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Social context of health and illness
Published in Sally Robinson, Priorities for Health Promotion and Public Health, 2021
Scientific method comprises careful, objective, observation; gathering and documenting empirical (real) measurable evidence; and testing a hypothesis through controlled experiments. The method reveals whether a cause produces an observed effect. This approach can lead to the discovery of eternal and immutable universal laws of science. The scientific study of the body, biomedicine, seeks to find universal causes of disease and treatments. Reductionism means breaking the body down into parts, systems and organs and studying them in increasing detail. William Harvey was an early practitioner of the scientific, reductionist, experimental study of the body which led to his discovery of blood circulation in 1628 (Lubnitz, 2004).
Major Issues Related to Progress in NEC
Published in David J. Hackam, Necrotizing Enterocolitis, 2021
Reductionist approaches involve critically evaluating an individual component that leads to disease, which can be an important part of the pathophysiology, but only when taken in context of a holistic understanding of a myriad of mechanisms that interact with one another. For example, one factor that has received considerable attention in the pathogenesis of NEC is the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) pathway (16). Despite convincing evidence that this can be a significant contributor to NEC, it is a mistake to consider a TLR4 pathway aberration as the single pathophysiologic factor. It appears that NEC may have a genetic predisposition, and genetic loci that associate with NEC are being found (17). However, if NEC was simply dependent on a single gene, one protein, one inflammatory pathway, prevention or treatment using modulators of this pathway would provide a simple remedy. This is not and will not be the case. Rather, the concept of “multiomics,” which includes an interplay between host genetics, environmental factors such as resident microbes, host immune and metabolic responses to these microbes, and diet and other environmental factors, is increasingly being integrated to help us understand these complex diseases using multiomic and “systems biology” approaches (13).
Understanding Classical Naturopathy: The Hippocratic Way of Healing
Published in Anil K. Sharma, Raj K. Keservani, Surya Prakash Gautam, Herbal Product Development, 2020
Srijan Goswami, Ushmita Gupta Bakshi
Conventional medical science follows reductionistic ways, but if one uses their common sense, he/she can easily realize that the universe is working as a whole and not in bits and pieces. The following section explains the concept of reductionism and wholism in relation to human health in brief.
Is the biopsychosocial model in musculoskeletal physiotherapy adequate? An evolutionary concept analysis
Published in Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 2022
Georgi Daluiso-King, Clair Hebron
If the main attribute themes from this analysis are displayed in the same Venn-style diagram that has been traditionally used as a framework for practice (Figure 7), the BPSM would be presented as in Figure 8. This representation continues to reduce the BPSM to its basic foundations, as the process of concept analysis reduces the essential elements of the concept in order to enhance understanding (Regenmortel, 2004). However, within the practical management of health, reductionism16Viewing complexity in its simplest or fundamental parts. can be inadequate as it relies heavily on the philosophy of the interpreter to build the bridges between the characteristics, and meld the biomedical, psychological, cognitive, behavioral, social and occupational threads back together to make a whole.
What have we learned from past failures of investigational drugs for Alzheimer’s disease?
Published in Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs, 2021
Bruno P. Imbimbo, Mark Watling
On 5 October 2021, the Nobel Prize for Physics was assigned to three scientists ‘for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems.’ Complex systems are systems whose behavior is intrinsically difficult to model due to dependencies, competitions, relationships, or other types of interaction between their parts or between a given system and its environment. Systems that are ‘complex’ have distinct properties that arise from these relationships, such as nonlinear dynamics, evolution and adaptation, and feedback loops, among others. A complex system may be represented as a network where the nodes are the components and the links are their interactions. Complex systems represent an alternative paradigm to reductionism, which attempts to explain systems in terms of their constituent parts and the individual interactions between them. The brain is a complex biological system [68]. What we must learn from past failures of experimental drugs for AD is that this clinical condition cannot be interpreted and treated in a reductionist way, based solely on Aβ or tau – we must learn to think differently about its nature, its treatment, and our research into both.
Hearing aid technology: model-based concepts and assessment
Published in International Journal of Audiology, 2018
Two opposing ways of examining perception are that of reductionism and totality. The usual scientific approach in engineering is reductionism, which aims to investigate things in the smallest parts. The defining characteristic of reductionism is that the process results in precise implementations of the mechanism under examination. A well-known model resulting from studies using reductionism in hearing research is the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) model. Reductionism, though, is not without the metaphorical Achilles’ heel. Despite its accuracy and utility, a limitation of the SII model is ignoring relevant aspects of speech and language, such as the arrangement (form), meaning (content), and conventional norms (use) of words, which have an obvious importance to hearing – at least for human communication.