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Controversy - the pros and cons Effect of trepanation on brain pulsations Mechanism and benficial effects of trepanation on cerebral circulation Trepanation across different cultural groups
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Controversy over trepanation - Contrasting views of therapists and doctorsTrepanation therapists and doctors have conflicting views on trepanation. Though doctors disagree and say it's dangerous. You expose your precious brain, you remove God's covering, there's a risk of infection and all sorts of other problems. Brain doctors seem to view this invasion of the cranium's hallowed realm as a violation of some universal taboo. More to the point, they don't approve of amateurs dipping their fingers into the neurochemical soup. But they readily agree on one point: a hole is the starting point for all neurosurgical procedures. Trepanation is performed, for example, to evacuate hemorrhages and to relieve pressure in the cranial cavity caused by cerebral ulcers. But, for neurosurgeons, the hole is a means to an end, and they put the bone back in place. Trepanation was practiced on every continent through every time period and by every race of mankind until the advent of brain surgery in this century. Doctors, today, have been taught that trepanation was done in past centuries for superstitious, magical or religious reasons. They generally look on trepanation as a practice akin to blood letting. They scoff at it. They deny that trepanation could have a reasonable basis. They fear that to practice trepanation would demean their professional status. They have stated that they wouldn't undertake it if their lives depended on it. And further, trepanation can't be investigated by any individual doctor because a board must be set up to approve all research projects connected to universities and hospitals. However trepanation doesn't go away. It is ingrained in our history. The ancestors of modern Europeans, the Battle-Ax people, were prodigious trepanners as well as were all other ancient peoples. There is an extensive scientific literature on trepanation both in medicine and anthropology. The risk to benefit ratio would have to have been very favorable for the practice to have been so widely practiced but official investigators haven't been able to see that there is a both a rationale and a benefit to this procedure. There seems to be a deliberate intent amongst them not to see, maybe even a conspiracy, that there is a benefit to making a hole in the skull bone. This is understandable though because if doctors and scientists recognized the benefit they would be obliged to announce to the world that upright walking humans need a hole in the head! It's unlikely that doctors will be stepping forward with this announcement anytime soon so in the meantime the public will have to educate itself and then educate the doctors. If you need more information, you are welcome to contact
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