A pet hobby of mine is reading about and listening to various articles and podcasts examining the efficacy of alternative medicine.
Alternative Medicine is ultimately an artificial category created by people who wish to market products and procedures that do not cut it based on science.
If a treatment is shown to be effective, it is not an alternative medicine.
There are many common alternative medical treatments available such as chiropractic, acupuncture, chinese medicine, homeopathy etc
Today, lets look at homeopathy.
The basic principle of homeopathy, known as the "law of similars", is "let like be cured by like." It was first stated by German physician Samuel Hahnemann in 1796. His "law of similars" is taken on his word as an unproven assertion, and is not a true law of nature based on the scientific method.
Homeopathic solutions are prepared essentially by diluting a substance repeatedly. For example caffeine might be used a the substance to create a homeopathic remedy to help someone sleep.
Once molecular theory showed that the solutions were so dilute, that it was unlikely that there was even a molecule of the original substance left.
Hence modern homeopaths proposed that water has memory, is essence remembering the original substance that was in the solution. This is physically implausible.
Ultimately, homeopathic remedies, if properly prepared, are just water. Though there have been homeopathic remedies found with substances such as methamphetamine, or illicit weight loss drugs, which are not homeopathic at all and illegal.
Does anyone here use homeopathic remedies now or previously, ever considered it even?
there was a really good lecture linked the last time teamliquid discussed homeopathy. it said that there is one homeopathic remedy that is like diluting a tablespoon in a sphere of water the size of the universe, and repeating a thousand times. lol.
And you've now taken the exact same thing as any homeopathic product. It's all serious bullshit.
Like...serious SERIOUS bullshit.
Just think, you take the pill that you are diluting, and throw it in a lake. Take a drink of your magic lake potion water. Do you see how silly this is when you think?
find one that specializes in active release technique. got rid of bad plantar fascitis (couldnt even walk) in a few weeks of sessions. done wonders for my lower back and shoulder as well.
Homeopathy is pretty much the most ludicrous alternative medicine out there. At least with stuff like Chinese herbal medicine there's like a small chance that the herbs being used could in fact have medicinal properties related to the things they're treating.
On April 28 2011 11:59 esla_sol wrote: alternative medicine that absolutely owns:
chiropractry
find one that specializes in active release technique. got rid of bad plantar fascitis (couldnt even walk) in a few weeks of sessions. done wonders for my lower back and shoulder as well.
For the most part Chiropractic is rubbish. I plan on going in depth into this in another blog post later.
Active Release Technique isn't actually chiropractic at all, even if it was done by your chiropractor.
Positive thinking and the placebo effect in general are very powerful. My only gripe is when people make money by selling overpriced junk. Then again, in our consumer-minded world, if it isn't expensive it isn't powerful The same thing happens with a lot of electronic products... Things will sell better if they are more expensive and you have a few marketing buzz words. People just can't believe inexpensive products can be good.
There are flaws to being too obsessed with drugs. If you really want to get better, thinking that only a drug can make you better will give you negative placebo effects and make it difficult to get better without that drug. It's best to have a healthy amount of faith in your body, while utilizing the information science has given us about what helps our bodies get better even faster.
a lot of people - including my mother - are convinced about the "herbal supplements" that she take. who knows, assuming the products contain what they claim they contain, maybe something in there is an effective analgesic or "cure" to some sickness. i just have a problem with putting faith in something that supposedly "works" but no one knows why - and of course no one knows the side effects either.
Homeopathy is the most ludicrous concept in the world, if, in the face of all the evidence that it is a huge pile of shit, anyone truly legitimately believes it to be a worthwhile form of medicine, that person is a moron and should not be trusted to even look after themselves let alone buy medicine.
Homeopathy is not just worthless, its DANGEROUS. It is sold and marketed as medicine, when all it is is water. People buy it in good faith expecting it to help them and it is NOT medicine.
I'm glad that so far, all the responders to this thread have been of sound mind and good intelligence, but I think in a community the size of TL there's bound to be a few dumbasses who believe in this trash.
you almost quoted him word for word "by definition alternative medicine has not been proved to work, or been proved not to work, know what they call alternative medicine that has been proven to work, medicine"
On April 28 2011 11:59 esla_sol wrote: alternative medicine that absolutely owns:
chiropractry
find one that specializes in active release technique. got rid of bad plantar fascitis (couldnt even walk) in a few weeks of sessions. done wonders for my lower back and shoulder as well.
Massage helped your back and shoulders? Wow man, that's like magic.
On April 28 2011 11:59 esla_sol wrote: alternative medicine that absolutely owns:
chiropractry
find one that specializes in active release technique. got rid of bad plantar fascitis (couldnt even walk) in a few weeks of sessions. done wonders for my lower back and shoulder as well.
For the most part Chiropractic is rubbish. I plan on going in depth into this in another blog post later.
Active Release Technique isn't actually chiropractic at all, even if it was done by your chiropractor.
Is there some nonsense theory behind chiropractic? Man, that shit is good, I don't really know the background behind it (the guy said something about gas in joints that sounded silly), but when that back got cracked, I felt amazing afterwords. And it was free under my family's benefits. Good times.
EDIT: To talk about homeopathy, scientifically, it's bogus (see the lake post above). Apparently (wikipedia/reddit), diluting the remedy is supposed to activate some sort of life force that does the healing. Since this isn't a video game and we can't measure life force, we are forced to call bull on that. I'm guessing any appearance of healing would be caused by the placebo effect rather than anything done by the treatment.
On April 28 2011 11:59 esla_sol wrote: alternative medicine that absolutely owns:
chiropractry
find one that specializes in active release technique. got rid of bad plantar fascitis (couldnt even walk) in a few weeks of sessions. done wonders for my lower back and shoulder as well.
For the most part Chiropractic is rubbish. I plan on going in depth into this in another blog post later.
Active Release Technique isn't actually chiropractic at all, even if it was done by your chiropractor.
Is there some nonsense theory behind chiropractic? Man, that shit is good, I don't really know the background behind it (the guy said something about gas in joints that sounded silly), but when that back got cracked, I felt amazing afterwords. And it was free under my family's benefits. Good times.
EDIT: To talk about homeopathy, scientifically, it's bogus (see the lake post above). Apparently (wikipedia/reddit), diluting the remedy is supposed to activate some sort of life force that does the healing. Since this isn't a video game and we can't measure life force, we are forced to call bull on that. I'm guessing any appearance of healing would be caused by the placebo effect rather than anything done by the treatment.
I'll do Chiropractic in the next one. There are a number of facets about Chiropractic the majority of people I know at least are not aware of.
There is a group of people that protest Homeopathy, they buy some of the products, then just down the entire pill bottle. ("Sleeping pills" and the like)
Surprise nothing happens.
Edit: Found the episode that has it. The comments on the video are hilarious and sad, apparently all the people who are for homeopathy came out and posted. http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2011/cureorcon/
Yeah, just to reiterate I believe the solutions are typically diluted to 1/(10^1500), but they are shaken every time- so the energy is still there!! :p
Empirically, I have to disagree with this. Herbal and Homeopathic remedies are far superior to supposed "modern medicine." My children's rate of ear infection is substantially lower than that of their peers and they have never been treated with anti-biotic. As well as their general susceptibility and duration of cold.
The human body in and of itself is pretty amazing and needs only very minimal support to heal efficiently.
Pumping it full of anti-biotic, steroids, narcotics and amphetamines under the guise of prescription medicine should not be considered the path to good health.
The fact that our medical community further takes the approach when confronted with information about side affects that "we never saw this prior to xyz treatment because we have changed how we diagnose abc ailment and the burden of proof that we are not the cause is not on us". I am surprised any rational person would accept this explanation. Fear is a strong motivator, I suppose.
So that leaves me with relying on me. Preparing my own tinctures and relying on good health practices. The only health industry that is failing people at a rate faster than the homeopathic solutions is the pharmaceutical companies. As far as I know death is still the ultimate end result.
EPT
The same thing happens with a lot of electronic products... Things will sell better if they are more expensive and you have a few marketing buzz words. People just can't believe inexpensive products can be good.
