I have a friend that has lime disease, which as you all know, has no cure.
Her family decided they would go to some wacky pseudo-doctor who said he could cure it with lasers and some other ridiculous shit. Naturally, I was very much opposed to this and gave her all sorts of shit about going to the witchdoctor. She was reluctant, but went and did the treatment anyway.
Apparently, it worked.
1) Lyme disease is not incurable. In the late stages it is highly treatment-resistant, but it is not incurable.
2) A number of other disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, are sometimes mistaken for Lyme disease. She might not have had Lyme disease.
3) Lyme disease can go into spontaneous remission. Just because the disease goes away doesn't mean the treatment was effective.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
Studies show that sham acupuncture, or just sticking needles in random places in the body, is just as effective as actual acupuncture. So there's no meridan or chi garbage involved. Or even nerve targeting. Unfortunately as mentioned earlier, it would be extremely difficult to do a real test to determine if the pain reduction accomplished by sticking a bunch of needles in you is due to the placebo effect or not. In any event I don't want to be paying a "trained" acupuncture person a lot of money to do a job any schmo could accomplish.
Senjutsu had a link to a study where the control group was poked with retractable needles, which seems like a more reliable control than simply randomizing needle placement.
I never got around to reading it, though.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
I have a friend that has lime disease, which as you all know, has no cure.
Her family decided they would go to some wacky pseudo-doctor who said he could cure it with lasers and some other ridiculous shit. Naturally, I was very much opposed to this and gave her all sorts of shit about going to the witchdoctor. She was reluctant, but went and did the treatment anyway.
Apparently, it worked.
1) Lyme disease is not incurable. In the late stages it is highly treatment-resistant, but it is not incurable.
2) A number of other disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, are sometimes mistaken for Lyme disease. She might not have had Lyme disease.
3) Lyme disease can go into spontaneous remission. Just because the disease goes away doesn't mean the treatment was effective.
1) Someone already said that.
2) Uh, I'm pretty sure that after having it her whole life and seeing many doctors about it, it isn't a misdiagnoses.
3)I'm just going off of what she told me.
Really, what more do you want from me? I am not saying I believe in the stuff. You aren't adding anything to the conversation by restating things other people have already said.
Well actually, colloidal silver agglomerates into bulk silver in your stomach. Which is fortunate because it would probably be pretty damn bad to take a non-specific anti-biotic on a daily basis, thus wiping out your gut fauna.
EDIT: Colloids are electrostatically stabilized. Adding them to high salt solutions, like say, strong acids, screens the repulsive charges and then the surface tension energy does the rest.
This is tangentially related, but I'm curious. A friend of mine's mother's boyfriend (who is involved with an alternative medicine practice) was telling us about organ recipients who experience changes to their personality which match their donor and who have memories about things that happened to their donor. Is there any truth to this? He was saying things like, "These stories really question everything that we know about the body, because what we used to think just occured in the brain actually is located within the body, too."
I was going to respond to this intelligently, but my evil hand is wanting me to be a jackass.
Wow, just... wow. On the one hand I'm jaded and evil enough to kind of want these morons turn themselves blue and possibly kill themselves. On the other hand, I really want to make sure they don't kill their children this way. And I want children in general to be smart enough to know BS when they see it. Which, yes, means more science funding.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but an awful lot of "alternative" medicines are out these days, and Americans' understanding of science is abysmally low. Has it always been this low, or are these snake oil salesmen taking advantage of a relatively new ignorance?
The problem with acupuncture is that there's been no reliable control developed for the procedure. I mean either you just stabbed someone with a needle or you didn't - the ones they have they sort of "half-stab" you with the needle, but I think you can see the obvious problems with that.
As far as I'm aware, I think from the Derren Brown book "Tricks of the Mind" (stupendous book BTW) that they have done randomised acupuncture trials. There were multiple groups. Amusingly the group that was stabbed randomly but had the stabber making lots of pseudo-mumbo jumbo statements had the best response to the 'treatment'.
Wow, just... wow. On the one hand I'm jaded and evil enough to kind of want these morons turn themselves blue and possibly kill themselves. On the other hand, I really want to make sure they don't kill their children this way. And I want children in general to be smart enough to know BS when they see it. Which, yes, means more science funding.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but an awful lot of "alternative" medicines are out these days, and Americans' understanding of science is abysmally low. Has it always been this low, or are these snake oil salesmen taking advantage of a relatively new ignorance?
Let's just say that the FDA was created for a good reason.
Posts
1) Lyme disease is not incurable. In the late stages it is highly treatment-resistant, but it is not incurable.
2) A number of other disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, are sometimes mistaken for Lyme disease. She might not have had Lyme disease.
3) Lyme disease can go into spontaneous remission. Just because the disease goes away doesn't mean the treatment was effective.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Senjutsu had a link to a study where the control group was poked with retractable needles, which seems like a more reliable control than simply randomizing needle placement.
I never got around to reading it, though.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
We need more funding for science education in schools.
Edit: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#Preparation_of_remedies
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
1) Someone already said that.
2) Uh, I'm pretty sure that after having it her whole life and seeing many doctors about it, it isn't a misdiagnoses.
3)I'm just going off of what she told me.
Really, what more do you want from me? I am not saying I believe in the stuff. You aren't adding anything to the conversation by restating things other people have already said.
but they're listening to every word I say
A chocolate chip cookie and a tummy rub.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
My favorite bull shit cure is colloidal silver. It has very mild anti bacterial properties, but it also turns you in to a smurf!
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/20/another-person-turns.html
EDIT: Colloids are electrostatically stabilized. Adding them to high salt solutions, like say, strong acids, screens the repulsive charges and then the surface tension energy does the rest.
Wow, just... wow. On the one hand I'm jaded and evil enough to kind of want these morons turn themselves blue and possibly kill themselves. On the other hand, I really want to make sure they don't kill their children this way. And I want children in general to be smart enough to know BS when they see it. Which, yes, means more science funding.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but an awful lot of "alternative" medicines are out these days, and Americans' understanding of science is abysmally low. Has it always been this low, or are these snake oil salesmen taking advantage of a relatively new ignorance?
As far as I'm aware, I think from the Derren Brown book "Tricks of the Mind" (stupendous book BTW) that they have done randomised acupuncture trials. There were multiple groups. Amusingly the group that was stabbed randomly but had the stabber making lots of pseudo-mumbo jumbo statements had the best response to the 'treatment'.
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
Let's just say that the FDA was created for a good reason.