Friday the 13th… The scariest day of the year for the most superstitious! What is the link, the possible relationship, between superstition and medicine? In the world of the superstitious, there are 2 camps: the anxious, who carefully avoid passing under a ladder… And the hopeful, who will try to fill a small lotto grid… You are not not superstitious? However, beware of black cats… More seriously, this Friday the 13th, for doctors, an opportunity or a calamity?
A little story… We are in Paris at the beginning of December; a Japanese couple on vacation realize a dream of 20 years… But while everything had gone very well the first week, for a few days, the wife has been worried. Her husband, who is usually calm, gets a little more nervous every day. And on the night of the 3rd to the 4th, he wakes up his wife. He is sweaty and out of breath. He ends up in the emergency room. And there, no possible doubt, the cardiologist diagnosed a myocardial infarction, all the more incomprehensible as nothing until December 4 could in the history of this patient leave him suspect.
A sad story… but what about Friday the 13th?
It is a doctor from Kyoto, member of the resuscitation team, who will elucidate this incredible story. He will make the diagnosis of Baskerville syndrome, an illness that results from the fear engendered by the number 4. In China and Japan, this number and the word “death” are pronounced practically the same way. There is a real superstition around this figure in these countries: many hospitals do not have 4and stage. In elevators, it is not uncommon to go directly from 3and at 5and. Few phones display this number… And superstitious people avoid traveling on the fourth day of the month.
By checking the death certificates of 200,000 Japanese or Chinese living in the United States, it was found that there was a peak in cardiac mortality on the 4and day of each month. The fear of seeing a disaster occur on this terrible day would then trigger fatal stress in patients who were previously weakened on the cardiac level.
Do not panic, in Europe, the superstition around the number 13 has never caused comparable incidents.
Is there a close link between superstitions and medicine? It comes from the time when modern medicine was very expensive and often inaccessible. People turned to ancestral customs, spiritualism and superstitions in order to find remedies, or simply as a preventive measure. This is how superstitions survive. Especially in developing countries…
Our brain… Freud said that the superstitious interpret an event produced by chance to guide their choices, and generally, when something really happens, it is a failed act, and therefore, a production of the unconscious.
It is said that luck is caused and that it is not just a matter of chance… Being convinced that you were born under a lucky star would allow you to succeed in what you undertake! An American doctor studied the profile of many people who were considered lucky. According to him, the “lucky ones” have a particular state of mind, more open to different opportunities. In addition, they are generally positive, which would allow them to always move forward despite the difficulties; this is what Pasteur summed up in one sentence: “luck only comes to prepared minds”.
Latest information: All phobias have a medical name… Even that of Friday the 13th. We are talking about: PARASKEVIDEKATRIAPHOBIE! It’s very pretentious, as often in medical terms, I would say, more simply, on a Friday the 13th, avoid black cats…
There are, in general, 2 Fridays the 13th per year. Today and November 6.
I’m not superstitious… But from there to go under a ladder! You must not exaggerate…
Doctor Jean-Francois Lemoine
Subscribe to the chronicles of Dr Lemoine
@DrLemoine
.
