First of all, I would like to congratulate you on this interesting report and for inviting us to reflect on the need to investigate the true causes of diseases, rather than settling merely for a diagnostic label. 👍👌🏆
Patients often face fear, uncertainty, complex medical terminology, contradictory information, and the pressure to make life-altering decisions in a very short amount of time.
Many believe that modern medicine is entirely precise, personalized, and backed by scientific certainty. However, the reality is far more complex. Diseases involve a multitude of factors: genetics, metabolism, inflammation, the immune system, the microbiota, the environment, and lifestyle habits.
There is a need for clearer and more transparent communication regarding diagnoses, the actual benefits of treatments, their risks and adverse effects, as well as independent scientific information that enables truly informed decision-making.
It is also essential to hold large multinational pharmaceutical companies accountable when their drugs cause serious harm—especially if such harm is not properly acknowledged or disclosed. Independent pharmacovigilance and transparency should be non-negotiable.
Furthermore, much greater emphasis should be placed on prevention, healthy nutrition, physical activity, rest, and other lifestyle habits, avoiding unnecessary medicalization and the use of medication when reasonable alternatives exist.
The goal is to avoid pharmacological treatments whenever possible—prioritizing the Hippocratic maxim “FIRST, DO NO HARM”—and to place the individual’s well-being and quality of life above any economic interests.🙏
MEDICINE SHOULD FOCUS ON INVESTIGATING ROOT CAUSES AND PREVENTING DISEASES, RATHER THAN LIMITING ITSELF TO TREATING SYMPTOMS.❤️
I agree. In many cases, these terms can function as medical euphemisms—which, while possessing a legitimate technical meaning, ultimately obscure a fundamental reality from the patient: that the cause of their illness remains unknown, or that there are significant uncertainties regarding its origin and progression.
The issue is not the use of medical terminology, but rather the failure to clearly explain what is known, what is unknown, and what the various possibilities are. Patients have a right to receive information that is understandable, honest, and transparent—not terms that serve as substitutes for the explanations they need.
Re "A defender of the vocabulary might point out that every profession carries placeholder terms for phenomena it cannot explain. Physicists speak of “dark matter” and “dark energy” to describe roughly ninety-five percent of the mass-energy content of the universe. Economists invoke “the residual” when their models fail to account for observed variance."
I was a building surveyor but I am not sure we had particular words for stuff we couldn't explain. But then we were taught to look at things from all angles, outside in and inside out. The environment, the occupants, the materials, everything. From terrain to t'e rain!!
As regards physicists I have some sympathy but not for economists who shroud their prognostications in mists of jargon and statistics (I studied economics at A level and as part of my course at university.
But the medical profession must be the worst for the jargon. And I do love the joke “idiopathic means the physician is pathetic and the patient is an idiot.” Too true except I think that generally both doctors and patients are pathetic and idiots at the same time, although doctors are the worst as they really should know better.
So many illnesses that cannot be "cured" by modern "medicine". It's becoming a big joke in our family. Rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, sinusitis and so many other conditions that they can't explain or cure? "Our body is attacking itself?" "We don't know the cause of..." If they don't know why or the cause, how can they prescribe a pill for it and why do we always have to take it for the rest of our lives? My sons, in their 20's were told to take statins! They are fit as fiddles and we eat crazy healthy? What a complete waste of time and resources?
I agree that patients deserve clear explanations, especially when doctors don't know what caused a condition. But I hesitate at the idea that terms like “autoimmune” or “chronic” necessarily stop further investigation. Describing what is happening in the body isn't always the same as explaining why it began. Shouldn't the goal be to keep asking questions while also using the knowledge we already have?
In carpenter world we use many words . To mean different things. If not in field. Got no idea what f going on . Thinking the latin is j not taught so . We don't know . Like all the three letters in computer pictures and all different characters . STFU fafo . Thinking they got not a clue about anything. Running a scam why fix it . Lawyers and Black law . It corporations bullshit .got nothing to do with human beings
First of all, I would like to congratulate you on this interesting report and for inviting us to reflect on the need to investigate the true causes of diseases, rather than settling merely for a diagnostic label. 👍👌🏆
Patients often face fear, uncertainty, complex medical terminology, contradictory information, and the pressure to make life-altering decisions in a very short amount of time.
Many believe that modern medicine is entirely precise, personalized, and backed by scientific certainty. However, the reality is far more complex. Diseases involve a multitude of factors: genetics, metabolism, inflammation, the immune system, the microbiota, the environment, and lifestyle habits.
There is a need for clearer and more transparent communication regarding diagnoses, the actual benefits of treatments, their risks and adverse effects, as well as independent scientific information that enables truly informed decision-making.
It is also essential to hold large multinational pharmaceutical companies accountable when their drugs cause serious harm—especially if such harm is not properly acknowledged or disclosed. Independent pharmacovigilance and transparency should be non-negotiable.
Furthermore, much greater emphasis should be placed on prevention, healthy nutrition, physical activity, rest, and other lifestyle habits, avoiding unnecessary medicalization and the use of medication when reasonable alternatives exist.
The goal is to avoid pharmacological treatments whenever possible—prioritizing the Hippocratic maxim “FIRST, DO NO HARM”—and to place the individual’s well-being and quality of life above any economic interests.🙏
MEDICINE SHOULD FOCUS ON INVESTIGATING ROOT CAUSES AND PREVENTING DISEASES, RATHER THAN LIMITING ITSELF TO TREATING SYMPTOMS.❤️
These infamous twelve could be characterized as 'medical euphemisms'. Euphemisms typically avoid stating realities.
I agree. In many cases, these terms can function as medical euphemisms—which, while possessing a legitimate technical meaning, ultimately obscure a fundamental reality from the patient: that the cause of their illness remains unknown, or that there are significant uncertainties regarding its origin and progression.
The issue is not the use of medical terminology, but rather the failure to clearly explain what is known, what is unknown, and what the various possibilities are. Patients have a right to receive information that is understandable, honest, and transparent—not terms that serve as substitutes for the explanations they need.
Great stuff!
Re "A defender of the vocabulary might point out that every profession carries placeholder terms for phenomena it cannot explain. Physicists speak of “dark matter” and “dark energy” to describe roughly ninety-five percent of the mass-energy content of the universe. Economists invoke “the residual” when their models fail to account for observed variance."
I was a building surveyor but I am not sure we had particular words for stuff we couldn't explain. But then we were taught to look at things from all angles, outside in and inside out. The environment, the occupants, the materials, everything. From terrain to t'e rain!!
As regards physicists I have some sympathy but not for economists who shroud their prognostications in mists of jargon and statistics (I studied economics at A level and as part of my course at university.
But the medical profession must be the worst for the jargon. And I do love the joke “idiopathic means the physician is pathetic and the patient is an idiot.” Too true except I think that generally both doctors and patients are pathetic and idiots at the same time, although doctors are the worst as they really should know better.
https://baldmichael.substack.com/p/an-idiopathic-disease-aka-doctors?utm_source=publication-search
So many illnesses that cannot be "cured" by modern "medicine". It's becoming a big joke in our family. Rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, sinusitis and so many other conditions that they can't explain or cure? "Our body is attacking itself?" "We don't know the cause of..." If they don't know why or the cause, how can they prescribe a pill for it and why do we always have to take it for the rest of our lives? My sons, in their 20's were told to take statins! They are fit as fiddles and we eat crazy healthy? What a complete waste of time and resources?
I agree that patients deserve clear explanations, especially when doctors don't know what caused a condition. But I hesitate at the idea that terms like “autoimmune” or “chronic” necessarily stop further investigation. Describing what is happening in the body isn't always the same as explaining why it began. Shouldn't the goal be to keep asking questions while also using the knowledge we already have?
In carpenter world we use many words . To mean different things. If not in field. Got no idea what f going on . Thinking the latin is j not taught so . We don't know . Like all the three letters in computer pictures and all different characters . STFU fafo . Thinking they got not a clue about anything. Running a scam why fix it . Lawyers and Black law . It corporations bullshit .got nothing to do with human beings