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#2988 05/29/00 12:37 PM
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Prevention is better than cure, so the saying goes. But sometimes no amount
of prevention helps and we are forced to visit those trained in the healing
arts. Like any profession, the world of medicine has its own jargon. If you
have come down with a bad case of medical jargonitis, help is near. Here is
AWAD's prescription: take this week's seven words and email me next week.


#2989 02/25/01 08:13 PM
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Sounds more helpful than the conventional "Take two aspirin and call me in the morning."


#2990 02/26/01 01:46 AM
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Oy. It depends on the words Anu serves up Bill. If they are those "fifteen consonant - two vowel" things then you know it will take a week to get over it.


#2991 03/07/01 03:04 AM
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Long ago, when a woman in labor was making little progress, sometimes a sternutant to cause sneezing would produce powerful contractions of the abdominal musculature, sometime being followed by more powerful regular contractions.
When pregnant women at term on British fighting ships at anchor had delayed onset of labor, sometimes cannons were fired, and apparently helped initiate labor. Children so born were called "sons of guns".
Many of the health spas long ago had minerals that acted as an aperient for those who suffered from constipation.
For patients who had ingested poison in a suicidal attempt, prompt administration of an emetic such as ipecac to make them vomit could be life saving.
Much can be learned about diseases of the heart and lungs by listening,called auscultation, originally by putting the ear against the chest wall. But this was inconvenient for the doctor, and unpleasant for the patient. Then it was discovered that a rod could be used to conduct sound to the doctor's ear. Later it was learned that a hollow tube worked even better.When rubber tubing became available the modern stethoscope was developed.
A doctor whose father could tell if wine casks were full, or only half full by tapping them, used this to detect when parts of the chest were filled with fluid, or solid with disease. This is called percussion.


#2992 03/10/01 06:22 PM
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If they are those "fifteen consonan" - two vowel" things then you know it will take a week to get over it.

And if more than one is mentioned in a discussion of your health the bill enlarges times the number of those words. used.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
wow



#2993 03/12/01 02:37 PM
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Is "medicine" the right word to describe the healing arts? The New England Journal of Medicine, for example, restricts its focus to traditional: the use of drugs and the creation of new orifices in the body (surgery) for the purpose of altering physiological processes and bodily function or structure. There are many healing disciplines that use less invasive and (dare I say) gentler methods. Is massage therapy medicine? Is nursing care medicine?

I suggest we use the terms "health care" or "healing professions" instead of medicine when referring to the collective health professions, or when appropriate, use the specific term that describes the discipline to which you refer, e.g., nursing, physical therapy, psychology. Restrict the term medicine to the practice that only MD's and DO's are licensed to provide.


#2994 03/12/01 05:18 PM
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Obviously "medicine" is used as a catch-all for many things other than just the use of medications, but it still suffices most of the time as an abstract term. "Health care" can be useful to include all of the many vital ancillary services. And I do not mean "ancillary" to be a put down. The people who keep hospitals clean are just as vital as the surgeons.


#2995 03/13/01 02:50 PM
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I think you misunderstood my point. I realize that lumping all disciplines together is not malicious, but, given the power of language to shape thinking, I'd like to see the non-medicine disciplines acknowledged when referring to all healing professions. To say "medicine," meaning nursing, PT, counseling, etc. is a misnomer that marginalizes the non-medical professions. Medicine has been defined as the application of drugs or the creation of openings in the body, e.g. incisions, for the purpose of altering physiology, pathology or body structure and function. Keeping to this definition acknowledges that many non-medical professionals also heal.





#2996 03/14/01 03:29 PM
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To make a comparison, generals are a necessary part of an army, but without the sergeants and privates, they would win no wars. This is not a put-down to the enlisted men, of whom I was one.


#2997 03/14/01 03:59 PM
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But Bill, i think most gereral would be happy about an "underground" army-- like the french underground-- but i sometime feel that the 5 star generals in medicine--the AMA and there ilk, don't like a lot of the alternate healers.

And while medicine has made wonderful advance in the past 100 years, clean water and good sewers have done more for human health almost any other medical advance.. Semiel (sp?) was able to cut mortality in "the laying in Hospital" with clean water and washed hands..

Vacines are the most important thing-- hurrah for Pasture! He saved the wine industry, and half the world!




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