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Since you studied medicine maybe you (or someone else who reads this) could answer a question which I came across in a debate. Which illnesses has modern medic

by gbuk2013 10y ago

Since you studied medicine maybe you (or someone else who reads this) could answer a question which I came across in a debate. Which illnesses has modern medicine definitevely cured? Exclude anything that is prevented through vaccination and treated with antibiotics (since even I as a layman know about those). Someone below mentioned Hepatitis C which is one. What other examples are there? Obviously no need for complete list just 5 or 10 will do for the purpose or argument.

robbiep 10y ago
- major traumas - Some strokes (if you reach hospital in time) - some heart attacks (if you reach hospital in time) - 3rd degree heart block (by way of a pacemaker) - serious arthritis of the knees, hips and shoulders (by way of replacement joints) - 80% cure rate of childhood leukaemia, 20-30% cure rate of adult leukaemia - some forms of childhood brain tumours - a high percentage of childhood and young adult myelodysplastic syndromes - pretty much every BCC and almost all SCCs that reach a doctor before they have invaded the whole patient - early melanoma - Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, through either a TURP or what will become the definitive therapy, interventional radiology ablation - Wolf-Parkinson-white syndrome and other cardiac arrytjmias that consist of accessory pathways - patent foramen ovale - Cervical cancer if discovered early through Pap smear - deep vein thrombosis and it's sequelae, pulmonary embolism - Cataracts - about 100 other surgical problems that will be completely cured through surgery
- gbuk2013 10y ago
  Thanks - I should have been more specific about purely surgical treatments as I was with the other two groups so as to maximise the benefit of your knowledge :) The context of this thread is more about drugs and there's a lot of discussion about pharmaceuticals so that was what I was really asking about. But I guess radio / chemo therapy is on the list, even though I am uncomfortable with the amount of collateral damage they do to the patient in the process (seen it happen so painful topic)
  - robbiep 10y ago
    Look - I get the point you are trying to make. If you discount infectious diseases and surgeries, there are a lot of things off the table as far as a 'cure' full stop goes. But that is incredibly disingenuous to medicine. You're removing all the things we do incredibly well - to the point where infectious diseases, for the most part - until we reach this disaster warned about in the article we are commenting on - have ceased to be a major burden of disease in the modern world. That is just remarkable. The reason people are able to make claims like 'all we do is treat sick people, we don't cure them' is because the things that we do well, we do so fucking well it isn't a major issue anymore. I know very well that my job in a modern first world country hospital revolves largely around treating people with chronic diseases, and that for the most part, I can't do much for them. For example, when I work in the Emergency Department (Most of my work these days) It is rare for me to 'pick up' a patient that has never had a hospital admission. Most people swing in and out and and out and in and out until one day they don't make it out again. They have chronic diseases caused by a lifetime of either 'just living' or living hard (smoking, drinking, eating too much) and the accumulated damage is BEYOND modern medicine's ability to fix it. Personally, I think that for many of these chronic diseases, we are beyond any quick fix ever being developed - i envisage a future world where we literally grow someone a new body and attach their head to it so they can go again... the damage occurs on such a cellular (and slightly above that) level - and is so widespread that it is beyond my comprehension how any treatment we are looking at could fix it - although I am an optimist and who would have ever thought we would have the biological treatments we have now for certain diseases, modern miracles that they are. But we are still WINNING - as pointed out elsewhere in the comments, we now have a cure for Hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is a horrible condition. When I was at med school (graduated 2013) we were taught the 'Rule of 20' for Hep C: 20% clear it, of the remaining 80 20% have no issue, of that remaining 80 20% go on to develop fulminant liver failure. Now we can cure the fucking thing. Absolutely amazing. And there's talk of stem cell injections for damaged cardiac muscle; and since I left Med School the average life expectancy for Malignant Melanoma has risen from <12 months to close to 4 years and growing. This is remarkable. and anyone who says differently doesn't understand the facts, and is being willfully ignorant of the enormous efforts of thousands upon thousands of people who work tirelessly in labs and hospitals all over the world to bring about a better quality of life for the sick

robbiep 10y ago

- major traumas - Some strokes (if you reach hospital in time) - some heart attacks (if you reach hospital in time) - 3rd degree heart block (by way of a pacemaker) - serious arthritis of the knees, hips and shoulders (by way of replacement joints) - 80% cure rate of childhood leukaemia, 20-30% cure rate of adult leukaemia - some forms of childhood brain tumours - a high percentage of childhood and young adult myelodysplastic syndromes - pretty much every BCC and almost all SCCs that reach a doctor before they have invaded the whole patient - early melanoma - Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, through either a TURP or what will become the definitive therapy, interventional radiology ablation - Wolf-Parkinson-white syndrome and other cardiac arrytjmias that consist of accessory pathways - patent foramen ovale - Cervical cancer if discovered early through Pap smear - deep vein thrombosis and it's sequelae, pulmonary embolism - Cataracts - about 100 other surgical problems that will be completely cured through surgery

gbuk2013 10y ago
Thanks - I should have been more specific about purely surgical treatments as I was with the other two groups so as to maximise the benefit of your knowledge :) The context of this thread is more about drugs and there's a lot of discussion about pharmaceuticals so that was what I was really asking about. But I guess radio / chemo therapy is on the list, even though I am uncomfortable with the amount of collateral damage they do to the patient in the process (seen it happen so painful topic)
- robbiep 10y ago
  Look - I get the point you are trying to make. If you discount infectious diseases and surgeries, there are a lot of things off the table as far as a 'cure' full stop goes. But that is incredibly disingenuous to medicine. You're removing all the things we do incredibly well - to the point where infectious diseases, for the most part - until we reach this disaster warned about in the article we are commenting on - have ceased to be a major burden of disease in the modern world. That is just remarkable. The reason people are able to make claims like 'all we do is treat sick people, we don't cure them' is because the things that we do well, we do so fucking well it isn't a major issue anymore. I know very well that my job in a modern first world country hospital revolves largely around treating people with chronic diseases, and that for the most part, I can't do much for them. For example, when I work in the Emergency Department (Most of my work these days) It is rare for me to 'pick up' a patient that has never had a hospital admission. Most people swing in and out and and out and in and out until one day they don't make it out again. They have chronic diseases caused by a lifetime of either 'just living' or living hard (smoking, drinking, eating too much) and the accumulated damage is BEYOND modern medicine's ability to fix it. Personally, I think that for many of these chronic diseases, we are beyond any quick fix ever being developed - i envisage a future world where we literally grow someone a new body and attach their head to it so they can go again... the damage occurs on such a cellular (and slightly above that) level - and is so widespread that it is beyond my comprehension how any treatment we are looking at could fix it - although I am an optimist and who would have ever thought we would have the biological treatments we have now for certain diseases, modern miracles that they are. But we are still WINNING - as pointed out elsewhere in the comments, we now have a cure for Hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is a horrible condition. When I was at med school (graduated 2013) we were taught the 'Rule of 20' for Hep C: 20% clear it, of the remaining 80 20% have no issue, of that remaining 80 20% go on to develop fulminant liver failure. Now we can cure the fucking thing. Absolutely amazing. And there's talk of stem cell injections for damaged cardiac muscle; and since I left Med School the average life expectancy for Malignant Melanoma has risen from <12 months to close to 4 years and growing. This is remarkable. and anyone who says differently doesn't understand the facts, and is being willfully ignorant of the enormous efforts of thousands upon thousands of people who work tirelessly in labs and hospitals all over the world to bring about a better quality of life for the sick