Pounds of Cure

I realized last night that I can probably already name a few dozen diseases and their causes (if not idiopathic) and some treatments for those diseases. We've learned about mutations, and improper structural formations, degenerative diseases and cancer. The information has been fascinating and is absolutely essential, but for all the diseases and treatments I've begun to notice two biases emerging - and this may have to do with the classes we're taking this semester.

First, almost all treatments we've learned about jump right into surgical treatments with barely any treatment of conservative options. This may be due to anatomy and the fact we're learning about structural defects... but still I feel as though its a bit biased regardless.
Second, though I can name many things that can make people sick and maybe a few drugs that can relieve or treat these diseases and their symptoms - sometimes removing the cause of the disease and other times just managing it, I've yet to learn much about anything that can actually improve health in patients. We KNOW about eating right and exercising, but there has been little discussion about the interaction of these factors - among others such as certain types of fruits or vegetables, or particular exercise regiments - with diseases either biochemically or anatomically.

I think this is from two main factors, among others - first that we need to know what can really kill people so that we can rule these nasty factors out when treating diseases (zebras) and two, already the allopathic model of treating disease rather than focusing on prevention, is showing its true form. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the coming months and semesters of medical school.

On a somewhat related note - there was a Complimentary and Alternative Medicine course given as a selective this semester. I wanted to but couldn't find the time to go - but I see it (at this point) as a separate compartment and not really integrated into our overall education. In the end, this is less the fault of SGU and more the structure - I would assume - of the USMLE.

Of course, the whole prevention/cure thingy can be perverted a bit...