I'm sure the old medico would be flabbergasted by the progress we've made in his profession since he was playing it by ear as the top medicine man in ancient Greece. He'd be flabbergasted, that is, by big- ticket stuff like organ transplants and genetic engineering, On the other hand, I'm sure he'd be less than flabbergasted by the little progress his heirs have made in the treatment of such Mickey mouse maladies as the common cold, chronic backache and a constant ringing in the ears.

I once consulted an ear specialist about the constant ringing in my ears. He told me that I had tinnitus. (As soon as I got home, I looked up the word, and found that it means ringing in the ears). He then gave me a dose of medical mumbo-jumbo which all boiled down to the fact that modern medicine, with all its state-of-the-art computers and miracle drugs, doesn't know what causes this tintinnabular condition, nor does it know how to cure, or prevent it. Incredible medical feats that were once the stuff of science fiction are now taken for granted. We no longer are astonished that there are people living active lives, thanks to the donated hearts beating in their breasts. And to think that only a few short years ago we were terrified of smallpox, now eliminated, and polio, which is heading for the exit. What, I wonder, would the sage of ancient Athens think of computer technology that enables doctors to decipher the human DNA? Which, of course, he'd never even heard of. And what would old Hippo's ethical position be on designing people to our liking by manipulating their chromosomes while they are still in the womb.

I suspect that in spite of all this mind blowing medical mega-stuff, the old healer would be asking us why we were still medically gridlocked in the mini-malady department. Once when I was suffering from a nagging pain in my back, the doctor put me on a regimen of rest and aspirin, and told me that I had lumbago. I looked that up, too; it just means back pain. As for the common cold, this piece of wisdom, which was probably making the rounds in his native Athens when Hippocrates was a boy, still applies: With medical treatment a common cold will clear up in about a week; without treatment it should clear up by itself in about seven days.

If the Father of Medicine dropped by today, he'd be floored to learn that not only could he get himself a new heart - OK, a used one - but that if he stuck around for a while, he could even have himself cloned. On the other hand, I'm sure he'd be truly puzzled to learn that, as was the case in his own ancient times, there is little or nothing our modern medics could do for his aching back, his runny nose, or his ringing ears. Plus ca change….

By William Bedford
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/bedford032306.htm