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Suzanne Crookshanks's avatar

Your article on the Greek word "Medicine" brought to mind the wooden cutout & painted Aesculapian staff I made in the early 1970's for my father's newly built veterinary clinic. He taught me the Aesculapian staff, consisting of a single snake coiled around a staff, was the symbol for veterinarians and the Caduceus, two snakes coiled around a staff with heads facing each other & wings on top, was the symbol for medical doctors. Your article prompted me to look the two symbols up & I learned the Caduceus is widely used as a symbol for medical doctors, organizations, etc. in the US, but it was originally considered to be a symbol of commerce & trading activities. Seems US medical organizations have mistakenly used the Caduceus bc of its similarity to the Rod of Asclepius or the Aesculapian staff. "Learn something new every day!" Thanks Charles

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Andrew Pardington's avatar

Can I throw into the discussion another viewpoint? One I learned of recently articulated by Dr Thomas Levy whereby Medicine needs a more functional approach "All pathogens, toxins, and poisons, directly or indirectly, promote increased intracellular oxidative stress (increased IOS causes/results in disease or susceptibility to) in the affected cells as more and more biomolecules are oxidized. One of the chief mechanisms for elevating IOS involves increased extracellular calcium entry into the cell via the calcium channels in the cell’s membrane." He goes on to discuss magnesium as a calcium regulator and moderator of IOS and IOS being best controlled with high dose vitamin C - both very hard to get in a balanced diet.

Levy, Thomas E. . Magnesium: Reversing Disease (p. 25). Medfox Publishing.

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