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Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

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Re: Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

#51

Post by nicoffeine »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #16

The human body is complex; it's complicated. How many times have we heard, "I went to X different doctors and none could diagnosis me." That's not a knock on medicine or science, just a simple statement of fact. That is, there is plenty we have yet to understand.

And if we do understand it, that doesn't mean a doctor knows about it.

My father was in the hospital for two days with vertigo. He was so frustrated waiting for specialists to show up that he checked himself out.

I was pissed - he's notoriously awful at listening to medical advice. I said, "Did you even wait for them to try the Epley maneuver?"[1] Turns out they didn't even suggest it. I only know about it because my grandmother has it done regularly for her vertigo. And it seems to have solved his problem.

I'm sure it's already in the threads, but that recalls the old joke, "What do you call a medical student with a D average?"

"Doctor."

[1] https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-t...

Re: Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

#52

Post by adrianN »

adriand wrote: post #21
garbagetime wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine the following. Here's the spectrum of medical knowledge: ----------------------------------------- Here's where we were in the dark ages: --|-------------------------------------- Here's where we are now: -------|--------------------------------- Here's where people like to think we are: ------------------|---------------------- In this scenario it seems like what you're saying and what your parent said are b…

But then we’re in the dark ages for everything, except maybe siege warfare. So it becomes a meaningless comment.

Life would be pretty boring if it were different don't you think? If almost everything were already figured out after just a few centuries of the scientific method and we wouldn't expect any substantial improvements to be made ever.

Re: Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

#53

Post by NiceWayToDoIT »

Question for those medical HN ppl: What is definition of organ? I mean before when people were doing surgeries and slicing through interstitium, mesentery or different glands, were surgeon thinking "i will just slice through this slimy thing that does not do anything" or there was more thought about it? Before people were removing on regular bases appendix or tonsil, now understanding about the role has changed... so

How does something becomes an organ after 100 years of modern technology? Just to clarify I meant would it be possible in future that part of let say heart could become an organ?

Re: Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

#54

Post by fn1 »

garbagetime wrote: post #18
wrinkl3 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've suspected for some time that medicine is actually closer to the dark ages than we like to think it is What does that even mean? Nobody's claiming that modern medicine is anywhere close to perfect but the "dark ages" medicine was Humorism, blood letting and faith healing. Surgeons didn't start washing their hands before childbirth until the 19th century. It's really weird to look back at the mind-boggling progr…

Imagine the following. Here's the spectrum of medical knowledge: ----------------------------------------- Here's where we were in the dark ages: --|-------------------------------------- Here's where we are now: -------|--------------------------------- Here's where people like to think we are: ------------------|---------------------- In this scenario it seems like what you're saying and what your parent said are b…

Since that axis really cannot be constructed, I think a better way to present your sentiment is the following:

Is it possible that we still miss a large discovery in medicine, akin to the introduction of evidence-based treatment, hygiene, inoculations or the discovery of DNA?

Re: Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

#55

Post by nl »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #25

> The study was small, and examined a limited patient population Curious if this is present in all humans or a local evolution.

They examined 100 patients and two brains and it appeared in all of them.

There are no instances of a new organ appearing in a local human population.

Re: Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

#56

Post by tsimionescu »

pas wrote: post #33
scoopertrooper wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we've made some great leaps and they shouldn't be discounted, but neural-science is still in its infancy. We still don't know the exact mechanism of action of many commonly prescribed psychoactive medications. We know they work because, unlike in the past, we conduct rigorous studies, but we can only theorise as to why the work and why they don't have the same effect in all patients. This has real implications f…

I think we know their mechanism of action, but the grim reality is that they don't work that well at low doses, plus there are a lot of side effects even at low doses. (Because their mechanism is so general. Inhibit this, promote that. But those are all over our body. Plus eventually there are tolerance issues - so doctors switch from time to time. But then they have to fiddle with the dose.)

You would be quite wrong. We do know some bits about the effects of serotonin in the body, though I would be amazed if we really understood the whole story.

But more than that, we have no idea what depression actually is, and that goes for any other psychiatric disease unrelated to direct brain damage. It would probably be more correct to call these syndromes rather than diseases, as we do not know the mechanisms causing the disease enough to even be sure if 'depression' is a meaningful diagnosis (in the sense that coughing is not a diagnosis).

We also don't have proper neurological studies of emotional illnesses - there are basically no comparative neurological studies of people diagnosed with depression versus people showing similar symptoms who are expected to quickly recover (for example, people grieving for a lost one). We don't know whether the brain chemistry changes we see in depression are the cause of the disease, or just the way 'sadness'/'lack of motivation' looks like neuro-chemically.

Re: Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

#57

Post by kristopolous »

fn1 wrote: post #54
garbagetime wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine the following. Here's the spectrum of medical knowledge: ----------------------------------------- Here's where we were in the dark ages: --|-------------------------------------- Here's where we are now: -------|--------------------------------- Here's where people like to think we are: ------------------|---------------------- In this scenario it seems like what you're saying and what your parent said are b…

Since that axis really cannot be constructed, I think a better way to present your sentiment is the following: Is it possible that we still miss a large discovery in medicine, akin to the introduction of evidence-based treatment, hygiene, inoculations or the discovery of DNA?

Absolutely, without question. Dozens, maybe hundreds of things that big.

The arrogant assumption of an infinite wisdom of the present is one of the strongest there is.

Ptolemaic astronomy looked right until Galileo came along. It matched observational measurements, just with an unhelpful set of assumptions. We're Ptolemy on countless things whose Galileos haven't been born yet.

It's unsettling to think we're all stupid in ways we'll never know, I know. Sorry about that.

Re: Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

#58

Post by projektfu »

trollied wrote: post #30
hilbert42 wrote: post #5

It seems almost unbelievable that in this day and age we could have missed something like this. In my opinion, it put modern medicine into perspective. I've suspected for some time that medicine is actually closer to the dark ages than we like to think it is, and this report seems like a good validation of that notion.

One day in the distant future, people will look back at us having treated cancers with radiation & wonder what the hell we were thinking!

Honestly, I think cytotoxic chemotherapy will be more shocking. Radiation oncology has made great strides in targeting the dose (cyberknife and other stereotactic approaches). Cytotoxic therapy is still basically poisoning everything and hoping the cancer dies first.

Or, in the case of cancers like multiple myeloma, killing all immune cells and replacing the stem cells.

The future of cancer therapy is likely to be heavily reliant on customization and precise drug delivery, to give an overwhelming dose of poison to the cancer without harming the patient.

Re: Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

#59

Post by hamilyon2 »

adriand wrote: post #21
garbagetime wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine the following. Here's the spectrum of medical knowledge: ----------------------------------------- Here's where we were in the dark ages: --|-------------------------------------- Here's where we are now: -------|--------------------------------- Here's where people like to think we are: ------------------|---------------------- In this scenario it seems like what you're saying and what your parent said are b…

But then we’re in the dark ages for everything, except maybe siege warfare. So it becomes a meaningless comment.

I could think of other examples. I mean, we know for sure that electrical motors are not going to be hugely more efficient, because then they will break conservation of energy and bunch of other laws of physics. So, by that measure we are not in dark ages
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