Health During our recent tour with the annual winter shows sponsored by the CSA, I was told or asked my opinion by a number of attendees at the shows about the merits of a home remedy for their particular ailment. In many cases, I had heard such stories over the years, but some were new to me and required my further research into whether or not the remedy was myth or fact. At the time of my graduation in medicine, much of my training was what my teachers had done for years and was the “going practice.” Over the years, proper objective scientific testing of various treatments and medications has evolved, resulting in far better medical evidence as to whether or not the particular therapy is actually effective and safe. When a youngster, I was often treated withmustard plasters for a chest infection, total bed rest when sick, occasionally (when sick) an enema to remove “the poisons” and, of course, aspirin for any fever. Today we know from evidence-based research that some such practices were useless and, in the case of aspirin in children and teenagers with fevers, in rare cases potentially fatal (Reye’s Syndrome). When I first started a general practice in a village inOntario, I inherited many senior female patients who would attend monthly for their injection of vitamin B12. None of them had ever heard of pernicious anaemia, the only justifiable medical condition requiring such treatment. They were all convinced that they needed it because their previous doctor had recommended that it was necessary – and they felt better. More than a few left the practice after I had reassured them that they did not need it, based on their negative tests I had done for pernicious anaemia. Another number of regular attendees (at least at first) were healthy male patients who came in tomy pharmacy for their monthly supply of vitamin E to prevent the onset of heart attack and heart disease, a common myth not realized for many years by both patients and doctors. Over the years, I learned that both patients and doctors sometimes erroneously relied on treatments or preventives advocated by “experts” without the backing of objective, evidence-based research. Even today, certain remedies or treatments that are pursued with or without prescription are still popular, even though reputable documented studies have proven them to be either ineffective or in fact risky. MEDICAL CURES Myth or Fact? by Robert MacMillan MD 32 | www.snowbirds.org
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