[robbiep]

that would not be an obvious bow to draw from your comments, and frankly, and medical practitioners who are not looking at holistic health when presented with a patient are missing the point.

However, you are so far off point on the tonsillectomy.

Let's take a slightly different condition. A patient has gallstones, causing ascending colangitis. The treatment (which you would describe as treating only the symptoms) is to remove the gallbladder, a cholecystectomy.

The cause in this instance is being a mid 50's woman, slightly overweight, genetic predisposition, high fat diet.

Your implication is that because the Doctor is treating the symptom, they are doing a disservice to the patient?

The reason I am defending this so strongly, is because it is only a stone's throw from the implication you initially started with - 'that doctors treat symptoms, not causes', to 'Doctors/The medical-industrial complex is with-holding the cure for cancer, because if they fix it they don't make any money'.

As though no doctor, or scientist in the field, has ever died or watched a family member suffer through that or some other insidious disease.

Doctors are human, they make mistakes, they act on evidence that is only partially formed (and have to in order to act in a timely manner), and their actions are often not fully explained to those who they are treating.

We can and should do better. But slinging mud on my profession I can not sit idly by and abide.

[tcj_phx]

My mother had to have her gallbladder taken out ... maybe 6 months ago. IIRC she was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis at that time too. If she'd been taking better care of herself, she might not have deteriorated to the point that gallbladder removal was necessary. Hindsight being 20/20, the signs of a developing gallbladder condition were all there... (Adult children generally have very little ability to influence their parents' habits.)

> 'Doctors/The medical-industrial complex is with-holding the cure for cancer, because if they fix it they don't make any money'.

Progressive cancer doctors are coming around to the idea that Otto Warburg (who theorized that cancer is a metabolic condition, rather than genetic in origin) might've been on the right track: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/magazine/warburg-effect-a...

> But slinging mud on my profession I can not sit idly by and abide.

My goal is to help the profession clean up. Sometimes doctors do good work, but frequently the evidence to support an intervention never actually existed: https://www.propublica.org/article/when-evidence-says-no-but...

[darkerside]

> slinging mud on my profession I can not sit idly by and abide

Now I know why you thought the parent's comments were emotional. The world would be a better place if we all tried to stop seeing personal attacks where they don't exist.

For the record, your disagreement could likely be bridged by removing absoluteness. You could likely agree that "some doctors sometimes treat symptoms, not causes". And we all agree that's a problem to be solved.

[glitchc]

Seconded. Not to mention patients lying or involuntarily withholding pertinent information (because embarrassed or would reveal unwholesome behaviour/activities).