26
con
temporary healthcare. The investigators pointed out that
devastating illnesses like typhoid, cholera, measles, smallpox and
tuberculosis began their decline in the mid-1800's. Over time, these
sicknesses dwindled to a tiny fraction of their previous levels. The
wonder drugs usually credited with eradicating the
diseases--antibiotics--were not invented until nearly 100 years AFTER
the illnesses started to disappear. Tuberculosis, for example, decreased
by a startling 97% from 1800 to 1945. Only then was streptomycin
finally introduced to mop up the meager fraction still remaining.
Apparently it was not just the set of bottles in the doctor's bag or the
miraculous pills dispensed by his prescriptions that destroyed the
deadly scourge.39
Exactly what did produce the dramatic increase in contemporary
health still eludes the experts. Some say it was the improvement in
nutrition, the introduction of clean water supplies, and the
improvement of sanitation. Others, like California epidemiologist
Leonard A. Sagan, that it was the greater freedom--and hence degree of
control--which became available to the average citizen.
Maybe it's not so surprising, then, that a vast variety of the
symptoms which afflict mankind puzzle even the most erudite doctor.
Over 50% of the patients who troop into medical offices are sent home
with the assurance that there's nothing really wrong. Even
"well-understood" illnesses are far less controllable by medical
techniques than physicians are willing to admit. How does the medical
profession deal with this dilemma? It hides its ignorance. According
to a 1987 study by psychologist Dan Bar-On of Israel's Ben Gurion
University 40, patients are usually better able to predict the impact of
their malady than their doctors. What doctors are selling, then, is not
necessarily the ability to cure us. It the illusion of control.
While medical practitioners make their living from the human
hunger for control, they are also frequently victims of that hunger.
Like their patients, doctors need desperately to believe that they,
indeed, can dominate the forces of disease and healing. Psychological
research suggests that people tend to block out what they can't control,
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