Tell me the truth, doctor!

Written by Charles Lebaigue MD


Continued from page 1

And all those years I tried to make my teaching language each time clearer and more adequate torepparttar topics I discussed with my 21 years old students.

They were not more than 30 inrepparttar 115716 heroic beginning ofrepparttar 115717 University : almost boys. But in my last years, they were

Already more than 100 -- almost girls. Times do change.

I am sure you'll forgive me to have revealed something about my own person before you takerepparttar 115718 challenge to follow me in my more "philosophical" reflections.

If you are NOT so interested in such a "heavy" topics, please * J U M P * straight torepparttar 115719 END of next section:

============================================== BUT.if you ARE, Fellow Heavy Thinkers, here we go! ==============================================

4. The Editor's view about Truth! ============================================= What for a "truth" isrepparttar 115720 patient here above asking for? What would SHE call The Truth in this case?

A plausible description ofrepparttar 115721 development of her bad health condition. An explanation she can believe and put up with.

But a "truth" her doctor also really can believe. And actually does believe. In fact she asks for a "truth" they both believe in and want to work with.

Is The Truth then nothing else than a suitable, from both partners agreed tale? A story we now believe because we trust each other TODAY ? Maybe we won't believe "that truth" tomorrow any more. But another truth: Our tomorrow's truth.

Truth - our truth - is like a living being: it has to be born, To live a certain amount of time, to die and fully disappear.

Just as our Feelings do. Their existence is limited torepparttar 115722 duration of our actual relationship to a person or an object.

Do I assume then that there is no other Truth than such one?

Yes, I do. Truth is for me "social stuff". A kind of secret between a "You" and a "Me". And a secret "we" BOTH believe in. Forrepparttar 115723 present moment.

And this "You" has not to be a person of flesh and blood. It can be God,repparttar 115724 Bible, or evenrepparttar 115725 Science,repparttar 115726 Fate. As long as I confirm "Your" existence for me by talking to "You", by BELIEVING in "You".

Truth is thus a question of belief, of trust. Whenrepparttar 115727 trust is over,repparttar 115728 belief vanished? "Farewell Truth!"

Scientific Truth becomes "a remnant of a primitive stage of Mankind". Do you rememberrepparttar 115729 "childish" conception ofrepparttar 115730 old Ptolemy:repparttar 115731 Earth asrepparttar 115732 centre ofrepparttar 115733 Universe?

Even Religion is often degraded nowadays torepparttar 115734 status of a nice fairy tale "we" once believed when "we" were just kids.

And consider how difficult it is for us to remember vividly that we have really been in love with a person we now fear or despise so much.

But we really have been, you know! And it was true love. THEN.

Let me try to give an exacter definition ofrepparttar 115735 word truth, as we commonly use and understand it:

Truth is what both (or more) partners agree to be true atrepparttar 115736 very moment of their trustful conversation. They both (or all) believe that truth. But They arerepparttar 115737 only ones to can bear witness to it. Nobody else can.

Truth has nothing to do, consequently, with a Permanent Universal Reality that would exist on its own, either we believe it or not.

Truth has thus nothing to do with Objectivity. With Facts.

And only facts seem to obey torepparttar 115738 laws ofrepparttar 115739 contemporary Science. They can (mostly) be checked by an independent observer. One can measure them, mathematically analyse, repeat and predict them.

Do you need to believe something or someone to be sure about a fact? NO ! You just have to check it by yourself.

Facts can't be true or false. They just ARE there, outside of us, 'waiting' tillrepparttar 115740 Science begins to explain them. In other words, till we perceive them and give them a name, a significance.

And that name IS NOTrepparttar 115741 fact itself , butrepparttar 115742 OPINION one has about this fact (e.g. "the Earth is flat") depending a lot ofrepparttar 115743 explanationrepparttar 115744 Science builds around that opinion.

Many scientific theories and axioms have taken, nowadays,repparttar 115745 place ofrepparttar 115746 former religious Authority. You have to agree with them if you want to build a career atrepparttar 115747 University or if you want to be published in a "serious" magazine.

Just asrepparttar 115748 Churches did inrepparttar 115749 old days,repparttar 115750 'Academics' teachrepparttar 115751 people what they SHOULD now believe aboutrepparttar 115752 universe, if they want to avoid a conflict withrepparttar 115753 'spiritual' Authority.

Those scientific dogmas (or paradigms, as they were recently renamed), are presented torepparttar 115754 people asrepparttar 115755 Truth. And they ARE reallyrepparttar 115756 Truth . for those who BELIEVE in them.

As long, of course, asrepparttar 115757 present believers won't loose their 'faith' in them. And choose a new scientific Truth to believe in (also doomed -- of course -- to disappear sooner or later.).

This has always been and will probably ever berepparttar 115758 behaviour ofrepparttar 115759 upper intellectual class.

Why do I insist so heavily upon this point?

Becauserepparttar 115760 Holistic approach ofrepparttar 115761 reality (and of course ofrepparttar 115762 Medicine) proceeds from an other paradigm (another belief about what is real) thanrepparttar 115763 paradigm ofrepparttar 115764 majority ofrepparttar 115765 contemporary scientists.

But I'm sure it has been enough for today. We'll surely talk again about that big problem. In one of next issues.

Charles Lebaigue MD is a retired Belgian professor(Medical Psychology)who successfully practised several holistic therapies


Hormone Replacement Therapy And Breast Cancer

Written by Patricia T. Kelly, Ph. D.


Continued from page 1

Janet asked if HRT use might have caused some breast cancers to grow more rapidly and therefore be detected sooner than eight years. This is unlikely. A number of studies find that breast cancers in women who were using HRT were not larger and were not dividing more rapidly than breast cancers in non hormone users. Since breast cancers grow more slowly in older women andrepparttar average age in this study was 63, breast cancers in this group would tend to grow more slowly and so take even longer thanrepparttar 115715 eight year average to be detected.

Women inrepparttar 115716 WHI study used a particular type of hormone Prempro. The results of this study therefore do not apply to other, newer approaches in which more natural hormones are used and a woman's menstrual cycle is more closely approximated.

Janet was surprised to learn that many studies find that women who use HRT do not have an increase in breast cancer risk compared to women who don't use hormones, even when hormones are used for twenty years. Also, in another large study in which some women were assigned to take Prempro and others not, women who used Prempro had no significant increase in breast cancer risk.

As Janet left, she said, "I can see now that when I hear about a study I need to know how big a risk is and not just that it is increased. I'll also ask how long a study it was. This discussion has given me a whole different perspective."

Understand and manage your cancer risk. Visit http://www.ptkelly.com and sign up for our free teleforum.

Patricia T. Kelly, Ph.D. is a medical geneticist who specializes in providing information about cancer risk to individuals and health professionals. She is affiliated with Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco. Information about her book, Assess Your True Risk of Breast Cancer, can be found on her web site: http://www.ptkelly.com.

Dr. Kelly is a medical geneticist who has been a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics since 1982. In 1993 she became a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics. She received her Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley.


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