I sometimes say “I’m taking my car to the vet“, to get its checkup, to cure its problems. Is a flat tire an illness? A disease? Is a bike, a car, or an airplane sick when it has a flat tire? Do we cure flat tires?
We can compare a flat tire to an illness, and its repair to a cure. Why should we make this comparison?
“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.
“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.
A few weeks ago, I noticed my eyes were itchy again. This problem has appeared on and off over the past few years. When I was in Arequipa three years ago, my right eye was very itchy. I went to an ophthalmologist who said “esta irritado,” – (it’s irritated), prescribed some medicine, mostly vitamin and herbal supplements and sent me on my way. Over a few weeks, the problem faded. I forgot about it.
Now it was back. My right eye was quite itchy. The problem waxed and waned, over a few weeks, never going completely away.
Yesterday, I took some time to ask Microsoft’s BING AI and Google’s ChatGTP about “theory of cure“. I have copied their responses in full at the bottom of this post.
Apparently, Microsoft’s Bing AI knows who I am. Google’s ChatGTP? Not at all.
“In April 2020, shortly after the beginning of the pandemic, anecdotal reports from patients started to emerge that previously healthy individuals were experiencing lingering symptoms and were not fully recovering from an infection with SARS-CoV-2… Long COVID is not one condition. It represents many potentially overlapping entities, likely with different biological causes and different sets of risk factors and outcomes.” – COVID.GOV, What is Long COVID?
Quote Summary:
Long COVID is a condition affecting a small number of COVID patients
Long COVID patients were considered “previously healthy“
Conspiracy therapy is a treatment (not a cure) invented by US military intelligence, to treat victims of war (actual and virtual), terrorizing, physical and mental abuse, intentional misinformation, cognitive dissonance, and mass formation psychosis, resulting in Stockholm syndrome. The patient is trained that when any inconvenient truth is presented, by anyone, they need only accuse the speaker of being a conspiracy theorist. The result is a Dunning-Kruger effect, where the patient acquires a sense of power and control such that they immediately feel better. As a result, the treatment is self-reinforcing as well.
This treatment, by intention, does not cure. Military intelligence forces have no desire to cure, only to maintain disorder and control. This therapy has been tested and found effective in every country and almost every language around the world.
How many cures do we know or know of? It’s an interesting question. When we search the labels in our medicine cabinet or our local pharmacy, we might be surprised to learn – there are few, if any ‘cures.’ How many cures do our medical systems recognize? Do the cures we know fit the medical definition of a cure? Do real cures actually occur? What do we know about what we know? On February 12, 2002, Donald Rumsfeld famously said:
Today, after several months of writing and editing, I published a new version of the Theory of Cure on Academia.edu and also on Researchgate.net, titled Theory of Cure – 2023 Update. I have opened discussion on Academia.edu, such that anyone registered can access and comment and discuss the material.