Can Doctors Really Cure Anything?

Hemorroids. Nifedepine.

You asked.

This is an ignorant question. All one need do is to examine the morbidity and mortality records over the last 100 years and it will be seen that modern medicine has extended our life expectancy and lowered both maternal and infant mortality.

Do you not remember when HIV/AIDS was a death sentence in 100% of cases? What is the state of HIV/AIDS in developed nations now? Did that happen by itself?

I could go on for pages and pages but this question isn’t worth the time it would take.

@dpworkin True, but it’s a newbie and you know it’s hard to ask questions at first.

Welcome to fluther, @GrumpyGram – be healthy. You shouldn’t need Doctors.

Maternal mortality rates in the US are very disturbing. Link.

Doctors are not healers, they can only provide diagnoses and recommend/perform remedies for dis-ease.

@dpworkin So they have CURED Aids? The cure was the question, not the bandaid treatment. Dont they call it, “living with AIDS?”

According to the latest review in the April, 2010 Lancet, MMR in the US is 10/100,000. In sub-Saharan Africa, for the sake of comparison, MMR is 2,000/100,000.

People are living with AIDS, not dying from pneumocystis carnii or Kaposi’s Sarcoma. Do you think that happened by itself? What are you on about?

I am asking about people with an illness who go to a doctor, not a surgeon, and are cured. I’m sorry if I got you all riled up, dp.

I answered your question. The answer is that hundreds of thousands of people with illnesses go to Doctors and get cured, each year.

Welcome to Fluther, @GrumpyGram

Please know that the majority of people here on Fluther will be much more welcoming and kind than the individual you have experienced here. Not at ALL typcial, I assure you!

I hope you will enjoy learning from the many wise and considerate people who make up the citizens of this community.

I wonder if you might be suggesting that doctors are mostly facilitators, and that the body cures itself? I agree that at times there might be other, sometimes more effective, methods to heal from many of the illnesses we are plagued with.

Sometimes Doctors are the most viable persons to help our bodies to heal, but there are many other modalities and therapies which can also bring significant improvement in our health.

Medical treatment can cure tens of thousands of conditions. Smallpox hardly exists any more, neither does Rubella or Whooping Cough, and Measles is very rare, Polio is near non-existent, and the prognosis for many cancers has drastically improved over the last decade or so. Antibiotics can cure every infection short of MRSA and VRE, and have saved millions of lives.

People just tend to focus on the negative, because that is what requires our attention. We have a long way to go, and we will never be able to cure everything, but we have cured tens of thousands of diseases and there is active research into the rest.

I’d also like to know exactly how a broken bone can be ‘cured’. Don’t you mean ‘healed’? What is the point of developing an artificial healing mechanism when the body’s own is so effective?

I got cured by emailing a doctor today. Frill. Rarebear fixed me right up. My pinkie on my left finger has been numb since November. In January I went to my regular doctor here in Kansas on another issue (eye infection) and mentioned my finger. He said there was a pinched nerve in my elbow, but that’s all he told me. I figgured I’d just wait it out. Well, here it is May, and I finally got around to giving Rarebear a holla, he asked if there was anything I did consistently that involved leaning on my left elbow…and in about 10 seconds I realized that I have a habit of leaning my left elbow on the arm rest of my chair when I’m typing (which is most of the time) and also leaning my elbow on the desk with my hand on my chin when I’m listening to someone (which is the rest of the time.) It hasn’t gone away yet, because this is a habit I wasn’t even aware of, so give me a couple of days.

@Val123 \
I think that you didn’t get cured by Rarebear. This person had the wisdom to see what your body needed, and when you change the damaging behavior, your body will heal itself. Just my humble opinion, though.

@FireMadeFlesh I did not know they cured the childhood diseases of the 1940s and 50s. I had every single one and was never cured. I just stayed in bed and got well.
I did not know that anyone had ever been cured of polio. I may believe vaccination has helped it die out even though some say when Jonas Salk’s vaccine became available it was already disappearing. I’m still learning so thanks.

@GrumpyGram We understand the mechanisms surrounding those diseases very well, and can cure a patient by stimulating production of the appropriate antibodies, or in some cases injecting a saline solution with the appropriate antibodies in place. Vaccinations were the major contributor in causing these diseases to die out, but there are treatments for people who contract the diseases too.

@eden2eve I flagged your post as a personal attack.

I have heard many doctors say they do not cure nor heal patients. They say they do what they can and the body will heal itself or not.

@perspicacious That is semantics. The person would not be cured without the intervention of the medical professional, so they are still the one mediating the curing process. That is like saying “the doctor was unable to heal me, but the drugs (s)he gave me worked wonders!”

@FireMadeFlesh The doctors who I’ve heard say this were orthos. They do “mechanical” work, and the body heals itself. Those are not my words. Think about it any way you please.

@dpworkin which post of @eden2eve did you flag as a “personal attack”? Surely not the comment she made to me, as she was spot on.

@Val123: The one that contained this attack:

_Welcome to Fluther, @GrumpyGram

Please know that the majority of people here on Fluther will be much more welcoming and kind than the individual you have experienced here. Not at ALL typcial, I assure you!_

OK. I believe most ailments will heal themselves, but that’s not how our culture is set up anymore. We don’t “wait and see.” (I do, but that’s beside the point. Well, except for the time I was knocked flat with severe abdominal pain that prompted me to check in to the ER for the first time in my life. I had an ectopic pregnancy which had ruptured, and which would have killed me had it not been treated. So, yes. I would say I was “cured” in that instance.) Now, my grandson came down with a fever on Monday, his throat was inflamed, went to the Dr., he had strep. Yes, his body might have cured itself or….he might have died. Infections that are easily treated today used to kill a LOT of people.

On the other hand, early this morning my daughter told me that her ix-year-old daughter (sister of afore mentioned grandson) s had been force vomiting rather regularly through the night, and in the morning had dry heaves. After listening to all of the symptoms I said, “Well…I think we should wait this one out….” And by this afternoon she was fine. (Although Mom’s wiped out at this point!!)

Our society, though, tends to want to treat every little thing like it’s an emergency. And doctors have learned that people do NOT want to spend $60 on a doctor’s visit only to be told, “It’ll cure itself. Just give it a day or two.”

@dpworkin I still don’t see who did the “personal attacking”....who the “individual you have experienced here.” is. Mebee I’m slow today…

When I was 2 years old, I became very sick with bacterial meningitis. My parents took me to the hospital, where I was treated with strong antibiotics. Without them, I would have almost certainly died or been permanently disabled.

Does that answer your question?

Right on Nick!

Thoughts….what exactly defines a “cure” other than someone having knowledge of something that the other person doesn’t, and what to do with that knowledge? In which case, Rarebear cured me!! Here’s a Q that might be appropriate (OK, it’s my question but still!)

@GrumpyGram Don’t pay attentio to DP.

He should be called GrumpyWorkin.

But I lurve him.

@Val123

I had the exact same complaint, with numbness in my left hand, in fact at first there was a great deal of pain in that part of my hand, involving the pinky and the finger next to it. When the pain subsided, both fingers were numb. I did some research on Google, and found a reference to the pinched nerve in the elbow. Then I recalled that right before this started I had spent nearly an entire day holding my cell phone up to my ear with that hand, talking to a family member who helped me to trouble-shoot some problems on my computer.
After I figured that out, I was careful with how I used that hand for awhile, keeping my elbow at a comfortable angle and giving the arm frequent breaks. It took quite awhile to start noticing an improvement, but slowly, over about six months, my numbness has receded to the point where it’s just a tickle that reminds me it’s still there once in awhile.
So if it takes longer than you anticipate for you to fully recover, don’t give up hope. Yours might not be as severe as mine was, at least I hope not.

@eden2eve Thanks.

This is a quote from an excellent wikipedia article that discusses cure “The most common example of a complete cure is a bacterial infection treated with antibiotics”

Perhaps if you were more clear on your definition of cure you might get better answers. I would also add operations which remove tumors or repair hearts and arteries would answer your question.

I have also read that prayer heals, but I believe that to be a type of placebo effect. I would like to add that when my Aunt was little, her parents let prayer ‘heal’ their daughter’s broken arm, and she had a twisted arm for the rest of her life. A doctor would have been able to correctly place the arm so that it would have healed straight.

Doctor’s can diagnose the problem, and come up with the proper treatment, which goes a long way toward a cure. You don’t treat an ear ache the same way you would treat a sprained ankle or tuberculosis, and a doctor would know that, therefore he would cure the patient.

[mod says] Please refrain from harshly judging the question and from harshly judging one another. Thank you.

I should think that it is perfectly in order to make a judgment about a quip or a question, and quite out of order to make a judgment about a human.

Great answers!
Good thing we keep Lots of antibiotics on hand.

I agree with @YARNLADY…. What constitutes a “cure” in the poster’s opinion? If it means, can a doctor save your life, then yes! Does it mean there are times when a person goes in for something really minor, a cold or something, and the doctor knows the body will take care of it’s self and does nothing….well, I don’t think that would be a “lack” of a cure. That would just be common sense.

I fell they cure some things but many they do not. I have a bad cold. Tested neg for flu and pneumonia. Got a perception for a z pack and steroids. It took the green drainage I was coughing up away. A week later I still have a bad cough,sweats and upset stomach. I went back an x ray was ordered.I was then told oh well, we gave you some stuff and do not want to give you anymore. I then went to another doctor and was given amoxacillin. To me this is a weak and worthless antibiotic. My cough is not getting better and neither is my sinus drainage, they see going down my throat. The first stuff only cured half my problem. It is like we tried oh, well good by.