The irony is that researchers and experts aren’t much better off than someone who surfs the net. Even back in the 1960s, doctors were overwhelmed by the amount of research and breakthrough discoveries. They could either help their patients, or keep up with research, but not both.
And just a few years ago, as an example, it was realized that the standards and medicines for cardiac care were wildly different around the country, even in neighboring hospitals. They only found out when it was noticed that cardiac patients lived at some hospitals and died at other hospitals.
Just last year, much to everyone’s surprise, it was learned that a lot of emergency room doctors were doing intubation, sticking a tube down someone’s throat so they could breathe, wrong. This was because while they had been told how to do it in medical school, they had never actually *seen* it done, except on the TV show “ER”, where they did it wrong. And did it wrong on the show a lot, like seven times in one season.
For this reason, hospitals are being encouraged to create procedure seminars. (”Uh, no, Ernie, you don’t put the tourniquet around the neck. That would be bad.”)
So the important thing to remember is if you or a loved one have a medical condition, to do your own research. While this doesn’t make you an expert, at least you can talk to a real expert, and they can figure out if there is something there that needs investigation.
It’s a real motivator when you can show the doctor a printout of some research on the subject, and it’s interesting enough for them to find out, one way or another.
Thanks for your further input - fascinating information!
Say, I am really curious - are you following the research with CAFFEINE, that there will soon be human trials with Alzheimer’s patients because a group of researchers actually reversed Alzheimer’s in a bunch of rats OR mice, by giving them the equivalent of what in human terms would be 5 cups of coffee a day.
The articles mentioned that by giving caffeine to humans that the plaques in the bloodstream immediately decreased, just like in the lab animals.
I was going to buy STOCK in whomever manufactures No-Doz, until I determined that the generic forms of caffeine are just as good as the brand name.
Several other freepers are taking caffeine supplements, too — in one of the Alzh.D threads, a poster mentioned that Vitacost carried the least expensive caffeine.
It’s my impression, though that ANY type of caffeine pill is much less expensive than its equivalent in actual coffee — a very expensive commodity, indeed. :)
Also — do you happen to have any idea why ALCOHOL, as in alcoholic drinks, is starting to recur as a factor in elderly adults NOT getting any form of dementia? Is alcohol a ‘major’ anti-inflammatory?