Hacker News

Yep - There's no such thing as a free lunch.

All treatments, medications, etc have risks and side effects. It's always about balancing the treatment against those risks.

One of my favorites is how doctors will push things like Tylenol (demonstrated to have no positive effect on pain), while being hesitant to use drugs that are known to be effective. Especially since research shows that people in pain aren't the addiction risk they're claimed to be.

Or prescribe things like COX2 inhibitors (also with a mediocre record of effectiveness), with current research finally showing that reducing inflammation isn't a great approach to healing, since that's the mechanism our bodies uses to repair things.

While prescribing something that truly improves things, like corticosteroids. Even short courses are now being used because they can be as effective as a traditional cycle, with lower risks.