a pain in your tummy. You took a funky treatment. Now the pain is gone.
I hope I’m not upsetting you when I point out that those three things may not neccesarily have any relation to each other. I’m not saying you should have gone to see a doctor. I’m actually saying that most things get better by themselves. I just can’t understand people who go to see the doctor when they get a cold. Don’t the people understand that a doctor can’t do anything for a cold except what your mother would tell you…rest, drink fluids, keep warm…
It’s been a while since I last checked this thread, so a lot has happened. Just for the record, I do NOT have “blind faith” in what doctors tell me. I make them explain it to me in terms I can understand, and I don’t agree to any kind of treatment that doesn’t appear to me to be logical.
I have a problem with folks like you, who steadfastly refuse to believe anything that comes from the “medical establishment”. It’s a mindset similar to the mindset that folks who believe in conspiracy theories have. The logic is something like this:
[ul]
[li] Traditional medicine just wants to treat everything with surgery and drugs.[/li][li] The reason they want to do this is that they’re both expensive and profitable.[/li][li] The reason why they can back up their approach with science is because they can afford the science.[/li][li] They “cook” the results to support their approach (surgery and drugs).[/li][/ul]
My gut reaction is that line of thought is a bunch of self-serving crap. Don’t give me paranoid rock-throwing, give me science and logic. Here’s my counter to the above list:
[ul]
[li] OK, I’ll go along with the idea that MDs want to treat everything with surgery and drugs. But I do think they’ve been sensitized to that accusation in recent years, especially in areas where the accusation is backed up with hard science, such as antibiotic-resistent infections, as a result of over-prescription.[/li][li] One of my mottos is something I read somewhere: “Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.” I just don’t believe most doctors prescribe treatment simply out of greed. They would have to be monsters to do that with people’s health, and I believe most doctors are sincerely interested in my health, first and foremost. I guess I’m lucky, but if I ever did run into a doctor who seemed intent on rushing into a treatment without explaining it to me so that I can understand, I would run out of his office.[/li][li] NEWS FLASH! Real science is very rigorous stuff. By tradition, any result that is published is attacked by other scientists, who view it as their mission to poke holes in the results by pointing out flaws in the testing methodology, or by presenting conflicting test results of their own. If the alternative medicine crowd wants to disagree with the science, then they need to do it using the scientific method. If they can’t afford to do so, then they need to find someone with deep pockets to fund the science. Otherwise, they don’t have a leg to stand on. (This comment covers the last two bullets above)[/li][/ul]
You’re guessing with your health, and that’s your privelege. You got lucky, this time.
It’s ironic that you accuse me of blind faith in the medical profession, because I made them explain what was going on and what they were going to do to me before they did anything. All you did was ask “has anyone heard of this?”, and when we all told you it was a bad idea, you put your blind trust in a dietary approach that had zero scientific explanation behind it.
I just had to pipe in with my gall bladder experience…
My g.b. failed, which was a result of something else going on that no doctor (after 2 years) has been able to figure out. (I have abdominal pain, sulphur burps, flatulence, diarrhea and puking for 48 hours, then nothing for 3 weeks or so). The only thing that has kept this at bay is good ol’ Zantac (or prescription Prevacid).
Anyway, the doc’s in control ID’d the bad g.b., tested it to be sure, and removed it via laproscopic outpatient surgery. The operation was on a Friday and I was playing softball on that Sunday.
So, even tho the medicos might be fallible, techniques have improved significantly. Still don’t know the nature of the problem, but the g.b. failure was a symptom, not the cause.
Lemur
you are right, and i still have some unanswered questions about the “gallstones” i seem to have flushed.
JoltSucker
I did not mean to for that blind faith comment to apply to you - i was just relaying my thoughts in general
i just believe people are too fast in running to the er or to the drs office. then they got to get something so the feel treated.
BTW if chewing on treebark-or-something, to help cure an illness sounds to primitive, just remember where lots, maybe even most?, of our modern little pills got thier start in the first place.