UNIT 4: HEALTH AND WELLNESS
My name‿ is‿ Anna. My grandmother possessed‿ a remedy for‿ every ailment,│ an(d) the older‿ I become,│ the more precisely I can divide her‿ advice‿ into the portion supported by an‿ evidence base‿ an(d) the portion supported by affection.
Honey genuinely soothes‿ a sore throat,│ an(d) data exis(t) for‿ it. A wet cloth for‿ a headache is harmless. But when my son ran‿ a temperature‿ of thirty-nine for two nights,│ tea was not‿ a treatment,│ an(d) to have waited would have been careless. The placebo effect‿ is real,│ which‿ is why such remedies persis(t) long│ after their‿ efficacy has been questioned,│ an(d) that constitutes‿ a reason to respec(t) them rather than to rely upon them. To self-medicate with the wrong remedy is worse than doing nothing,│ an(d) none‿ of‿ it substantiates the anecdotal claim that tradition knows best.
The grave problem‿ in my country is the mirror‿ image‿ of home remedies:│ patients demand‿ antibiotics for‿ a viral cold,│ and‿ overworked physicians prescribe them,│ thereby undermining the drugs we shall‿ urgently require. Prevention‿ is│ where the argument‿ ought tooughta begin,│ an(d) prevention sells nothing,│ which‿ is precisely why it‿ is‿ underfunded. My grandmother had no vocabulary for resistance│ or for‿ attribution,│ yet she was correct‿ about the essential point,│ which‿ is that most‿ illness‿ is betterbe-der prevented than cured. It‿ is‿ a melancholy reflection that the leas(t) profitable‿ advice‿ is frequently the soundest.