[conspire] 45's treatment oddities and why men are dying at much higher rates

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Dire Red (deirdre at deirdre.net):

[...]

> Yes, steroids definitely make you feel like you *can* do more than you
> *should* do. Which no doubt explains his just-now statement that he
> will be released tonight. No doubt AMA (against medical advice).

Although I certainly would prefer the man were not standing in the way
of someone being an _actual_ President, I wish him well otherwise, and 
this latest news and then the early-morning 'roid rage episode on
Twitter (_fifteen_ deranged all-caps tweets in rapid sequence, i.e.,
about one per minute) makes me worry for _him_ in addition to the
country.  We now have a megalomaniac who is _also_ amped up on a
powerful corticosteroid known to induce mania, psychosis, mood swings,
grandiose delusions, and hallucinations -- while armed with the globe's
largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.

I've given up on predicting even the near future, this year, but I
cannot see this ending well.


Also, something pointed out to me this evening:  Mr. Trump's current
lead physician, Dr. Sean Conley, the one who stood on the steps of
Walter Reed Hospital and made that statement to the press, is an
osteopath.(!?)  

I say again:  an osteopath.


An osteopath is not quite an outright quack.  No sir. Not quite.  Quoting CNN:

  Conley, who took over as Trump's White House physician in March 2018,
  holds a degree in osteopathic medicine, one of the two degrees in the
  United States in which physicians can practice medicine -- either as a
  doctor of medicine or a doctor of osteopathic medicine.  About a quarter
  of US medical students train at osteopathic medical schools, according
  to the American Medical Association. Historically, doctor of osteopathic
  medicine programs have touted their methods as "more holistic."

Wikipedia about the (1892) inventor of the cited 'alternative medicine'
field, Andrew Taylor Still:

  Dr. Still sought to reform existing 19th-century medical practices.
  Still investigated alternative treatments, such as hydropathy, diet,
  bonesetting, and magnetic healing. Still found appeal in the
  relatively tame side effects of those modalities[25] and imagined that
  someday "rational medical therapy" would consist of manipulation of the
  musculoskeletal system, surgery and very sparing use of drugs, including
  anesthetics, antiseptics and antidotes. He invented the name
  osteopathy by blending two Greek roots osteon- for bone and -pathos for
  suffering in order to communicate his theory that disease and
  physiologic dysfunction were etiologically grounded in a disordered
  musculoskeletal system. Thus, by diagnosing and treating the
  musculoskeletal system, he believed that physicians could treat a
  variety of diseases and spare patients the negative side-effects of
  drugs.

'Quack' is an ugly word, so I'll just say osteopathy is a crank
fringe-medical theory.

So, the President of the United States could have his condition and
treatment supervised by any of the truly excellent, world-class
physicians working for the US military... and he has an osteopath?


Deirdre says this is _just_ like the bit at the end of 'Raiders of the
Lost Ark':

   "We have top men working on it right now."
   "Who?"
   "Top.  Men."

   "Hey, what happened?  You don't look very happy."
   "Fools.  Bureaucratic fools."
   "What did they say?"
   "They don't know what they've got, there."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRP0MBNoieY

An osteopath.

Go home, 2020.  You're drunk.