Take two aspirin...

Voltaire said “the art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” Of course I love that idea. Case in point: during World War II, Archibald Cochrane was a prisoner of war in Germany and was in charge of overseeing the health of 20,000 fellow prisoners who suffered from diarrhea, typhoid, diphtheria, and other infections. With no medicine except for aspirin and antacids, he expected hundreds to die. But in his six months at the camp, only four prisoners died, three of whom had been shot by their captors. When he returned to Britain, he began to question many of the standard medical practices—such as bed rest after a heart attack—that were later shown to be ineffective. He was also instrumental in calling for more randomized trials to test the efficacy of medical treatments.

Twenty years ago an organization was named after him: The Cochrane Collaboration.  It's is a global network of scientists and others who study the best evidence from research to determine whether treatments actually work. They have 37,000 contributors from more than 130 countries who work together to produce credible health information free from commercial sponsorship.

You can go to their Web site and look up the results of their studies. For example, I randomly chose “Acupuncture for tension-type headache” and got the following report: “The available evidence suggests that a course of acupuncture consisting of at least six treatment sessions can be a valuable option for people with frequent tension-type headache.” To come to this conclusion, they explain, they “reviewed 12 trials with 2349 adults, published up to January 2016.” It's a good site for looking up medical treatments. 

Anyhow, back to letting nature cure the disease. I have what seems like millions of actinic keratosis on my skin—those scaly patches that are supposedly pre-cancerous. Occasionally, I have them “burned” off. Just recently they have started to disappear on their own. It’s called spontaneous regression. Go nature!

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.