HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: walkup@cs.washington.edu (Elizabeth Walkup)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Christian Science Folly (was Re: Attention Deficit Disorder Resources)
Date: 7 Oct 92 02:53:34 GMT
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Oct6.214650.21835@cbfsb.cb.att.com> kja@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (krista.j.anderson) writes:
>
>In the second case a child was staying with his grandmother who was
>a Christian Scientist.  The child developed a toothache and was in
>agony while the grandmother just kept insisting that the child was
>sinful and must pray.  Finally the mother traveled 500 miles to
>take the child to the dentist.
>
>How can people be so cruel to children?

It really can't be that the reason she denied her grandson treatment was 
her being a Christian Scientist, since Christian Scientists are encouraged 
to go to the dentist.  Ask an insurance agent who works with Christian 
Scientist clients.  Generally for their health insurance, they get a 
substitute Christian Science nursing home and practitioner benefit 
instead of medical, but normal dental.  There are regular garden-variety 
dentists who are Christian Scientists.

And if she said he was "sinful", then she was no Christian Scientist.
Christian Science dogma insists that sin does not exist, since God
doesn't sin and Man is created in his image and likeness.

Actually, if you think of it in its historical context, the whole Christian 
Science ideal of correcting medical problems by correcting one's thinking 
made a certain amount of sense:  the founder said she thought people ought
to go to the dentist and ought to have bones set.  At the time, these were
just about the only medical procedures that would do you much good.
	
The problem is, of course, that the whole religion is living in the past,
but then that's not all that uncommon with religions.

-- Elizabeth
   walkup@cs.washington.edu
From: rwmurphr@cougar.ecn.uoknor.edu (Robert W Murphree)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: dementia
Keywords: senile  Alzheimer's
Date: 3 Oct 92 01:25:31 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

jfh@duke.cs.duke.edu (Fran Heidlage) writes:



>	Is there a difference between senile dementia and Alzheimer's
>	disease?  I have the impression that they are two different
>	entities, but I have a friend who argues that they are older
>	and more recent names, respectively, for the same thing.
>	How do the docs on the net use these terms?  Thanks.
i
As a medical technician I don't have any authority on this matter.
I think my sister-in-law the internal medecine doc said the term
"senile dementia" is no longer the appropriate term, its replacement
being a collection of more specific diagnoses.

When I worked in the nursing home on the alzheimer's ward we had one
guy, an ex-marine, who was "senile" plus 10-20 alzheimer's patients
in various stages.  Some of the alzheimer's patients you could cary
on a conversation with, usually someone in the earlier stages.  
I could carry on a conversation with the senile resident most of the 
time, though I didn't always know what he was talking about. The
senile guy would come and go, mentally, and was better or worse at
certain times.  My impression was that the senile guy, at his worst,
still had a core of "personality" that integrated his behaivor.  The
alzheimer's patients just didn't seem to be "integrated" in quite the
same way.  When the senile guy communicated, even if you didn't 
understand him, you still got the impression, "there was somebody
there".  The alzheimer's patients didn't give you that impresssion.
The best you could get was a shadow of who they once were, which was
often quite strong, but not quite a "person".  Bad disease.
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer)
Subject: Re: SHINGLES
Organization: NASA Dryden, Edwards, Cal.
	<1992Oct6.153128.1@stsci.edu>
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 20:29:39 GMT

On Tue, 6 Oct 1992 20:31:28 GMT, mryan@stsci.edu said:

Mary> Now where did the name "shingles" come from?  It makes the disease sound
Mary> silly and trivial when it is really very painful.

From the Latin word "cingulam" meaning "girdle" or "belt", because
the classic case is a band, or belt, of rash around the lower chest.

"Shingle" meaning a piece of wood used as roofing is from Middle
English and "shingle" meaning a pebbly beach is Scandanavian.

Three totally unrelated words that just happen to be spelled the
same.

You could have found this all out by looking in any dictionary.

--
Mary Shafer  DoD #0362 KotFR NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov                    Of course I don't speak for NASA
 "There's no kill like a guns kill." LCDR "Hoser" Satrapa, gunnery instructor
                       "A kill is a kill."  Anonymous
From: nyeda@cnsvax.uwec.edu (David A. Nye MD)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: RFD Alternative Medicine
Date: 5 Oct 92 02:29:35 -0600
Followup-To: news.groups
Organization: University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

In article <16764@pitt.UUCP>, geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:
> One problem would be the name.  Alt.medicine would be a natural,

How about sci.med.alt?  While an objection could be raised that
it doesn't belong in the sci group, I think it would be best to
keep it near sci.med, or the people who should be using it won't
find it and will post in sci.med instead.
From: geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Arrogance, arthritis, & Banks
Date: 4 Oct 92 15:43:28 GMT
Reply-To: geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks)
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh Computer Science

In article <BvIDIs.9yp@wpg.com> russ@wpg.com (Russell Lawrence) writes:
>
>All the quacks that I've investigated had credentials, Ken.   Rather
>than pit one set of credentials against another, wouldn't it be
>preferable to provide some pointers to the data?
>
The quacks I've investigated mostly had mediocre credentials and no data.
THe only exception I can think of offhand is Linus Pauling.
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Banks  N3JXP      | "I have given you an argument; I am not obliged
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu   |  to supply you with an understanding." -S.Johnson
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: kurts@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com (Kurt Strain)
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 00:03:28 GMT
Subject: Re: Eliminating the need to sleep?
Organization: Outpost 1T
Newsgroups: sci.med

In sci.med, geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:


>   One of the problems I have found with insomniac patients is
>   that they worry too much about their sleep.  I advise them
>   to just get up and read or do something else and not lie there
>   saying "oh dear, oh dear, whatever will I do, I can't sleep".
>   Far too many doctors reach for the Rx pad when someone says
>   they can't sleep and often this causes mischief in the end.

I once was diagnosed for insomnia and given valium to get me some rest.
I found out not to go to the general practitioner when faced with this
problem.  Your best bet is to seek a psychiatrist.  They can diagnose
better the cause of your insomnia and give you better medication as
a result.  I eventually did go to the psychiatrist after two cycles 
of major sleep deprivation started me into a sleep deprived psychosis.
I didn't sleep for a week at a time, my mind racing in a panic.  It
turned out to be a manic-depressive episode and lithium was the right
drug (and temporarily some navane), not valium.  The biggest laugh 
I had was talking to someone initially over the phone not having slept
for 3 days and they said "drink some warm milk."  Warm milk for a guy
three days into a manic attack?  Pretty funny.  Then they said "try a
benadril tablet."  Yeah, right.  I suffered too long before I got to
the shrink.
From: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Arrogance, arthritis, & Banks
Date: 4 Oct 92 18:00:05 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department

In article <16751@pitt.UUCP> geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:
>In article <BvG8v1.733@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
>>are multiple problems, crossing different fields.  It is also bad
>>where not that much is known, such as the field of nutrition; in
>>this case, a recent posting on the nutrition group by a professor
>>of nutrition at a medical school found the knowledge of nutrition
>>by doctors and secretaries comparable.  It is exascerbated by the

>Was he saying that the knowledge of the vitamin cranks was better?
>I'd say in their case, the Will Rogers quote I use sometimes in
>my sig file is apropos: "It ain't what you don't know, it's what
>you know that ain't so."

He did not say anything about that in what was quoted.  

I do not think you will find anything in my postings which say that
the vitamin cranks and promoters of this, that, and the other are 
particularly knowledgeable.  But I think that quite a few MDs take
hundreds of milligrams of vitamin C and of vitamin E.  There have
been some nutritional studies showing the advantages.  There have 
been none which clearly demonstrate that one would live longer or
be substantially healthier.  But read on.

I am quite aware that the type of study which would really convince
FDA types, and those who can believe that the point null hypothesis
can be literally true, have not been done, and cannot even be done
except under an extreme totalitarian regime.  But this does not 
justify the claims of those who say that a "balanced diet" even
comes close to optimal nutrition.
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)  
{purdue,pur-ee}!pop.stat!hrubin(UUCP)
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks)
Newsgroups: sci.med,talk.politics.misc,alt.activism
Subject: Re: Virginia: Reform Plan Calls for Restructuring Health Care System
Date: 28 Sep 92 15:19:37 GMT
Reply-To: geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks)
Followup-To: sci.med
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh Computer Science

In article <1992Sep22.222427.29479@samba.oit.unc.edu> Nigel.Allen@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Nigel Allen) writes:

>   Speaking before the Joint Commission on Health Care, Sartoris
>introduced the concept of Community Care Networks that would link
>hospitals, physicians and other health providers together to be
>responsible and financially at risk for the health status of the
>subscribing patient.

Sounds pretty half-baked to me.  Do they realize that this will
lead to health providers discriminating against persons with risk or
chronic diseases?  Only the most healthy would be wanted as patients.
(I've seen HMOs do this.  If you get sick they hassle you so much
that during the next open season, you switch your insurance to
Blue Cross, ridding the HMOs of troublesome patients).  The
health status of the patients is not usually as much a function
of medical care as it is how well the patient takes care of themselves.
Smoking, drinking, diet, and other factors are far more important
to health than your doctor.  There is no room for encouraging
cream-skimming in a national health policy.



-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Banks  N3JXP      | "I have given you an argument; I am not obliged
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu   |  to supply you with an understanding." -S.Johnson
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rind@binoc.bih.harvard.edu (David Rind)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Whither sci.med?
Date: 7 Oct 92 02:18:19 GMT
Organization: Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston Mass., USA

In article <1992Oct6.143527.1549@cnsvax.uwec.edu> nyeda@cnsvax.uwec.edu
 (David A. Nye MD) writes:
>if sci.med were divided up a little differently.  For example,
>most of the members of the American Medical Informatics Assn have
>net access, yet most of the activity in this field is on Compu$erve

As I recall, this came up at the last SCAMC in the Clinical Computing
SIG at least.  Many people said they didn't have Internet access and
were happy with the CompuServe bulletin board.  I don't use CompuServe,
so I have no idea how well it works for AMIA.
-- 
David Rind
rind@binoc.bih.harvard.edu
From: ja0f@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (JEANNE E. ADAMS)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Medullary Cystic Kidney Disease
Date: 30 Sep 92 13:35:47 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

I have recently been diagnosed with medullary cystic kidney disease.  I know
that it is genetic, degenerative, and very rare.  Unfortunately, it is so rare
that it is barely mentioned, if at all, in any books that I have access to (I
am a graduate student in chemistry at Lehigh University).  I would like to
find out everything I can about the disease.  At this point I am not on
dialysis but I will be a candidate for a transplant when my creatinine levels
get higher.  I am interested in any books or journal articles to read.  If I
have the title, author, and possibly publisher I can request them through
interlibrary loan.  My mother was a registered nurse some years ago but still
remembers enough to help me interpret material.  Also, if anyone has any
firsthand knowledge of this particular disease, its prognosis, and how to
treat its symptoms, I would be grateful for your help.  Thank you.

JEANNE ADAMS (JA0F@NS1.CC.LEHIGH.EDU)
From: km@cs.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Pet has cancer - issues with contagion
Date: 6 Oct 92 17:30:47 GMT
Reply-To: km@cs.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum)
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh Computer Science

In article <1992Oct5.125145.12389@polaris.utu.fi> eepee@polaris.utu.fi (Esa-Pekka P{lvim{ki) writes:

>>or dog to human.  If you are concerned, make sure your family is
>>taught the importance of not smoking, which is by far the greatest
>>cause of lung cancer in humans.
>
>Oh, alright, I guess I'll just have to start smoking then..

Reminds me of the Marlboro sign in Three Rivers Stadium. They goofed
when putting it up this year, and at the bottom of it read:

"QUITTING SMOKING NOW GREATLY INCREASES YOUR CHANCE OF GETTING
LUNG CANCER OR HEART DISEASE"

Someone took a picture of it and put it in the Pittsburgh Press before
they went on strike. They had it changed by the next day.

 -km
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: ljy@cbnews.cb.att.com (linda.j.young)
Subject: Genital Warts/Herpes
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 14:01:50 GMT

I have some questions for you knowledgeable people out there.
Let's get right to the point:

My boyfriend seems to have contracted genital warts.  And now that
those have been removed, he seems to think he may have herpes.  Of
course, he immediately thinks that I have given them both to him.
I have never had a problem--have been to my ob/gyn twice since then
and been examined specifically for those diseases and don't seem to
have them.

Other than wanting some specific knowledge about both diseases, I
am wondering if I could have these diseases without knowing it.
My boyfriend insists on that.  I have checked with people I have been
intimate with in the past, and they don't seem to have any problems.

Is there some type of test (blood test perhaps) that you can take
when you may not have an outbreak, of herpes, say, that will show
that you do have the virus?  I understand genital warts can have a
2 year incubation period.  My boyfriend and I have been exclusive
with each other for almost a year and a half.  This problem first
showed up 6 months ago.

I wonder if a relationship can survive this type of strain...

Thanks for any help/suggestions/opinions you can offer.

Linda
From: gbono@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com (George Bono)
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 18:03:22 GMT
Subject: Re: Most cures work!  (was: Homeopathy)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Santa Rosa, CA
Newsgroups: sci.med

From dyer@spdcc.com Mon Oct  5 10:16:27 1992

>Not only is this just plain ignorant (the mechanisms of action of drugs like
>aspirin and steroids are very well known and more is known about them each
>day)                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Gee Steve, it seems that what we "know" must change on a daily basis.  Don't
forget that aspirin has been around for quite sometime and yet "more is known
each day".



>There's a sucker born every minute.


Yeah, and I bet they're taking Xanax.
From: rind@binoc.bih.harvard.edu (David Rind)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: mitral valve prolapse and need for antibiotics?
Date: 29 Sep 92 01:06:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: hsdndev.1885
Distribution: sci
Organization: Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston Mass., USA

In article <1992Sep28.221844.18901@spdcc.com> dyer@spdcc.com
 (Steve Dyer) writes:
>In article <BONNIE.92Sep28130237@aigyptos.nmsu.edu> bonnie@nmsu.edu
 (Bonnie Hargrave) writes:
>>The echo test tells my family practitioner that I have a mitral valve
>>prolapse.  This doctor nows recommends to me that, before I have any
>>invasive medical procedures done -- including having my TEETH CLEANED
>>-- that I should take penicillin, both before and after the procedure.

>I'm not a doctor, so I'll let them comment on current practice.

Current practice doesn't always mesh with existing recommendations.
Most people who have mitral valve prolapse alone, without evidence
of mitral regurgitation, probably do not need antibiotic prophylaxis.
Many doctors do give prophylaxis to anyone with MVP, though.  Echo's,
these days, are so sensitive that they tend to pick up minimal
degrees of MR in everyone.

The prophylaxis recommendations are mostly guesswork based on case
control trials of people who develop endocarditis.  I don't know
of any controlled trials showing that antibiotics are beneficial
in any specific group of patients -- it's still probably a good idea.

>It's likely that you'd be given penicillin, and the penicillin you'd likely

Usually these days (in non-allergic individuals) the prophylaxis would
be with amoxicillin.  I think the recommending group changed their
recommendation about 2 years ago.
-- 
David Rind
rind@binoc.bih.harvard.edu
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Subject: Re: "Problem Patient"
Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 14:02:06 GMT

In article <92279.171635CXKPV@ASUACAD.BITNET> CXKPV@ASUACAD.BITNET writes:
>Sure, patients with what are deemed "psycosomatic" illness can and may be on a
>state funed health care programs and waste millions of dollars; but the real w
>aste of money occurs when the ordinary person must pay for inept and inadequate
>physicians.  For example, suppose someone with a so called psycosomatic
>illness goes to numerous different doctors in search of a cure for his problem.
>If it takes ten him ten doctors to finally figure out what is wrong with h
>im, the patient is not the one "wasting" money, it is the status quoe (do the m
>inimun to get by, first 9 doctors) who are truly responsible for the wasted mon
>ey.

On the other hand, people with problems which the physician chosen (without
any reasonable information available about physicians) does not know how to
diagnose are often classed as psychosomatic where there is a known physical
cause for the symptoms. 

Even if there is no known physical cause, it does not follow that the problems
are psychosomatic, and there can be interactions.  We have had postings of
people who were not diagnosed by 30 doctors before someone put the facts
together.

Probably a bigger waste of money is caused by the doctors not consulting with
those who can put the facts together.  Part of this is even due to the
situation that such doctors almost do not exist, and that a doctor in private
practice has essentially no access to combined expertise of this type, and 
that any time spent on consultation, reading, telephone calls, etc., is not
paid for by the medical plans which automatically reject these activities 
as waste.

-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)  
{purdue,pur-ee}!pop.stat!hrubin(UUCP)
From: b5249-23@mathcs.sjsu.edu (Kurt Stocklmeir)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: cancer
Date: 2 Oct 92 20:22:36 GMT
Organization: San Jose State University - Math/CS Dept.

Stephen
 
    All I meant was that if a large number of any kind of cells was
killed at 1 time, the body of a person would have trouble getting
all of the dead cells out.  A large number of dead cells can kill
a person.
From: smithw@physc1.byu.edu
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Bladder infection - pains
Date: 6 Oct 92 19:07:12 GMT
Organization: Brigham Young University

A collegue visiting from France is staying at my home for the
next few weeks and is having some medical problems.  Since he
is reluctant to seek medical help right now, I thought I would
ask about his problems here.  Apparently about a month or so
ago, he noticed that his urine was malordorous.  He finally went 
to see a physician just before leaving and it was determined
that he had some kind of urinary tract infection.  He started
taking medication which as best as I can determine is some kind
of combination sulfa drug.  The drug was prescribed for 10 days
and he arrived here on day  2  of taking the medication.
Its now day  4  of his medication cycle and he says the symptoms
have decreased in some respects but on the second day he began
to find it rather more painful to urinate, although the more
or less constant discomfort he had been experiencing decreased.
He has no fever and its my guess he has some prostate inflamation
related to the infection or the drug??
Then today, he said he woke up early (3 a.m.) with stomach pains
which he says he recognized as typical of his ulcer pain which ulcer
has recurred from time to time over the past 6 or 7 years it seems.
He's poping  Rolaids or something now to control this pain (which
they seem to do).   Anyhow, if anyone wants to take a crack at
advising him on whether he is in serious trouble, please post or
reply to  bill@mathnx.math.byu.edu.

Thanks,
-Bill
From: markr@sound.cts.com (Mark B. Reinhold)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Starting an alternative medicine newsgroup
Date: 6 Oct 92 18:11:52 GMT
Organization: SDCT 1-619-461-3415

geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:
> I think the basic process is to have a request for discussion
> on news.groups (RFD), then after a month or so, a Call for Votes
> (CFV).  If the group passes, it gets created.  Quite possibly,
> someone would volunteer to handle the CFV.  The name of the
> group is part of the discussion, I guess.  Well, I'll go ahead
> and initiate the RFD today.  Be sure to read news.groups to follow
> that discussion and to see if it gets formed.

The only thing that I can add to this is that I think it needs
to pass with at least 100 yes votes for the group.