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I agree. When I first started looking into medications like Aderall, it was surprising to find how little we actually know about how medicine works. Take the a
by gxs 13y ago
I agree. When I first started looking into medications like Aderall, it was surprising to find how little we actually know about how medicine works.
Take the above example - we really don't know how it works. We measure the amount of dopamine/serotonin in the spine before and after you take it so we assume it increases the presence of those chemicals in the brain, but it's not really mapped out.
A lot of people have the misconception that we understand the body the way we understand other technologies. That you can balance a chemical equation and deduce how something will effect the body.
While we understand a lot, this really isn't the case. And for all practical purposes it sometimes is treated like "magic".
- Thrymr 13y agoWe even have a Ministry of Medical Magic in the US now: http://nccam.nih.gov http://nccam.nih.gov
- salgernon 13y agoThats really depressing. You know what they call alternative medicine that works? Medicine. (cf: Tim Minchin, 'Storm' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U)
- smacktoward 13y agoThe brain (and how it works) specifically is an area that modern medicine really hasn't figured out yet. I learned this when my father had a stroke. Talking to the doctors I learned that, unlike the rest of the body, our understanding of the brain is still sufficiently primitive that it's treated as sort of a black box.