
Arsenic and Old Leeches - benbreen
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/arsenic-and-old-leeches
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jostmey
I'm not sure modern medicine has come that far [1,2,3]. Let me be clear, I am
not advocating for alternative medicine, which is a step in the wrong
direction. Rather, solid science is the answer and the combination of science
and medicine has given us some of medicine's most amazing tools like
antibiotics and vaccines.

1\. [https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/02/when-
evid...](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/02/when-evidence-
says-no-but-doctors-say-yes/517368/)

2\. [https://arstechnica.com/science/2014/12/when-the-doctors-
awa...](https://arstechnica.com/science/2014/12/when-the-doctors-away-the-
patient-is-more-likely-to-survive/)

3\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic)

~~~
erasmuse
Well, alternative medicine that actually works is usually re-labelled
medicine. e.g. vaccines are thought to have had origins in China way before
the scientific revolution.

An exception is the Alexander Technique (AT), which I think cured my RSI,
despite medical doctors and physiotherapists being unable to help. AT hasn't
been incorporated into mainstream medicine yet, presumably because nobody can
explain how it works (though it doesn't make any obviously superstitious
claims).

But this lack of good explanation goes way further, beyond alternative
therapies and into the heart mainstream medicine. There is a problem with
medical science, imo. Most 'testing' and clincical trial related-work is beset
by _empiricism_ , wherein many treatments are assessed without an idea of how
they allegedly could work.

As I understand it, this is why a large proportion of medical studies can't be
reproduced: we understand by now that theory without experiment leads nowhere;
most of us don't yet appreciate that _experiment without theory is equally
useless_.

This is why I see even Science in its present form as insufficient for medical
progress.

Rather, solid _engineering_ is the more reliable answer, which is essentially
the approach of the anti-aging SENS Research Foundation. Our philosophy should
be, as far as possible, to engineer and fix the body, repairing its
accumulated damage and so forth _before_ it gets ill or aged.

~~~
cal5k
I don't think I agree with this. While medical diagnosis has often required
some sort of overarching theory (which is usually advanced beyond our
available treatment options), treatments (pharmaceuticals in particular) have
most commonly been discovered empirically.

If we were to wait for solid theory before using such treatments, we'd
probably still be living in the medical stone ages!

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tyingq
We still hang on to some pretty barbaric stuff because there's not currently
anything better. Chemotherapy comes to mind.

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zdw
Leeches are still used to prevent blood from pooling in tissue, and a variety
of other things.

The pharmacists I'm related to order them from the almost comically named
"Leeches USA": [http://leechesusa.com](http://leechesusa.com)

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wallace_f
The way this was titled and written I kept expecting there to be a link
between Arsenic and leeches, but then the article just ended. Maybe that's my
misunderstanding, maybe it was the article's.

~~~
oblio
It's a reference:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_and_Old_Lace_(play)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_and_Old_Lace_\(play\))

~~~
wallace_f
Ah I see, Thanks

