A Healthicine Site
“It has been observed that scientific medicine is being replaced by scientistic medicine, with an accompanying collapse in the imperative to care as well as to cure, so that the human dimension of medicine is becoming lost and with it the fundamental purpose of medicine.”
J.P. Sturmberg and A. Miles, Handbook of Systems and Complexity in Health , 2012
What’s the difference between curing, caring, and healing? Are they the same, different? Sometimes? All the time? Historical and modern medicine have many confusing, sometimes even conflicting definitions of and distinctions between the three. To create a scientific theory of cure, applicable to all curable illnesses, we need clear definitions that aid understanding and facilitate further analysis and success.
Does an aspirin cure a headache? Sometimes? Some headaches? Sometimes? All the time? How might we know? The answer is not found in the aspirin, but in our definition and understanding of cure.
Continue reading “Theory of Cure, Care, and Heal”“Selina and Chris hope that, by studying the activity of genes in mini-brains cultured from the tissues of people with those genetic mutations, they might come to understand more about the causes and ultimately find clues that could lead to possible cures.”
Philip Ball, How to Grow a Human:
Adventures in How We Are Made and Who We Are, 2019
This is one of many quotes by or about well meaning scientists who believe that their research might lead to wonderful new cures for mystery diseases.