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After the Golden Age: What is Medicine for?

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Dr. Seamus O’Mahony began studying gastroenterology in the mid-1980s, a time he associates with the end of the “golden age of medicine,” which he claims began in the mid-1930s. In this 2019 Lancet editorial, O’Mahony contrasts the golden age with the present “age of disappointment,” arguing medical science has been corrupted by Big Pharma and bloated with research and data that fail to help patients; the medical industry has become more focused on the production, accumulation, and deployment of unreliable information than on helping people. As a result, O’Mahony argues, it is doing “more harm than good to the people it is supposed to serve.”

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Matthieu Dubreucq
March 3rd, 2020 at 12:47 pm
Commented on: After the Golden Age: What is Medicine for?

That is exactly why doctors shouldn't have exclusivity of treating diseases. That is where trainers and other professionals in health need to step up by educating themself and acting as professionals to become part of the solution.

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Clarke Read
July 8th, 2019 at 3:52 am
Commented on: After the Golden Age: What is Medicine for?

This is a heck of an editorial, it's a shame it's behind a paywall.


Mahony makes an interesting point about our current need for, and at times fascination with, meta-science, and what it says about the current state of medicine and the incentives that drive it. Through changes both deliberate and accidental, we have reached a place where the scientific literature, on average, is so untrustworthy and of so little value that we need research about research to help us understand which research to pay attention to. While it's a necessary evil in the current scientific reality, it speaks to the more fundamental issues that have muddied both basic and clinical research.


A key question is whether the current situation was inevitable. Mahony suggests it was largely a consequence of the golden age itself - that is, that the substantial advances of the 1930s and 40s gave medicine a position in society that created the excesses and incentives that led to our current state. If that is the case, it unfortunately may not be solvable. But if there are specific institutions, specific behavioral patterns, specific ways medicine functions in our society, that are not inevitable and do not need to exist, we may be able to have another golden age. That said, it's a long ways away if that's the case.

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Olivia Leonard
July 8th, 2019 at 5:52 pm

Note: this editorial is accessible if you create a free account with The Lancet. If anyone makes an account and still has trouble accessing the piece, drop a comment here and I'll post a PDF.

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Dan Palenchar
July 5th, 2019 at 9:02 pm
Commented on: After the Golden Age: What is Medicine for?

The current medical landscape, with an emphasis on prescribing and managing chronic conditions, underscores the importance of best practices to optimize health and *prevent* or at least delay/mitigate the conditions and afflictions of our industrialized society. A sound diet, regular exercise, and consistent sleep should be emphasized and prioritized in our society to promote a foundation of overall health.


Sadly, the current system is also contributing to physician burnout. This is a parallel issue and another unintended consequence of the modern medical paradigms. We have a lot of work to do if the golden era is to return.

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Josh Blake
July 3rd, 2019 at 10:34 pm
Commented on: 190703

Getting my popcorn ready for the bitchy comments when HQ doesn’t post a Hero wod on July 4th.

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David Smith
July 3rd, 2019 at 11:19 pm

Not a bad plan.

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Clark Pew
July 3rd, 2019 at 8:48 pm
Commented on: 190703

7min of Burpees - 83

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David Smith
July 3rd, 2019 at 7:12 pm
Commented on: 190703

If one were to do biceps curls for 30 minutes would you consider that an active recovery day? Asking for a friend.

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Jeff Strain
July 3rd, 2019 at 9:44 pm

Best comment of the day....I LOL'ed

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Daniel Gherbi
July 3rd, 2019 at 4:09 pm
Commented on: 190703

Cool, forced rest day due to a knee injury. Feelsbadman, I wanna lift :(

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Darren Ward
July 3rd, 2019 at 3:07 pm
Commented on: 190703

Homemade chipper.

21/15/9 for ghd sit ups, 205# DL, ring dips, and pistols, 40 ft hsw each round too. 14:37.

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Nathan Hutcheson
July 3rd, 2019 at 1:03 pm
Commented on: 190703

What do you guys think, does an easy swim around 1800 meters count as an active rest day?

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Chris Sinagoga
July 3rd, 2019 at 3:47 pm

I would drown.

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Chuck Terhune
July 3rd, 2019 at 4:01 pm

There is nothing easy about an 1800m swim

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Daniel Gherbi
July 3rd, 2019 at 4:09 pm

I would drown too.

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Daniel Wayhs
July 3rd, 2019 at 4:12 pm

For active rest you need to send a little oxygen to your muscles in order to reduce your metabolites, and you need to do on 20-40% of maximal lung capacity, or 2-4 on an effort scale of 0-10 (this includes total time). If your 1800m swim is in it, do it!

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