Unfortunately, several diseases out there still don’t have a cure. Most of them have symptoms which will affect people’s lives to a certain (sometimes extreme) degree. Some of them can be very annoying, crippling, or simply terrifying. Some of them, for example, are sarcoidosis, tinnitus, genital and oral herpes, asthma, myasthenia gravis, menopause, and so on. People with such conditions are especially vulnerable and more willing to be gullible, since they often feel that the medical world “fails them”.

Once upon a time, when I was very young (I would have been 14 or 15), a doctor lost his patience with me. I frankly don’t remember what the consult was about—it’s been quite a few years, and my memory is poor of details. What I do remember, is the sentence the fazed doctor told me: “Please stop playing doctor, let me do my job, “the doctor”, and you do yours, “the patient”. OK?

I agreed. I shut right up, and did what the doctor said. Now, I wish I remembered what the conversation was about, and more importantly if the treatment worked…