Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Evidence of the body’s waste system in the human brain

nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 97 posts

Re: Evidence of the body’s waste system in the human brain

#81

Post by jmcgough »

etiam wrote: post #17

At first I was incredulous that they would make this claim, since it makes it appear they either failed to follow the literature enough to notice other researchers made the remarkable discovery of this system three years ago, or are trying history revisionism to claim that discovery as their own. But I guess the operative word here is "human". The original research actually gets a small mention in the text body. Anot…

I heard an NPR interview yesterday, and they were pretty clear that they based this on previous studies done by others that found it in rats. They had to spend 2-3 years figuring out the right technique to test for it in human cadavers, so their work was really in confirming that the same system is present in humans.

Re: Evidence of the body’s waste system in the human brain

#82

Post by logfromblammo »

autokad wrote: post #61
blubb-fish wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most professionals in the field of medicine were educated towards an elitist and dogmatic mindset. When I talk with a physician about the human body I always get the impression they really believe the body works as described in the books - exactly like that. Most of them didn't seem to have noticed or learned that what we know about medicine is just theory approximating reality and all of those theories had to be upd…

one time i got a sore throat and fevor, the fevor wouldnt break for 7 days. the entire time i could feel the spot where my sickness was coming from. i looked in a mirror and there were puss modules - classic strep throat. I go to the doctor, she does the strep test and it comes back negative, she refuses to prescribe me antibiotics and told me to just go home and rest. luckily, i had a penicillin script that I didnt…

Your doc just did the physician equivalent of "closed, cannot reproduce".

Also, shame on you for not finishing your antibiotic prescription. Always finish your antibiotic! If you don't finish, you run the risk of a resurgence of the infection, except this time with bacteria resistant to the antibiotic you failed to finish.

If you really feel like you need a private stash of antibiotic, buy amoxicillin for aquarium fish instead of saving portions of old prescriptions. And make sure you weigh yourself and appropriately calculate the mg/kg dosage before using it.

(I understand that this is hypocritical to shame someone for not finishing a prescription antibiotic and also to recommend misuse of veterinary antibiotics.)

Re: Evidence of the body’s waste system in the human brain

#83

Post by zimpenfish »

logfromblammo wrote: post #82
autokad wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one time i got a sore throat and fevor, the fevor wouldnt break for 7 days. the entire time i could feel the spot where my sickness was coming from. i looked in a mirror and there were puss modules - classic strep throat. I go to the doctor, she does the strep test and it comes back negative, she refuses to prescribe me antibiotics and told me to just go home and rest. luckily, i had a penicillin script that I didnt…

Your doc just did the physician equivalent of "closed, cannot reproduce". Also, shame on you for not finishing your antibiotic prescription. Always finish your antibiotic! If you don't finish, you run the risk of a resurgence of the infection, except this time with bacteria resistant to the antibiotic you failed to finish. If you really feel like you need a private stash of antibiotic, buy amoxicillin for aquarium fi…

> Always finish your antibiotic!

Opinions differ:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/26/rule-patient...

Re: Evidence of the body’s waste system in the human brain

#85

Post by dabockster »

_jal wrote: post #44
Boothroid wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder the same thing. Not to be snarky, but is there something faulty about medics or human biologists?! Why do I have a feeling that if we deployed computer scientists at medical research we would get a better result? I can accept that at the lower level things get fiendishly complex, but surely at a macro level like this it's just a case of diligent analysis?

> Why do I have a feeling that if we deployed computer scientists at medical research we would get a better result? Because comp sci has an arrogance problem that rivals that of doctors?

> Because comp sci has an arrogance problem that rivals that of doctors?

Nailed it!

Re: Evidence of the body’s waste system in the human brain

#86

Post by oddlyaromatic »

graphitezepp wrote: post #72
oddlyaromatic wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This generalization is pretty large and may itself be an example of arrogance. But I think maybe it's just the brevity of your comment that gives this impression.

Thanks for being charitable, I did not mean to imply that what I claim many comp sci people do is any better or less arrogant, just different.

It implies you know what doctors do about as well as you know what comp sci people do, by virtue of comparing the two. The comp sci part is at risk of taking your anecdotal experience as too representative of the whole. The doctor part is (presumably) at risk of relying on stereotypes about doctors having "God complexes" ... So to get to an effective general comparison would be quite difficult without more accurate data. Buuut if we see ourselves as smart computer people, maybe we think more highly of our own inferences than they deserve. I would expect doctors' arrogance has a lot to do with their training and respect for their processes and practices as being highly reliable and advanced. Rather than them personally just having a talent for doctoring.

Re: Evidence of the body’s waste system in the human brain

#87

Post by mfoy_ »

efficax wrote: post #63
lr4444lr wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then what of the Italian scientist who noted them 200 years ago? All of those dissections and attention to research in the modern age and it was actually taught in medical school that the brain had no lymphatic system? Seems a little far-fetched.

We still have a very poor understanding of the body. We're still discovering organs we didn't know we had: https://theoutline.com/post/851/scientists-identify-new-orga... It's entirely plausible to me that this has gone unnoticed for 200 years.

No, they reclassified something they knew we had as an organ. Not like "whoa, what's this thing??".

Re: Evidence of the body’s waste system in the human brain

#88

Post by grandalf »

MyNameHere wrote: post #57
blubb-fish wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most professionals in the field of medicine were educated towards an elitist and dogmatic mindset. When I talk with a physician about the human body I always get the impression they really believe the body works as described in the books - exactly like that. Most of them didn't seem to have noticed or learned that what we know about medicine is just theory approximating reality and all of those theories had to be upd…

Medical doctors are not Ph.D.'s. They are technicians, more akin to an auto mechanic than a scientist.

> more akin to an auto mechanic than a scientist

Keep in mind that society has chosen to have physicians carry social and often moral authority. They are the modern priests and priestesses of our secular world.

What stings when a physician is impatient or misses something obvious is the disrespect people feel because of the physician's venerated status. It's as if a person of faith is visiting a Bishop and the Bishop mutters a profanity during the blessing.

The irritation and accusations of arrogance toward physicians that are found in this thread are (if read carefully) reflections of the unique, clergy-like role that physicians play. A physician's opinion can get you decades of workers comp or can deny it to you, it can make you feel responsible for a health problem or vindicated, it can result in the removal of pain or the continuation of it. Physicians let some people get high every day on any number of drugs, declare others bad surgical candidates, and instill (or withhold) hope in those whose life hangs in the balance.

It's a deeply moral role, and the trend toward free healthcare for all is analogous to publishing the bible in languages besides Latin. Physicians are gatekeepers to redemption and this makes some people very angry.

Re: Evidence of the body’s waste system in the human brain

#89

Post by Boothroid »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #76
Boothroid wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read: I can accept that at the lower level things get fiendishly complex, but surely at a macro level like this it's just a case of diligent analysis? How are they missing features that are visible with the human eye? I find it incredible. Also, XKCD meme is the tiredest meme around.

I think this may be an example of the Dunning–Kruger effect - when they complexities aren't understood, it's easy to makes assumptions where you simplify to absurdity.

Dunning-Kruger is another lazy meme.
Post reply on HN