Failures of Modern Medicine (updated)

The news stories about medicine always highlight the breakthroughs that we should celebrate.
It's always about new technology this and technology that. Or it's about a new wonder drug that will cure the incurable up till now.
Upon reflection on this matter, I feel very disappointed. I've just read an article that explains that the new technology involved in joint replacement such as hips and knees, is ten times more expensive than the technology it replaces. It is also extremely short term in it's effectiveness. Apparently this whiz bang new technology starts to deteriorate, or should I say the joints that it is glued to begin to deteriorate after a period of five years. This means a new procedure needs to occur to replace the mechanical joint. The article referred to a woman who had 15 hip replacements since she was 20 years of age.

That's just one example. My mother suffers from stenosis of the spine. There is nothing modern medicine can do for her. Up to the age of 74, she was an agile and healthy woman who enjoyed long walks. Now she can barely stand for more than a few minutes before her legs give way.

My uncle suddenly lost his eyesight from complications to the blood vessels in his eyes. He is now permanently blind. Nothing modern medicine can do for him.

I see people with arthritis who have horribly distorted hands, joints so swollen that they disfigure and render their fingers useless. Nothing modern medicine can do for them.

How often do we celebrate the eradication of diseases and the control of chicken pox?
How often do we celebrate the wonders of anti-biotics and yet are warned about the overuse of this medicine, fed to livestock as a pro-active preventative measure, it is in reality diluting the effectiveness of anti-biotics.

We still suffer the common cold. We still endure the debilitating effects of influenza.

The more scientists learn about cancer, the more they discover how versatile and widespread it is. The causes of cancer are numerous with most still to be discovered. But how close are we?

I see more and more lame people with walking sticks, walking frames, wheelchairs than I can remember seeing ever before in my life.

Alcoholism is something that modern medicine doesn't even recognize as a disease. What an oversight. What a tragic failure to our good health.

If I begin to tell somebody about my health problems I trigger an avalanche of similar complaints and although I feel better that I can share my anguish, I wonder how widespread ill health is within the community. I'm not talking about middle aged folk, I'm talking about the youth.
Talk to anyone you meet and they will have a story about back pain.

We can marvel at the plethora of drugs that are available for our various medical conditions. And yet, it's appalling to realize that there isn't one miracle drug that is free of side effects. Any medicine we take will cause a plethora of side effects that we must endure for the sake of the relief the miracle drug gives us.

I know many people think of the multi-national drug companies as evil. It's easy to blame them for the shortcomings in modern medicine but I don't.

From personal experience, I know my life is better because of pharmaceutical drugs. I know that my wife would be impossible to live with without her medication and therapy.

Modern medicine hasn't the slightest idea about sleep. Sleep and dreams and the unconscious mind are a black hole of ignorance. Mental illness such as schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and chronic depression are treated with drugs to relieve the symptoms and yet there is no understanding as to the cause of these problems. Modern medicine treats these problems in a haphazard way, hit or miss with this drug or that drug until some acceptable result occurs.
That's it, hit or miss.

Don't read all the promises that are made about pills that will make you smarter, stronger, faster, live longer etc. Contemplate the failure of modern medicine to cure allergies, the failure to cure obesity, the failure to cure AIDS.

Don't forget that just around the corner there's a pandemic just waiting to happen.

Here's a news story after I posted this blog.