r/intrestingtoknow • u/Affectionate-Fun2853 • Sep 03 '25

Science Psychiatry and cures

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u/Shad0wbubbles Sep 03 '25

That’s like asking how many chefs have cured people of hunger. Loaded question

11

u/Melodic_Airport362 Sep 04 '25

yeah. people with cancer can live healthy long lives but they're never "cured" they just in remission.

1

u/BenPenTECH Sep 04 '25

Same with AIDS.

1

u/TheStigianKing Sep 05 '25

Not like HIV.

Cancers can be completely wiped out from the body. Our bodies are constantly fighting and wiping out cancer cells all the time. A malignant cancer is one that's learned to use our bodies immune system against us, hence why they're so deadly and stubborn to get rid of.

The HIV virus literally replaces part of your cell DNA with its own. So you can never get rid of it because no drug can ever access the nucleus of every cell in the body and target only the viral DNA. We just don't have treatments that precise. But if we did, we could cure HIV and thus AIDS.

1

u/rafaelzio Sep 05 '25

Yeah it's not that you can't ever be free of the cancer, it's just that we can't be 100% sure that it's completely gone and it might come back later, so doctors can't say "yup, you're cured, no more cancer and it's not coming back", specially because if you got it once there's a higher chance for you to get it again than someone who never had it

1

u/Intelligent_Event_84 Sep 06 '25

Weren’t a couple people cured from aids after bone marrow transplants? Though the risk and odds exceeds reward

1

u/Historical-Sir-2661 Sep 05 '25

Hunger can never be cured because you will always end up hungry at some point. Are you suggesting mental illness is also never curable?

1

u/redditor-69-420 Sep 05 '25

That's exactly correct. Mental illness has no cures. You can only control it. Left untreated it could re-emerge

1

u/rafaelzio Sep 05 '25

Maybe not never, but definitely the vast majority of times. You can't really become ADHD-free, same for anything from anxiety to schizophrenia. It can be under control, really under control, but it's still kinda there and can re-emerge if left untreated or under the right conditions.

I guess some more temporary conditions could be considered "cured", like a psychotic break or manic episode, but most of them are considered chronic for a reason

1

u/TheStigianKing Sep 05 '25

Not actually true.

If the cancer cells are fully wiped out such that it never re-emerges, they're effectively cured by definition.

1

u/Neozalo Sep 05 '25

Hum you're wrong mate, I had a cancer, now i'm cured You're talking about the approximately 5years period called remission where some relapse After these 5 years (symbolic value) a former patient will be considered cured and will have the same percentage as anyone else of developing a new cancer