Researchers discover new salivary glands in the human head

Stomach acid is contents of the gut but also part of the digestive tract. An even more thorny issue: the microbiome, which is a hot topic in research.

And that's a complication the head lacks.

I mean this question with genuine curiosity

However, TIL about the Palmaris longus muscle which is absent in around 14% of people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmaris_longus_muscle

I don't find that surprising. You have to do the early phases of drug development in model systems like cell cultures for practical reasons: It makes evidence obtained more reproducible and has less ethical concerns than experimenting on humans immediately. It's like how software components usually get implemented and tested in simplified environments (e.g. unit tests use doubles), and just like with drugs, sometimes we find that software components interact with each other in unexpected ways when combined into a whole.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferasirox

Here's where we were in the dark ages:

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Here's where we are now:

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Here's where people thought we were in the dark ages:

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Here's where people like to think we are today:

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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?

Also, in the book "The King of Hearts" which describes the history of open heart surgery, the first open heart surgeries were done by sewing the circulatory system of two people together (usually mother and child). that was in the recent past.

In another discussion bred from boredom where some friends and I were trying to define entire fields of study in a single sentence (Economics is the allocation of scarcity) one doctor said, "Medicine is about controlling swelling." His response (he was a surgeon) kind of made your point that we imagine that doctors are fixing things and he is saying that he spent most of his time trying to get the body to make it better and not worse.

I started having really bad insomnia more than a year ago. I went to see a bunch of doctors. Initially, I was given low dosage sleeping pills, which didn't help much. I went to a hospital to get a CT scan because I was having mad headaches, which my family doctor wouldn't refer me. The scan was normal. Finally, I found a doctor who's willing to refer me MRI scan. After waiting for couple of months, the result didn't turn up anything again. Keep in mind I've been suffering 2 - 3 hours sleep a day all these time. I also did sleep study, and sleep study mostly care about sleep apnea, so they couldn't identify any causes again. Then I went to see a psychiatrist, more sleeping pills, which are really antidepressants. Eventually, after a long wait, I was referred to a neurologist and sleep specialist. I've done so much research on sleep medicine at this point, I already knew what he's gonna prescribe me - sleep restriction therapy. That didn't really help altho I gave up after trying for two weeks. I intend to try it again but I can't attempt it now that I'm back to work. So one year later, I'm still messed up with no known cause.

I know insomnia in my case is not a traditional disease, but it goes to show you that if you're not having one of the common diseases then you're shit out of luck.

The human body's extremely complex, but instead of using proper debugging tools, doctors are mostly relying on "console logs" or "print statements". Even if a root cause is identified, often time we don't have the necessary tools to fix the problems.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo#Mechanisms

Were those implements actually practiced throughout the dark ages or did they go the way of the Roman road networks?

When people talk of the dark ages they're usually talking of post-Roman Western Europe rather than Asia or the Middle East. I'm not sure if a Bohemian peasant living in 1000 AD would've benefited much from Islamic medicine advancements.

For example,

>Giving patients highly addictive narcotics for pain relief.

Is the opioid epidemic modern medicine's fault? Or is it more the fault of doctors who over-prescribe coupled with the lack of a sane healthcare system?

Also, are there viable (read: equally effective) alternatives to opioids for pain relief?

>Giving patients broad-spectrum antibiotics

Is the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria modern medicine's fault? Or is it more the fault of patients who do not finish out their full regimen?

And again, are there viable alternatives to broad-spectrum antibiotics?

>Covid 19 spreads 3M in Europe but only 6ft. in the USA

Distancing guidelines were meant to provide a general reference point, not magical thresholds at which COVID is incapable of passing over... They're going for a distance that is easily visualized, is situated well up on the "diminishing returns" curve, and (when combined with other measures like wearing a mask) provides an "acceptable" risk of exposure.

Sneezing, for one example, will throw respiratory droplets much further than the recommendation for social distancing.

>N95 masks don't prevent infection but surgical masks work great

I'd like to see a source for this claim if you don't mind, as a quick perusal of the FDA[0] and CDC[1][2] do not show this statement anywhere. Everything I've found states they're fairly equally effective. Everything I've found also says that N95 and surgical masks are not recommended for use outside a profession which requires them:

Q: Should I purchase personal protective equipment such as facemasks or N95 respirators for me and my family?

A: No. Surgical masks and N95s need to be reserved for use by health care workers, first responders, and other frontline workers whose jobs put them at much greater risk of acquiring COVID-19. The cloth face coverings recommended by CDC are not surgical masks or N95 respirators. Surgical masks and N95s are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for health care workers and other medical first responders, as recommended by CDC.

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CDC does not recommend using masks for source control if they have an exhalation valve or vent.

Masks are not surgical masks or respirators. Currently, those are critical supplies that should continue to be reserved for healthcare workers and other medical first responders, as recommended by current CDC guidance. Masks also are not appropriate substitutes for them in workplaces where surgical masks or respirators are recommended or required and available.

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CDC also links to a study[3] that found "Surgical and N95 masks were equally effective in preventing the spread of PCR-detectable influenza". There are plenty of related studies which come to the same conclusion.

>viruses don't spread while sitting but spread while standing in a restaurant

Again, how is this a "modern medicine" issue, or a "conflicting and dubious public health guideline"? They're not saying "the virus won't spread as long as you're sitting down!", they're saying "if you fucks have to go out, at least try to stay apart for everyone else's sake".

[0] https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coro.... [1] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-si... [2] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-si... [3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19522650/