zlacker

>>bondar+(OP)
> The theory here is largely mechanical

I’ve long felt that the reliance on population-statistics (RCT) rather than individual diagnosis highlights how little we really know about medicine.

A mechanic wouldn’t try to fix a car based on a checklist of symptoms interventions that work X% of the time across the population of cars; they would actually inspect the pieces and try to positively identify e.g. a worn/broken component. Of course, this is harder in the human body.

I’m hopeful that as diagnostics become cheaper and more democratized (eg you can now get an ultrasound to plug into your iPhone for ~$1k), we’ll be able to make “medicine 3.0” I.e. truly personalized medicine, available as standard rather than a luxury available to the 0.1%.

>>thepti+S81
Diagnostics only really tells you that something is happening but not why; and it is so impractical if not impossible to observe mechanisms of action for much of the body.

Heck, we don’t even know the mechanism of action for acetominophen, and that’s one of the most popular, oldest OTC drugs out there.