The grind of the 21st century throws up obstacles at every turn. Nikolaus Oliver is on hand with advice to guide you through.This week: medical science and remedies for gullibility
Is there anything that highlights the frailty of human judgement more acutely than the way we try to cure what ails us? The past few weeks have brought us three remarkable stories from the medical front. Each in its way gives vital signs about our condition in the modern world.
First, the excellently named Dr Nick Oliver, a pioneering biomedical engineer (is it just me, or does this job title have something of the night about it?) has unveiled a smart sticking plaster invented by his boss.
It is not clear why the boss couldn’t make the announcement himself. Perhaps he is too grand to come out and talk to us.
You don’t stick it on your cut finger; rather, it is studded with little sensors that allow doctors to monitor and measure hundreds of things inside you. This means you don’t have to be plugged into banks of machinery with the wires getting caught up in your jigsaw puzzle or dinner.
In fact, you don’t even have to stay in bed; you can go for a walk or visit the library, and the geeks back at the hospital can work out remotely what’s wrong with you.
While this device is set to make life better, another story shows that medical gullibility is alive and well and thriving.
The Dutch Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie recently jetted off to Serbia to have a torn ligament massaged with fluid taken from a placenta. Has playing in the magnificent Emirates Stadium left him a couple of footballs short of a penalty? But it seems he is just the latest in a long line of sporting stars willing to turn to strange remedies.
In 2006, the Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney tried to heal a broken foot by sleeping in an oxygen tent prior to the World Cup (much good it did him). And three years before that, Paula Radcliffe, the women’s marathon world record holder, treated injuries sustained in a cycling accident with oil taken from the belly of an emu.
Mind you, it’s not entirely surprising that sports folk are ready to believe anything, given the unbelievable nature of much of medical science.
A new example of this came to light recently. It turns out that we do not hear through our ears. Or rather, only partly. But we also hear through our skin by means of tiny puffs of air. And if this part of the process is not working, then we get all confused and don’t know what is being said to us.
So let’s be charitable and say that Van Persie’s skin wasn’t receiving properly when Arsène Wenger told him: “No, Robin, Serbian placenta massages are rubbish.”
Article Courtesy The National Abu Dhabi https://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091212/MAGAZINE/712119960/1297/magazine