|
SCIENCE
CAN
BE
SLOW
It is said that if
aspirin was discovered today, it would not meet the rigid
and exacting standards of scientific proof that are currently
in use. Aspirin would be one of those drugs that would be
outside of accepted medical practice since it would lack
sufficient scientific proof.
Medical acceptance and scientific proof of a therapy is, of
course, important and desirable. Yet it is important to
keep in mind that just because a procedure or substance lacks
this acceptance does not mean it is therefore ineffective or
inferior. It might just mean that medicine and science have
just not yet figured it out sufficiently to declare that it is
OK. Remember that it was not too many years ago medicine and
science said the following were falsehoods, and could not be
proven scientifically:
1. Exercise is good for your heart.
2. Diet is related to heart disease.
3. Smoking causes lung cancer.
4. Smog is harmful to lung tissue.
5. High fat diet raises cholesterol in the blood.
6. Antioxidants and vitamin C are related to immunity and
resistance.
This list of what
science made mistakes about could go on for a long time, all the
way back to the “The world is round”. Most of us are old
enough to remember the problem with Thalidomide. How about the AMA
declaring that there was “insufficient scientific proof” of a
correlation between a high fat diet (think French fries) and
obesity?
The point is simple: Sometimes science is just slow to pick up
ideas and information that are apparent to average people who
use common sense and simple observation.
PDI thinks the same
is basically true in regard to treatment of PD.
|
