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I Beleive it was one of the Rothbart threads, in which I poked at the foolishness of blaming something like headaches or back pain on a single mechanical aetiology (ie femoral rotation / pelvic anteversion / lumbar lordosis etc). It was with this in mind which I enjoyed this classic quote from one of my all time faourite writers, Dr Ben Goldacre

I think I might print this and mount it writ large in my lab!

What say you?

Regards

 

The recurring themes are uncanny:

Take a careful read of:
The Rothbart threads
The Fungal Laser Thread
The Barefoot runners
The Chi runners
The Pose runners
...and probably a few others I can't recall at the moment.

Do you see the

 

He is very observant isn't he! Like I say great writer with a lot to say on reductionism.

I used to be a big fan of reductionism. I find it irritating when people try to make things holistic just for the ske of it, or because its easier than actually identifying the problem. Blaming every foot complaint on "core stability" issues for eg. Then again sometimes things are over reduced or incorrectly reduced!

I guess one could do a matrix.


condition ->.................reducible ....................not reducible
treatment |
V

reduced / medical..........appropriate .................not appropriate


holistic .......................... not appropriate...........appropriate


So for example a reducible condition (like an MI) should not be treated with holistic medicine. Lifestyle is important but not when someone is arresting, oxygen and a defib, good ole western medicine is whats required. Something not reducible (like headache or back pain) should not just be treated with pills or a single mechanical intervention. All the other elements like lifestyle and psychosocial elements should also be considered.

One could probably expand this to include the grey areas in between as well.

Fascinating stuff, to me at least.

Regards