Do you know what belongs to the "soft parts" in the body? Do you know the difference between a band and a string? And what exactly is a "fracture" - a complete or partial fracture?
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Issue 39/2019
Trio Infernal
A fanatic, a hothead and the unpredictable: what a war on the Gulf would mean for the worldDigital Edition | Printed issues | Apps | SUBSCRIPTION
You have no idea? Then you are a typical patient! This was demonstrated by an Australian study in which 300 outpatients from an emergency department and an orthopedic department were able to answer just about half of eleven such questions on average - even though the questions had been asked in multiple-choice procedures.
That a fracture is a complete bone fracture, knew just one in five. That a band connects two bones, not even a third. Also that ligaments, tendons and muscles belong to the soft tissues, knew less than two-thirds. And only 57 percent of study participants stated that they fully understood their health problem.
picture alliance / Westend61
I am a medical doctor myself, and I know that doctors often forget that at the beginning of their studies, they were as ignorant as their patients. I had to remember very well, until I remembered that at the beginning of the first semester, I had no idea how the intestine is attached in the abdomen. And that I was quite surprised to hear that the tendons attach the muscles to the bone.
I learned "Medical" like a foreign language. And I know how difficult it can be for doctors, if they finally master this language after a few years, to talk about medical topics in understandable German.
But my understanding stops there as well. It is the sacred duty of doctors to express themselves so that their patients can understand them! Everything else can be life-threatening.
Therefore, as a patient, do not be afraid to ask again and again until you really understand what your doctor wants to tell you. You are neither stupid nor ignorant if you do not immediately understand everything. You are just a normal patient.
warmly
Her Veronika Hackenbroch
Feedback & suggestions?
Abstract
My reading recommendations this week
- Do you associate only terrible memories with school sports? You can still become athletic later in life!
- A huge inflatable Boris Johnson character, who was supposed to hover over a demo in early September, had to stay on Earth. The reason: The helium to inflate had become too expensive, because helium is scarce worldwide.
- What does a tree do all day long?
- Why it is wrong that Jens Spahn wants to continue to allow the health insurance to pay homeopathy.
- What is actually housed in a fire engine? Here you get a wonderfully aesthetic overview.
- What you always wanted to know, but never dared to ask: how much does a neutrino weigh?
Elementary Particles - The Weekly Science Newsletter. Elementarteilchen is free and lands every Saturday around 10 clock in your mailbox. Subscribe to the newsletter here:
Quiz*
- Where does the smallest muscle of man sit?
- What is the loudest animal in the world?
- What is the smallest mammal in the world?
* The answers can be found at the bottom of the newsletter.
Picture of the week
Peter Haygarth / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Who will win the fight? The Cheetah? The African wild dogs? In the South African Zimanga Private Game Reserve, photographer Peter Haygarth observed how the vanguard of the wild dogs at first shyly crept around the cheetah. Only when the pack was complete, twelve animals strong, it attacked. And even if the cat's fangs, their explosive aggression, make them stronger-in the end, it was she who lost; she fled. Haygarth won: He is nominated for the "Wildlife Photographer of the Year" award.
footnote
1 cm² small is a solar cell that researchers from Sweden and China have developed especially for interiors. The cell made of organic materials provides more than one volt of voltage for light in strengths between 200 and 1000 lux (for comparison: a cloudless summer day reaches about 100,000 lux) - enough to potentially play an important role in powering sensors in smart homes ,
MIRROR + recommendation list Science
- Agriculture: Released gene viruses to protect crops - horror vision or high-tech promise?
- Drugs: Luxembourg is the first country in Europe to allow its citizens to fish
- Medicine: Safer sex without condoms - health insurance companies pay gays the anti-AIDS pill
* Quiz answers: In the ear. It is the "musculus stapedius" that attaches to an ossicle, the stirrup. / The pistol cancer, which can produce a bang of up to 220 decibels. / The Etruscan mouse, which is 3.8 to 5 inches tall (without a tail).