The Doctor of the Future
The doctor of the future
will give no medicine,
but will interest their
patients in the care
of the human frame,
in a proper diet, and
in the cause and
prevention of disease.
— Thomas A. Edison
| The 4 Phases of Health in America |
| The Wave of the Future |
Laughable isn’t it.
I’ve always like this quote.
I also like a quote: “The hands are and always will be the most diagnostic and therapeutic tool ever invented.”
by Karel Lewitt, MD
Oh come on people, how could anyone take this Edison quote seriously. The guy was into electricity and magnetism and didn’t know squat about biochemistry. Now days this quote looks really silly and is just another example of a scientist talking about things beyond his field of expertise. Stephen Hawking is the latest example with his most recent book “The Grand Design” … and he’s paying for it.
Mark
You are becoming a real spoil sport in your dotage.
Even so, none of what you said is actually a criticism of this statement.
I’m trying to get your threads populated.
As to specific criticism of Edison statement, well that’s easy. All the scientific evidence suggests just the opposite. No one has ever prevented their eventually getting sick or dying by diet and “care of the human frame.” It’s just a falsified notion.
As I said before, Edison is just wrong. His statement is an exaggeration at best and delusion at worst.
Hi Mark
First off, the “threads” can take care of themself.
I respectfully disagree with your point, especially about supplementation. My favorite (un-named) company funded the esteemed epidemiologist, Dr. Gladys Block, of the U Cal Berkeley School of Public Health, back in 2006, to manage a clinical trial. [1]
The object of the study was to compare long-term supplement users (at least 20 years) with identical matched individuals tracked by the NHANES database. [2, 3] Dr. Block’s team would analyze all the blood tests, gather all the demographic data, and run all the statistical analyses. They would also write the paper, and shepherd it through the peer-review process. Although (the company) paid for this study, UC Berkeley maintained complete control over publication of the results, good or bad.
Check out the results. They are quite impressive. It’s unique, because it’s the first and only such study.
REFERENCES:
1. Usage Patterns, Health, and Nutritional Status of Long-term Multiple Dietary Supplement Users: A Cross-sectional Study
Nutrition Journal 2007 (Oct 24); 6 (30)
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/pdf/1475-2891-6-30.pdf
2. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes.htm
3. An Overview of NHANES
http://wwwtest.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/EnglishFactContinous040002.pdf
That study if correct doesn’t nothing to show Edison’s statement correct.
Here is the situation. Children, no matter how well cared for are either born with horrible afflictions requiring all sorts of medical care or if physiologically sound they can get dreadful sicknesses that would have killed them if not for medical care. That one maybe less susceptible to common disorders because of diet and exercise is irrelevant to Edison broad statement.
Going against the evidence, one may dubiously argue that these kids are a special case and that children in general will survive anything. After all they a young and have healthy strong immune systems that just need to be at a optimal performance levels.
What I’m saying however isn’t just for special case but for everybody. Unless you can show me just ONE case I can study of say a 70 year old man that looks like and is physiologically sound as a healthy 18 year old boy then there maybe something to Edison’s claim. More likely is that the field of gerontology will figure out the fundamental molecular and genetically based reasons for aging and develop drugs to counter the aging process itself and all those disease associated with it.
Good eating, exercise, hygiene and spiritual health will never be enough to defeat the aging process.
Hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle!
Edison stated that: “(forward thinking doctors would) “interest their patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease”. Like it or not, this is a reasonable definition of what chiropractors do, and is why I posted it on our Blog.
The Landmark Study I previously mentioned matched long-term supplement users with non users by age, sex, and other demographically relevant indices, and found:
Comparative blood tests, used routinely by medicine to screen for the onset of all those horrible diseases you decried, revealed that supplement-users had either normal readings, or significantly lower readings for:
AND
Clearly you did not bother to look at this study. The Tables are quite compelling if you’re not up for the complete read.
As for chiropractic, coupled with healthy living, improving health, all I can cite is my family experiences: my step children missed less than 1 day per year in school from sickness, whereas school averages were over 7 days. Yeah, yeah, that’s not “proof” to you, but it’s good enough for me, until YOU run some trials that demonstrate that chiropractic DOES NOT improve general health.
You can refer to this page for more supportive materials on that topic:
General Health, Wellness and Chiropractic
http://www.chiro.org/research/ABSTRACTS/Wellness_Care.shtml
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/edison.asp
This is at the top of your post:
“The doctor of the future
[A] WILL GIVE NO MEDICINE,
but will interest their
patients in the care
of the human frame,
in a proper diet, and
in [B] THE CAUSE AND PREVENTION OF DISEASE.”
— Thomas A. Edison
[A] contradicts [B].
Edison mentions diet, healthy life style and education about disease. So the “education” about disease must include biochemistry and that means disorder of biochemical processes. This also means the use of biochemistry or drugs to treat disorders. There is no way Edison can get around it. The only physical option available are either surgical or non-surgical mechanical contact or electro-magnatism. Neither of which will be able to do the whole job. This is just wishful thinking on Edison’s part.
Considering the knowledge we have today about health and wellness, Edison’s quote was very advanced and forward thinking..
Since Edison’s statement it’s been the opposite case. While, diet, exercise and healthy lifestyle are important they are also limited in the extent they improve health. It’s only at the biochemical fundamentals of our body that the greatest strides have occur and will reasonably continue to occur. Chronic disease is the next stage and that will involve the aging process itself. The 500 year old human is the future and medicine will be central to that future.
ASIDE: Frank, here is something you might consider posting that more clinically relevant. The 3 Diaphragms Model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTkFuPLZ3Uk
In relation to the video above, here is another research article abstract.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21985749
Closing Thoughts:
Mark,
Yes, in the long run, no drug, nutrient or spinal adjustment can prevent eventual death.
However, if we are at all interested in Quality of Life, Comfort, Prolonged Wellness, Reduced Incidence of Disease, then the things Edison suggested in the quote actually makes sense.
Yes, it took decades after this quote was written for the literature to catch up, but our Nutrition Section and the NHANES Database are LOADED with information about the health-protecting and extending benefits of supplementation and life style management.
There may be NO CURE for Death. However, there are many ways to IMPROVE LIFE.