In the early days of medicine, physicians might diagnose patients using bumps on their head, or dispense a couple of leeches to draw off “ill humours”.
Yet a medieval doctor might give a more confident response than his modern equivalent if a patient asked for the evidence to support their treatment.
These days, it seems many of our “tried and tested” approaches to disease are nothing of the kind.
Researchers writing recently in the British Journal of Surgery concluded the practice of daubing patients with a disinfectant skin gel prior to operations made little or no difference to the rate of infections they suffered afterwards. Simple Soap and water was just as effective.
However, despite this, it’s more than likely that, in future, waking up after your operation in many British hospitals, you’ll have that tell-tale Orange stain around your wound. You’ll have been given a treatment that doesn’t work.
This isn’t a single example. Many techniques in common use today don’t have cast-iron evidence that they do any good. In some cases, firm evidence suggests the opposite is true.
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