I'm pretty tired of hearing that somehow not having a clue about science is somehow a better route to discovery than hard work and evidence.

ANTIBIOTICS were NOT DISCOVERED BY ACCIDENT or without an "understanding of infectious disease".

Flemming had been looking for antibiotic compounds for some TEN YEARS before the discovery of pennicilin (from the time he was treating WWI patients for septicemia until the discovery of pennicilin in 1928).  While the fungus itself accidentally grew in a petrie dish Flemming KNEW EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS and how important it would be at the very moment he saw it.  It was not found by imagining some random crap and deciding it works without observation.

Neither did William WIthering have no idea about the fact that "dropsy" or congestive heart failure was due to low blood volume circulation by the heart.

Modern advances are carried out by hard working individuals not quacks trying random treatments.  Quite frankly only a physician with no scientific training would think so foolishly as to believe that scientists and scientifically trained physicians discover things by dumb luck.  It certainly explains the abysmal advice they give out.

I'll give you an example of dumb non-scientific conclusions - this study and the article written by Dr. Gross

This guy gave people a drug that we already know helps MS patients (Avonex) and added some magic powder and it still helps MS patients.  Does anyone else find this underwhelming?  couldn't someone have taken the same drug and added ANYTHING, like a bag of potato chips or a lucky charm and these patients STILL would have gotten better.

Where is the comparison to Avonex ALONE so that we could see if adding "doxycycline" increased the effect?

This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.

Maybe I'll do a "clinical Trial" where I give patients aspirin plus a special magical incantation to see if their headaches get better.  When they do, I'll say it was my special incantation rather than the frigging aspirin they took.

Doctors should be banned from doing science without scientific training.  That is the only "train running off the tracks" I see here.

Also - who the HECK would have someone who knows NOTHING about trains drive a runaway train.  You have to know about trains to know how fast you can brake them or accelerating them without running off the rails, i.e. the basic physics of trains. 

Your analogy is awesome.  A physician writing about how dumb luck is better than hard science or a physician running a clinical trial without scientific training is exactly like a runaway train being driven by a random passenger -  a newspaper worthy disaster.

these physicians should stick to proscribing the pills they know nothing about from the drug companies that "educate" them.

marianne correa

6/30/12 10:57pm

I got a very different impression from Dr. Gross. He is simply stating that there are drugs which have been intended for one purpose, but surprisingly have been found to help in ways that they were never intended for.

 

Maybe you were over thinking a the importance of the Dr.'s comment.