Yes,
K:While my tongue is sort-of-in-cheek it is actually not-fully-in-cheek for the precise reason you mention. It sounds almost heretical to some, but if one steps back and assimilates the scope and breadth of medical practice as a whole, One Can see the wisdom in using what Thomas Edison said once as a starting point: ________________________"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease". ________________________Tom did not foresee, in his clarity of wisdom, the development of the American Medical System being driven by the mass-resources of the pharmaceutical industry. HOWEVER it is a beast of our own making. One who understood this, and the coming danger, was the famed William Osler, MD who spake this amongst his many truisms: ________________________"The desire to take medications is one of the greatest features that distinguishes man from 'animals'". ________________________So to some people who have spent a lot of years caring for the sick, medically and paramedically including myself, truly the ideal situation would be to utilize our base of understanding concerning safe dietary and other lifestlyle practices as a foundation of medical prophylaxis, and upon it create an environment such as what you describe which would utilize the tool of "phsychoneuroimmunohormonal" consequences, the self-fulfilling beliefs rooted in our desire for pill-cures, as a primary treatment protocol in any disease deemed "functional" (whereby, using the allopathic means possible, organic/infective causes for the symptom set are first ruled-out. Allow that substantial-portion of the population to fulfill their placebo-effect destiny as the first step in treatment. Indeed facilitate it. It is the easist way to invoke the mind-body response system (simplified but true). This, of course, would of necessity require all fututre pharmacotherapy to be at least single-blind.A protocol would be needed which would sustain that effect as much as possible in that large population, but then one could focus the more traditional methods on a smaller-population, and/or reduce the need to throw as many resources at those who achieved only a partial-remission through the "placebo pill protocol".Yes, this would have a tremendous benefit (if it were conceivably implementable) on the cost and effectiveness of healthcare in our culture from the patient (consumer) side.However, this would be difficult to do without careful cooperation of the Economic Might of the Drug Industry. Unless managed carefully in trnsition, it would wreck earnings growth, undermine stock value, eradicate investor equity, and crash a major underpinning of the public equity markets and a large block of the revenue source to medical practitioners overall. Short term lending rates would climb, mortgage rates skyrocket, new home sales plummet, long-bond yields would crumble, and the full faith and trust of the US Treasury would not be worth the paper the unbacked tender was printed upon! Chaos would reign, and a new Dark Age would descend upon the land, unseen since the days of the Hoover Adminstration.However, it implemented discreetly, think of how this could be avoided. BAsically, using the placebo drugs, ALL THE COST IS IN THE PACKAGING! NO development (just use the existing production equipment to shape various pseudo-drug configurations) so the cost is in the gel caps and electricity to run the mechines, and acquisition of simple-sugars and binders! The marketing departments would be in heaven! All resources could be focused on media, extravagant packaging and claims beyond your wildest dreams, as the more grandiose the claims, and the better you burn-them-in, the more potential for patient benefit in better outcomes! The prices to the consumer could be dramatically cut but the same profits maintained as development cost would be reduced to nil, and the gross margins between revenues and costs of goods sold would be HUGE, so everyone wins (same profits on lower gross sales, and reduced consumer prices). You could charge ten cents for Viagra, and still have a firm 1000% gross margin!Then take the millions spent now on marketing-under-ther-guise-of-continuing-education-of-medical-professionals (paid attendance at company sponsored seminars on drug useage at Palm Springs golf resorts, CEU cruises, and weekly party trays for the office staff) and just call it what it is...perks for the docs. A celebration of anew age of cooperative cost-containment between industry and government. FDA budgets and staff slashed to the bone. tax cuts. Smaller government. And since there is no longer any basis for conflict of interest, everyone could be wholly open and above board."Hey Doc, wanna go on a cruise to the Bahamas this weekend with us and party?" [uh, how many CEU's will ya give me]. "Oh we don't need to do that anymore. Lets just go take some time off (your patient-days are down, you are fully-capitated, so no one is gonna lose a buck) and enjoy the sights! We got a case of Chivas with your name on it pal!!!".Man, would the world be a better place or what? ____________________Wow, look what you just wrote MNL! ...what the Hell WAS That stuff she poured into my drink?....I better go lie down for awhile.Uh, go ahead take the Immodium.Eat well. Think well. Be well.MNL_______________
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n a side note.An interesting thing about this is thought itself, to me it is almost a pure form of energy cause by a physical electrical chemical action of the brain.What has thought done? Everything around us physically man-made was some persons thought at one time or another.------------------Moderator of the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Anxiety and Hypnotherapy forumI work with Mike and the IBS Audio Program. www.ibshealth.com www.ibsaudioprogram.com
