[anonymous2017]

A data point from my personal experience: 15 years ago I started developing acute dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) which eventually got so severe I went to see a doctor about it. It was diagnosed as acid reflux, and I was prescribed proton pump inhibitors. That seemed to help for a long time, but a few years ago the symptoms started to return. They got so bad that I went back to the doctor, and this time was diagnosed with a newly discovered malady called eosinophilic esophagitis (EOE -- http://www.aaaai.org/conditions-and-treatments/related-condi...). EOE is an allergic reaction in the esophagus, which made sense because the initial symptoms appeared shortly after we got pets -- a dog and a cat -- for the first time, and I'm allergic to both. Case closed, or so I thought.

A few months ago, despite the fact that both or dog and cat had long since died, my symptoms started to come back worse than ever. Things got so bad that at one point I was actually heading to the emergency room (I never made it because before we got there I threw up, which fixed the immediate problem). But that episode scared me enough that I made another doctors appointment.

There followed a truly bizarre confluence of circumstances: first, my wife fell down and broke her arm. Then my doctors office called to confirm my appointment, but my wife picked up the phone and thought it was her doctors office calling about her arm. She thought the appointment was for her, but she hadn't made an appointment, so she told them the appointment was a mistake an they should cancel it, which they did. I called to reschedule, and that delayed it for another few weeks. The day of my new appointment, my doctors office called and said they were running hours behind because of computer problems and needed to reschedule again. Bottom line: it has been several months now and I still haven't been able to see a doctor.

But here's the punch line: in the intervening time, my symptoms have completely disappeared. If I had been able to see a doctor, I would almost certainly have ascribed this positive outcome to any intervention she would have done. And yet there has been no intervention, but only because of these weird twists of fate that kept me from seeing my doctor. Moreover, I know there has been no intervention. And yet I suddenly feel better than I have in 15 years. It's really weird.

[xherberta]

"The great secret, known to internists and learned early in marriage by internists wives, but still hidden from the general public, is that most things get better by themselves. Most things, in fact, are better by morning."

- Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell (Among other achievements, he was dean of Yale Medical School and president of Sloan-Kettering. This collection of essays was published in 1974 and is absolutely prescient and fascinating - he offers profound thoughts on the nature of science, computing, and medicine that have stood the test of time astonishingly well.)

[anonymous2017]

But that't the whole point: for fifteen years it didn't get better on its own. In fact, it got progressively worse over a period of months and years. When things got really bad (like on-the-floor-writhing-in-pain-wishing-I-were-dead bad) I went to see a doctor. The doctor did something (meds, endoscopies) and then things got better, and they'd stay better for a few years before they slowly, steadily, and inexorably got worse again. This cycle repeated itself three times in fifteen years. This most recent episode was the fourth cycle.

What makes this last episode interesting was that fate intervened to force me to do a control experiment, and the outcome has been dramatic: I feel as good (if not better) than immediately after all the prior interventions. In 15 years I have never had that happen if I just did nothing.

[xherberta]

Wow! I did somehow miss the 15 years aspect. Mysterious. I'm glad you're feeling better.

[anonymous2017]

Thanks! Me too! :-)

[vectorjohn]

Also, any doctor will tell you that.