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Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

(www.scientificamerican.com)
611 points sohkamyung | 4 comments | 19 Feb 25 12:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.862s | source
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ehnto ◴[19 Feb 25 14:04 UTC] No.43102277[source]▶
The pathology for broken collar bones was changing right as I took up mountain biking, and subsequently shattered my collarbone.

It was hotly debated at the hospital, if my specific case should be operated on or not. Each time I had a checkup, one doctor would say "wait and see" while the other was saying "I can't believe we didn't operate on this".

At any rate, the outcome was as good as if they had operated on it, according to the doc anyway. Nice of them to test it out on me!

More related to this though, I have broken both my collarbones, the first time I had little direction and just held my arm still for 2-3 months. It took forever to heal, and my arm atrophied significantly. The second time, similar severity. I was guided through rehab and I was back using my arm within the first month, very little atrophy.

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1. akudha ◴[19 Feb 25 21:37 UTC] No.43108047[source]▶
When I was a kid (not in the U.S), I remember village elders diagnosing all kinds of illnesses simply from checking one's pulse, without asking any questions or even talking. These are people with minimum education, minimum or zero exposure to science or labs or modern medicine.

Now we have all kinds of powerful, fancy machines and drugs and procedures and today's doctors still misdiagnose, mistreat even relatively simple issues.

I don't know if it is because we as humans have lost touch with nature, our own bodies or we have way more illnesses today than I was a kid 4 decades ago or what else is the reason. It is kinda depressing and mind boggling at the same time.

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2. adammarples ◴[19 Feb 25 22:35 UTC] No.43108642[source]▶
I get the impression from the second part of this that you think the village elders were correctly diagnosing things?
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3. burnished ◴[19 Feb 25 23:02 UTC] No.43108883[source]▶
I wonder how likely that is? I suspect their understanding of their diagnostic technique is flawed, but beyond that, would a small enough group have a similarly small pool of common afflictions such that you could develop a useful body of medical lore?
4. hatthew ◴[20 Feb 25 00:24 UTC] No.43109635[source]▶
when my grandma was a kid she remembers the village doctor telling her she has ghosts in her blood and she should do cocaine about it