Starting from the cold incense pills of the Dream of the Red Chamber, the psychological and therapeutic effects of medicine
Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the four famous works in China, Cao Xueqin's erudition is even more breathtaking, which has had a profound impact on future generations, and even established the Red Studies Research Society. One of them is mainly the study of the pharmaceutical and medical aspects of this huge work.
In terms of appearance, Xue Baochao is Bai Fumeijian in the dream of the Red Chamber. However, in the seventh episode of the Dream of the Red Chamber, it is mentioned that Baochao has a disease root called hot poison, which was diagnosed by a monk with a laitou and prescribed a fang called Leng Xiang Pill.
According to Baochao, this prescription "should bloom in the spring with white peony blossoms twelve, summer with white lotus blossoms with twelve, white hibiscus blossoms with twelve pairs in autumn, and white plum blossoms with twelve twos in winter." These four flower buds are dried in the sun of the following spring equinox, and they are studied together at the end of the medicine. And twelve dollars for the rain on this day, twelve dollars for the dew on this day, twelve dollars for frost on this day, and twelve dollars for snow on this day. Mix these four kinds of water, mix the medicine, add twelve dollars of honey, twelve dollars of white sugar, and take the large balls of longan, put them in the old magnetic altar, and bury them under the roots of the flowers. If you are sick, take out a pill and send it down with twelve points of yellow cedar decoction. ”
Such prescriptions can be described as complicated and harsh. No wonder the Zhou Rui family laughed and said, "Amitabha, what a pit of death!" Ten years may not be so clever."
In fact, this is the classic of psychotherapy. There is no disease at all in Baochao. If Baochao's illness is very urgent, then wait until spring and autumn come. If Baochao is very ill, waiting for this medicine may delay the treatment.
And Xue Baochao is very healthy, the skin is lustrous, and at most there are some delicate breaths. For example, Baochao chased the flying butterfly, the incense sweat was dripping, and the delicate breath was delicate. Exactly the normal manifestation of a healthy girl. Perhaps the cold incense pills from making to taking only play a psychological cue. The real curative effect comes from Baochao's trust and respect for the monk and the cold incense pill, believing that he has a hot poison, treating things patiently from then on, self-denial, low-key to mood and sorrow, and being decent everywhere, so that he can be more in line with the moral norms of society. Cold incense pills seem to function as a psychological suggestive function that modern medicine calls a placebo effect.
Here's a well-publicized story: On a summer night in 2005, Bonnie, a 75-year-old woman in Austin, Minnesota, USA. Anderson chased the drama at home in the afternoon, watching and falling asleep. When I woke up, it was dark, I felt thirsty, so I went to the kitchen barefoot to get water to drink, but I didn't know when the water purifier began to leak water to the floor. As a result, she slipped and fell to the ground, unable to move, only to feel severe pain in her spine, and her spine was fractured. After treatment and recuperation, although she did not fall paralyzed, she often felt spinal pain, life was difficult to take care of, and she could not even stand up and wash dishes.
At this time, a new therapy called vertebral plasty was becoming popular in the United States. This therapy is to inject the damaged spine with a compound called bone cement, which is said to help the damaged bone to heal and restore miraculously, so that the function of the original part is completely restored, so that the accompanying pain is completely disappeared. It is more than 80% efficient. Doctors told Bonnie that her illness was expected to be cured by vertebroplasty.
A few months later, Bonnie participated in a clinical trial of vertebroplasty at the prestigious Mayo Clinic. A few days after the operation, she walked out of the hospital and really felt much better. After a few weeks, she was not only able to wash the dishes and cook, but also to the golf course for a few strokes. In 2016, ten years later, Bonnie is 86 years old, and she is still very satisfied with the results of the clinical trial that year, and her back pain has never recurred. The clinical trial clearly cured Bonnie of dysfunction and persistent pain after a spinal fracture. However, she did not know that she was randomly assigned to the control group that year, so she was not injected with bone cement treatment.
David Carlms, a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, is the initiator of the clinical trial. To test whether bone cement is really effective, the clinical trial in which Bonnie participated made an important contribution to medicine. In 2019, based on the fact that the trial group did not have a better prognosis than the control group, the United States decided not to recommend vertebroplasty in regular patients.
The placebo effect is that if the patient believes that a therapy is beneficial, ta's symptoms will improve. If the patient has a preconceived view of a therapy, the symptoms of the TA will worsen, and some people call the latter an anticeptive effect. In any case, placebo is currently considered to have an average of 20 to 30 percent utility. Why does placebo work? This may be a psychological effect, but part of it may also be a physiological reaction after a psychological effect. Researchers have reported that this phenomenon is a specific pattern of activity produced in the brain and spinal cord and can be detected by brain imaging.
On the shores of Saranak Lake in New York, USA, engraved with the inscription of william Osler, a famous American doctor: Occasionally it can be cured, most of it is comfort, and it is always caring. This is also the motto of countless hospitals today.
More than 100 years have passed, and modern medicine has made great progress, but whether it is modern medicine or traditional medicine, there are not a few diseases that have not been cured now.
In my opinion, if a disease already has a proven and proven treatment, it must be introduced to patients as a matter of priority. If there is no effective therapy, if surgery is not performed or harmful drugs are taken, psychological suggestive effects may give patients a placebo effect. It's just chicken soup for the soul, but why not?
