Today I read Aging eyes, infant eyes and excitable tissue by Ray Peat. Although I enjoy all of his work this piece particularly hit home. I know I had read it before but sometimes rereading things brings a new insight. What really stood out for me was all of the questionable practices in medicine that he mentions I have witnessed first hand more times than I can count. I have seen premature infants resuscitated with pure oxygen and in fact I have done it myself. I have also witnessed the elderly being treated in the same manner because it is standard practice. It really is a shame that this still goes on when the science to prove it is detrimental has been around so long. I've only met one doctor that intervened to stop the excessive use of oxygen and he was not from the U.S.. I'm really pretty ashamed to admit that I have been a part of this. What really won me over to Peat's views is that he explained everything in his writings that I had questioned for so many years. Outcomes in medicine seem very poor from my perspective and the common excuse is to blame the patient for not taking care of themselves or some other excuse to shift the attention away from the flaws in medicine. He is exactly correct in my opinion when he speaks of the shortcomings in medical 'science'.
