UNIT 4: HEALTH AND WELLNESS
My name‿ is‿ Anna. My grandmother had‿ a remedy for‿ every ailment,│ an(d) the older‿ I get,│ the more precisely I can divide her‿ advice‿ into the par(t) supported by an‿ evidence base‿ an(d) the par(t) supported by affection.
Honey genuinely helps‿ a sore throat,│ an(d) there‿ is data for‿ it. A wet cloth for‿ a headache is harmless. But when my son ran‿ a temperature‿ of 39 for two nights,│ tea was not‿ a treatment,│ and‿ I would have been careless to wait. The placebo effect‿ is real,│ which‿ is why these remedies persis(t) long│ after their‿ efficacy has been questioned,│ an(d) that‿ is‿ a reason to respec(t) them rather than to rely on them. Self-medicating with the wrong remedy is worse than doing nothing,│ an(d) none‿ of‿ it‿ is‿ evidence for the anecdotal claim that tradition knows best.
The serious problem‿ in my country is the mirror‿ image‿ of home remedies:│ patients demand‿ antibiotics for‿ a viral cold,│ and‿ overworked doctors prescribe them,│ which‿ is‿ undermining the drugs we will need. Prevention‿ is│ where the argumen(t) should begin,│ an(d) prevention sells nothing,│ which‿ is precisely why it‿ is‿ underfunded. My grandmother had no vocabulary for resistance‿ or‿ attribution,│ an(d) she was nonetheless right‿ about the essential point,│ which‿ is that most‿ illness‿ is betterbe-der prevented than cured.