These days in kerala ( no exaggeration at all ) if you see a long queue it is 99 percent chance that it is in front of a liquor shop . Probably the literacy rate and alcohol consumption are related .
But when i was studying for MBBS once there was a long queue in trivandrum . As a budding medical student many of the educated laymen even asked me opinion on the new treatment . The new treatment was for an age old problem called baldness . Apparently a person has discovered a new medicine for baldness in alternate system of medicine , word of mouth has publicised it and there were daily queues to get it .The person who discovered it got rich fast at the expense of educated malayalis who usually argue and counterargue everything on earth especially medicines. That incident was forgotten but whenever i see the androgenic alopecia (baldness male pattern ) in many i cant but laugh inside at the long queues and the vehement arguments including against this poor me when i talked against this miracle cure . I am not against alternate systems but fights should be fair and when modern medicines are subjected to extensive trials ( refer wikipedia ) and still have problems its surprising how alternate system medicines are gulped without any forethought just because they are marketed even better . I think i blogged about the cancer patient who ate the ash and then died and also about the person who got liver failure taking alternate medicine with heavy metals .
Sorry to be off topic . But the point is as a doctor i find it funny when even very intelligent and educated people speak about sideeffects of modern medicines . Its a known fact that modern medicines do have side effects . But as in life for a large gain you always have to compromise on small things side effects are a realistic part of treatment . And the knowledgeable patient neither underestimates or overestimates it .
How many of us (including me ) had fever ? How many of you had paracetamol for fever ? What side effect you got with it ? I till this moment got none . But if you read the possible side effects of paracetamol the list goes in hundreds including death due to many causes . http://www.drugs.com/sfx/paracetamol-side-effects.html . The fact remains that most side effects are rare .
On the other extreme are chemotherapy cancer drugs some of which eg: methotrexate gives near 100 percent cure for certain cancers . But there side effects are more common and severe but still the benefit outweighs the risk and since there is no choice the intelligent person takes an informed decision and choice .
The saddest part of my MBBS experience is when early cancer patients skip the treatment fearing the "side effects" go to alternate systems and come back in stage 4 disease ( the final stage ).
Allergic reaction to pencillin can kill . Its a rare but known risk . But the lakhs of people saved in world war 2 was due to the newer antibiotic while in previous wars lakhs due to die not due to war but due to infection . I dont think the " sideeffect " of pencillin and the "negligence " was a major issue in world war era . But even Alexander Fleming will have second thoughts why he didnt throw away that petri dish when the wonderful medicine he discovered and scores of others are seen with suspicion in modern times ..Is it that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing .. I dont know .
But when i was studying for MBBS once there was a long queue in trivandrum . As a budding medical student many of the educated laymen even asked me opinion on the new treatment . The new treatment was for an age old problem called baldness . Apparently a person has discovered a new medicine for baldness in alternate system of medicine , word of mouth has publicised it and there were daily queues to get it .The person who discovered it got rich fast at the expense of educated malayalis who usually argue and counterargue everything on earth especially medicines. That incident was forgotten but whenever i see the androgenic alopecia (baldness male pattern ) in many i cant but laugh inside at the long queues and the vehement arguments including against this poor me when i talked against this miracle cure . I am not against alternate systems but fights should be fair and when modern medicines are subjected to extensive trials ( refer wikipedia ) and still have problems its surprising how alternate system medicines are gulped without any forethought just because they are marketed even better . I think i blogged about the cancer patient who ate the ash and then died and also about the person who got liver failure taking alternate medicine with heavy metals .
Sorry to be off topic . But the point is as a doctor i find it funny when even very intelligent and educated people speak about sideeffects of modern medicines . Its a known fact that modern medicines do have side effects . But as in life for a large gain you always have to compromise on small things side effects are a realistic part of treatment . And the knowledgeable patient neither underestimates or overestimates it .
How many of us (including me ) had fever ? How many of you had paracetamol for fever ? What side effect you got with it ? I till this moment got none . But if you read the possible side effects of paracetamol the list goes in hundreds including death due to many causes . http://www.drugs.com/sfx/paracetamol-side-effects.html . The fact remains that most side effects are rare .
On the other extreme are chemotherapy cancer drugs some of which eg: methotrexate gives near 100 percent cure for certain cancers . But there side effects are more common and severe but still the benefit outweighs the risk and since there is no choice the intelligent person takes an informed decision and choice .
The saddest part of my MBBS experience is when early cancer patients skip the treatment fearing the "side effects" go to alternate systems and come back in stage 4 disease ( the final stage ).
Allergic reaction to pencillin can kill . Its a rare but known risk . But the lakhs of people saved in world war 2 was due to the newer antibiotic while in previous wars lakhs due to die not due to war but due to infection . I dont think the " sideeffect " of pencillin and the "negligence " was a major issue in world war era . But even Alexander Fleming will have second thoughts why he didnt throw away that petri dish when the wonderful medicine he discovered and scores of others are seen with suspicion in modern times ..Is it that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing .. I dont know .
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