Panacea (medicine)

The panacea /pænəˈsiːə/, named after the Greek goddess of universal remedy Panacea,[1] is any supposed remedy that is claimed (for example) to cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. It was in the past sought by alchemists in connection with the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone, a mythical substance which would enable the transmutation of common metals into gold.

"Cure-all" redirects here. For other uses, see cure all.

Ancient Greek and Roman scholars described various kinds of plants that were called panacea or panaces, such as Opopanax sp., Centaurea sp., Levisticum officinale, Achillea millefolium and Echinophora tenuifolia.[2]

The Cahuilla people of the Colorado Desert region of California used the red sap of the elephant tree (Bursera microphylla) as a panacea.[3]

The Latin genus name of ginseng is Panax, (or "panacea") reflecting Linnean understanding that traditional Chinese medicine used ginseng widely as a cure-all.

A panacea (or panaceum) is also a literary term to represent any solution to solve all problems related to a particular issue.

The term "panacea" is used in a negative way to describe the overuse of any one solution to solve many different problems, especially in medicine.[4] The word has acquired connotations of snake-oil and quackery.[5] Panacea can be used to refer to a "cure-all."[6]

Panacea (goddess)

In Greek mythology Panacea was one of the daughters of the Greek god of medicine Asclepius, along with her sister Hygeia. Hygeia was considered the goddess of preventative medicine while Panacea was the goddess of healing, or in a modern conception, the goddess of therapeutic drugs. [1] According to the mythology, Panacea had an elixir or potion with which she was able to heal any human malady.[7]

Possible Panacea's in Modern Medicine

The definition of panacea is a remedy for all ills or difficulties. A cure-all.[8] Many in medicine believe that Panacea has a negative connotation because it is believed that there isn't a single method that can cure all diseases or fix all problems.

Hospital Mergers

One action that is being compared as a modern Panacea is hospital mergers.[9] Many hospitals in Europe and North America are going through mergers because it is believed that they are able to save on costs while being able to raise the quality of care for patients. The only problem is the statistics do not support either of their claims.[9]

Cancer Clinical Trials

Cancer Clinical Trials have played a vital role in many of the discoveries made in Oncology, but it appears that this model of fallen behind and is now too outdated for it to be able to play a significant role in the fight against Cancer.[10] As of right now, many believe that Cancer Clinical Trials are becoming a Panacea. Many believe that this is a dire situation and need to be urgent in finding new solutions that can have similar success that clinical trials did.[10] Cancer is a complex disease and it attacks the body in many different ways. There are multiple steps that are needed to fully know everything about a specific cancer in a person's body, one step doesn't reveal everything the doctors need to know.[10] Patients are required to go through physicals, lab testing, a Biopsy and more. Treating cancer is no different. There are many different approaches to treatment such as surgery, medicine, Radiation therapy, and more.

Personalized Medicine and Health Management

Health care has been revolutionized in the past 20 years or so. There have been many new approaches to medicine and how people take care of their personal health. Some studies have indicated that personalized medicine is the best approach for a person's health management and being able to help them with all of their different conditions. Personalized treatments are different type of treatments than the ordinary ones. It is believed that personal medicine could have a better effect on the "imperfect information related to diagnoses".[11] There are possible side effects that could still occur. Many of the new tests that occur for people to undergo personalized medicine are genetic tests. People take these genetic tests to confirm that they are the best possible patients to receive these different type of new treatments. One problem that is brought up when discussing personalized medicine is its unknown affects on the economy. There is no proof that it raises or lowers the economy.[11] Due to the many tests that patients go through and those tests not always being accurate, it is still unknown whether or not personalized medicine can be a Panacea for all conditions.[11] It is something that will continue to be studied and tested.

See also

References
  1. Dyke, H.B. (1947). "The Weapons of Panacea". The July Scientific Monthly. 64: 322–326 – via JSTOR.
  2. Glare, P.G.W. (1968). Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 1288.
  3. Bean, Lowell John and Katherine Siva Saubel, 1972, Temalpakh (From the Earth); Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants, Banning, CA. Malki Museum Press, page 48. http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/filtered/?string=Panacea&tribe=24&use_category=1.
  4. "HONEY, MUD, MAGGOTS AND OTHER MEDICAL MARVELS". msu.edu.
  5. Örtenblad, Anders, ed. (2015). "Foreword by David Collins". Handbook of Research on Management Ideas and Panaceas: Adaptation and Context. Research Handbooks in Business and Management series. Chelthnham: Edward Elgar Publishing. p. xxvii. ISBN 9781783475605. Retrieved 21 November 2019. A panacea is [...] a cure-all. In modern medicine its lexical equivalents would include such things as 'elixirs', 'patent medicine' and 'snake-oil'. Panaceas are sold by 'quacks'. the purchasers of such preparations are, consequently, taken to be either gullible, desperate, or both.
  6. Kim, Keun (2020). "Against COVID-19: Inspired by Greek Myth". Ocuup Med – via PubMed.
  7. Ortenblad, Anders (2015). Handbook of Research on Management Ideas and Panaceas: Adaptation and Context. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 3. ISBN 978 1 78347 559 9.
  8. "Definition of PANACEA". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  9. Weil, Thomas (2010). "Hospital mergers: a panacea?". Journal of Health Services Research & Policy. 15 (4): 251–253. ISSN 1355-8196.
  10. Lawler, Sullivan, Mark, Richard (2015). "Personalised and Precision Medicine in Cancer Clinical Trials: Panacea for Progress or Pandora's Box?". JSTOR. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  11. Antoñanzas, Fernando (2015). "Is Personalized Medicine a Panacea for Health Management? Some Thoughts on Its Desirability". JSTOR.
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