The Art of Medicine Consists in Amusing the Patient While Nature Cures the Disease ââ“voltaire
The Function of Nature in Health Care
"The fine art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease." — Voltaire
This quote was recently tweeted by my skilful friend Dr. Anthony Gustin and it really stood out to me. I wondered if there was truth to this argument or if it was simply a three-century-onetime adage that doesn't concord much weight in our club today.
Dr. Gustin believes that this quote used to be true until, "We messed up our environment and then much that no one is living in "nature" anymore."
This argument seems reasonable. After all, we practise live in an age of constant connection, cell phones, social media, limited fourth dimension in nature, fake food, and sleeping at times and in environments that don't match with our cyclic biology. Obviously not an surround conducive to healing sickness.
Thus it makes sense that as we have developed as a species, we accept had to upgrade medicine to compensate for deficiencies created past our environment. This is why many practitioners may edit Voltaire's original statement to read, "The art of alternative medicine consists in amusing the patient, while medics cure the disease." I think this is a widely accustomed statement and while there may be some truth to it, I remember it slightly misses the mark.
To encounter where I am coming from, let's get-go first with what I believe is a misinterpretation of Voltaire's quote.
Are We Misinterpretting Voltaire?
I think that during Voltaire's era, he observed that when given time, many people heal without the need for much intervention thus leading to his quote, "The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the affliction."
If nosotros read this quote without thinking too deeply, information technology appears he is trying to tell us that nature, the physical earth, or our environment tin provide what our bodies demand to heal. Undoubtedly, our environment plays a huge part in our health. There are many health benefits to being outside, getting fresh air, being agile, unplugging from technology, getting proper sleep, and eating right. However, I don't remember this is the type of "nature" that Voltaire was talking nigh. I don't remember that Voltaire was referring to "nature" in the physical sense.
I believe that he was using "nature" to describe phenomena of the universe. Phenomena significant the appreciable events that repeatedly occur without the demand for intervention.
Regardless of what Voltaire was trying to say, I call up that there is a statistical phenomenon that explains why he observed many sick people get meliorate without much handling and I think whether nosotros know information technology or not, it still applies today. This miracle is known as regression to the hateful.
What is Regression to the Hateful?
Regression to the mean (RTM) is a statistical miracle that occurs when unusually large or unusually small measurement values are followed by values that are closer to the population hateful.
That's a lot of words. Allow'due south look at an example. If you are a golfer and yous normally shoot a 72 but today you shot a 62. Statistically, nosotros can assume that on your next golf outing, you are going to perform worse and shoot closer to 72. Regression to the mean.
Some other instance. If y'all are a long jumper and your average long-jump is x'iv", and you only jumped 8'4". Statistically, nosotros tin expect you to improve on your next jump and record a score much closer to 10'iv". Again, regression to the mean.
In both cases, information technology is non necessarily that yous became meliorate or worse. It is just that you scored far from the average, thus statistically it is likely that the next fourth dimension you will score closer to the average. That's why it's an average. This is RTM.
How does RTM apply to Voltaire's quote?
How Regression to the Mean Applies to Medicine
It is of import to sympathize that RTM is more likely to occur in extreme cases. According to psychologist Daniel Kahneman, "the more extreme the original score, the more regression we can expect."
People who are sick are farthermost cases. If existence salubrious or in a state of homeostasis is the "hateful" or boilerplate, then those who are ill deviate from the average. The degree of deviation determined past the degree of sickness. If RTM holds true, over time we should look a sick person to naturally move toward the boilerplate. Regression to the hateful.
I believe that in almost cases of disease and sickness, RTM occurs to some extent and our environment and medical interventions can either speed up or slow down that regression. Now, of course, there are some exceptions to this idea such as neurodegenerative diseases and cancer once it has progressed to the level of metastasis. Still, generally speaking, I remember that RTM plays a rather significant role in the success of our medical interventions. The trouble is that we often don't recognize it. The reason? The human being condition.
How the Human Condition Prevents us from Recognizing RTM
The human condition is merely the characteristics of a human. There are many components of the human condition all of which serve a purpose but some of which get in the way.
I recently wrote an article on how two specific aspects of the homo condition play a major part in our misunderstanding of nutrition. These aspects, specially causal connection, also play a office in our misunderstanding of handling outcomes.
Causal connectedness is the relationship between two events, where i event has been determined to cause the other. As humans, it is ingrained in our DNA to utilize causal connection between ii events to understand why something occurred. This is a great characteristic of our human intuition that can often atomic number 82 to a more authentic prediction or understanding of a cause for a specific outcome. For instance, if someone has lung cancer, you may assume that they are a smoker and that smoking acquired the cancer. This is likely an accurate prediction. Good job causal connection.
The problem is that sometimes causal connection leads to misunderstandings or misinterpretations. Permit's look at another example. If someone was diagnosed with middle disease and you asked them if they eat a lot of hamburgers and they say yes, you might conclude that red meat or fat caused the heart illness. What about the million other things in that person's life that you don't know about that really could take been the crusade? Not such a good chore causal connection.
This tendency of humans plays a big role in our interpretations and understandings of the things going on around u.s.a. and I retrieve it especially plays a office in our failure to recognize RTM in handling outcomes. Allow's look at a simple example.
You have a sore throat then you reach for a Ricola. In fact, yous may use the Ricola every mean solar day while y'all take that sore throat. After a few days, maybe a week, your sore throat goes away. You are very likely to conclude that Ricola caused your sore throat to get better. Is that an accurate statement? Or as Voltaire implies, is the Ricola only "amusing" yous while nature runs its course? In other words, are you lot simply getting better because of RTM?
If you scale this simple case to much more complex and medical specific examples yous tin can encounter how easy information technology is for u.s. to miss the role of RTM or "nature" in treatment outcomes thus causing a strengthening in the belief that a particular treatment is effective.
Decision
Why is any of this of import? For a couple of reasons. First, it is a contributing factor to why so many of us want to reach for a pill to cure something. Second, it is one of the reasons why physicians are so quick to prescribe medications and adopt that quote, "The fine art of alternative medicine consists in amusing the patient, while medics cure the illness."
Regression to the mean is not only a naturally occurring miracle. It is something that we demand to pay attention to if nosotros desire to meliorate our ability to understand what is working when we are treating ourselves and others. Perchance nosotros don't need to exist so quick to achieve for a pill or write a prescription. Maybe we can take some advice from Voltaire and let "nature" do its affair. Or maybe the statistical phenomenon of regression to the mean is not applicative to the dynamic human body.
Source: https://medium.com/@Chris.Irvin/the-role-of-nature-in-health-care-be8db0180e7e
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