Medicine and Health
   

Medicine and Health

The purpose of this page is to direct readers to the resources concerning medicine and health here at Everything Progressive. A high-level overview may be found at the "Medicine - An Overview" link above. More detailed links to resources will be found below.

Our main point of emphasis here is that the mere absence of disease is not the same thing as optimal health. However, achieving an absence of disease - all disease, including the aging process - does provide the initial starting point.

Properly arranged, every individual should be a partner with his/her doctor in his or her own health management. This would mean, first of all, becoming medically literate, and learning how to distinguish between mere hypochondria and legitimate concern.

To achieve this ideal, everyone must have at least a modicum of basic medical knowledge. This should include at least some emergency or "survival" medicine, such as being able to recognize and provide first-responder treatment of shock, and an understanding of the basics of anatomy and physiology. Along with a good Red Cross class, the reader should obtain and read the ACEP First Aid Manual.

In addition, everyone should know at least something about:

This is, of course, a tall order, but an essential one. Yet not a single institution of education in the world even attempts to satisfy it. In order to at least begin to do so, we suggest that "physical education" programs in public schools begin by immediately shifting their emphasis away from sports (essentially a form of entertainment that should be exclusively extra-curricular) to personalized fitness programs, and that, in addition, they incorporate the teaching of the sort of medical basics identified above from the sixth grade forward.

But even this only gets us to the most basic "elimination of diseases and amelioration of injury" phase of medicine and health. To go on beyond this requires a different, and supplementary, body of knowledge.

To nudge our readers in the right direction, the first resource we suggest is Matthew MacDonald's book, Your Body, The Missing Manual. MacDonald's book is very far indeed from comprehensive, but it does get quickly to a number of important topics of high-level concern. With this foundational level of understanding achieved, the reader will be better-prepared to dig in deeper. A good next step would be How the Body Works: The Facts Simply Explained, a Dorling Kindersley book. For reference purposes, we suggest the student also acquire The Complete Human Body: The Definitive Visual Guide, by Dr. Alice Roberts.

The tools provided up to this point will help the student understand normal physiological and anatomical function, but some understanding of major diseases and disorders is also essential. Here the Merck Manual of Medical Information, 2nd Edition is indispensable. Each section of the manual begins by providing the basics of normal function, followed by a breakdown of the chief pathologies. This manual can be read and understood by any intelligent adult, but a more advanced text, intended for doctors, and known simply as The Merck Manual, 20th edition, provides more information than the average doctor ever masters. It is, however, quite technical, and understanding it will require the use of a good medical dictionary. The gold standard for this is Taber's Cylopedic Medical Dictionary, 24th edition.

All three of these books are intended primarily for reference. One or both of the first two should be consulted in the event that an illness of some kind is suspected, provided that the need is not immediate and urgent. In the latter case, of course, a visit to the emergency room is indicated instead.

The student now possesses the elements of basic medical literacy, but going on to achieve greater medical understanding remains urgently important. To begin with, the essentials of diet and exercise must both be clearly understood, and an understanding of the nature of the aging process must also be acquired so as to ameliorate its effects so far as is currently possible.

We are currently at work on a separate diet and exercise resource, as this is a large and significant topic. Aging medicine is moving ahead far more slowly than it should, since it is the highest of all human priorities, ranking higher even than climate vandalism in urgency. (Among other things, research into aging will yield essential insights into cancer and other diseases.) Nevertheless, progress is now rapid compared to previous decades, and books concerning the subject are obsolete almost as soon as they are written. In the forefront of advocacy and understanding are the Methuselah Foundation and, to a much lesser extent, the Biomedical Research & Longevity Society, Inc. The Methuselah Foundation news page may be found here, while the equivalent page for BRLS may be found here. (Unfortunately, BRLS has narrowed its field of interest to cryonics, the use of low temperatures for tissue preservation.) At the very forefront of investigation of the aging process is the University of Liverpool, making it the most important university in the world at this time.

Though martial arts not an aspect of medicine, they are one element of mainting physical integrity, so that a martial art for self-defense should be cultivated. We are now at work on a separate resource for self-defense and survival. For most purposes, however, Akido is ideal. (Follow this link to find a dojo.) However, should a maximum of capability be desired, mixed martial arts should also be learned. For additional information, see this link.

The Editor, Everything Progressive