Cures?

My creatinine (a marker of kidney function and hydration) is slightly elevated. So I was advised to drink more.

Fine. Reasonable.

I told my oncologist's nurse – the one who told me to drink more – that I'd have more tea during the day. “No” she said. Tea has caffeine and would cause a diuresis. I'd lose more water than I'd take in. I didn't say much. That's not what I learned in medical school, but that was more than a half-century ago and medical opinion might have changed.

But it hasn't.

According to Bruce Richardson, a columnist for Tea Time magazine,

Tea consumption does not produce a negative diuretic effect unless the amount of tea consumed at one sitting contains more than 300mg of caffeine.

At an average 50mg of caffeine per cup, this is equivalent to six cups of tea at one sitting.

And

Dr. Jeffrey Blumenthal, Director of Antioxidant Research at Tufts University in Boston. Speaking at the 2012 International Tea & Health Symposium at the Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC, Dr. Blumenthal had this to say about the subject:

"We now have more than sufficient data to get over the myth that somehow tea is a diuretic and dehydrating. It is not."

Too much of what we accept is myth and old wives' tales.

Perhaps, as “everyone knows,” chicken soup is the universal panacea. Indeed, I saw in an eighteenth century medical book I once owned, that chicken soup, used as an enema, was a useful therapy for something. I can't remember what it was intended for, but I can't imagine it had any particular value. Sounds like a waste of good chicken soup. (Even bad chicken soup would probably be of no value as an enema, though I can think of no better use for it.) I'm reasonably certain that many of the things we do today will, in future years, be viewed as myths and superstitions, yet today we put all our trust in them.

The same nurse advised me to wear shoes when I walk because a neuropathy of the feet was one of the side effects of a drug I was taking and I had started to become unsteady. I'm reasonably certain that this is a standard teaching of nurses (and mothers) but I choose to ignore it. Shoes make my feet hurt and make me more unsteady, and I walk (indoors at least) better in soft slippers. She never asked me anything about other foot problems; she only advised that I wear shoes all the time. One size (of therapy) fits all.

You've heard such advice before. It may have come from the media (usually regarding food, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes) which are quick to publicize first (and unverified) studies; it may have come from others who pass on “wellness” advice and what they've heard or what everyone knows – even the doctors who, everyone knows, are hiding it from you; its origin may be your grandmother – the font of all the wisdom of the ages. And there are the views of those who would help us cure disease by using “alternative medicine” – a fashion that has provided additional options, often of no value – to those easily swayed by both the latest and by the time-honored explanations of measures likely to provide good health.

Some of the therapies, irrespective of the source, are associated with success, but the same can be achieved by a variety of placebos. Others simply occupy the patient until “nature takes its course” and he recovers – time heals some wounds. We should not ignore the fact that some have a suggestion of scientific validity and should be investigated further. However we should await the results of those investigations before proclaiming their value.

But most of these therapies are based on belief, and won't yield to logic and any information contrary to what their proponents “know.” Thus the nurse (believes and) advises that tea will cause dehydration, even though there is ample evidence that this is not true. Too many people are swayed by outdated ideas which they won't surrender no matter what the contrary evidence. All the claims of those who practice allopathic medicine are viewed skeptically if they disagree with common knowledge or the views of “experts” promoting “feel good,” or “feel superior” methods for dealing with our ills – or what we think to be our ills.

There's no cure for this disease. I won't try to defend the medical profession because I'll be accused of being part of the conspiracy to malign therapies other those of the “club.” Even when ancient and alternative methods and medicines delay proper treatment, they're seen as valid alternatives to standard ways.

Sometimes, as the saying goes, the cure is worse than the disease.