Deja Vu all over again!

[Liam Proven]

On 2 July 2011 03:34, Ric Moore <wayward4now at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 2011-07-01 at 13:12 +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
>> On 1 July 2011 12:57, Ben Darby <bendarb at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > * Liam Proven (lproven at gmail.com) wrote:
>> >> On 1 July 2011 07:31, Jordon Bedwell <jordon at envygeeks.com> wrote:
>> >> > On 07/01/2011 01:23 AM, Ric Moore wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >> Heh, I certainly believe in acupuncture and bee stings for relief for
>> >> >> arthritis, as they have worked for me. Millions of others do too... but
>> >> >> they're all just ~gullible~ Chinese, who will shortly own us all.
>> >> >
>> >> > I've only been to the chiropractor once and I've done acupuncture once too
>> >> > and each time I walked out of the place feeling ready to take on the entire
>> >> > world.  Especially with the chiropractor because he certainly showed me that
>> >> > my back really was messed up from sitting improperly in my chair for so long
>> >> > everyday, I didn't even know it was messed up until I I could the
>> >> > difference.
>> >>
>> >> It wasn't messed up. Chiropractors are charlatans; all backs creak
>> >> like that, it's normal. I am sure most believer fervently in what they
>> >> do, but it's bogus.
>> >>
>> >> Acupuncture cures nothing, *but* the transient placebo effect does
>> >> provide pain relief. Needles stuck in at random will do this, though,
>> >> as will fake needles, sugar pills and saline injections. It's just
>> >> flim-flam. All the stuff about "meridians" and "qi" is nonsense.
>> >
>> > And you're concerned about people spreading misinformation...
>>
>> I can produce solid evidence that these statements are true. They are
>> objective, demonstrable fact.
>
> Demonstrable how?

I'm not going to touch the mysticism stuff, which for now can't be
proved either way.]

Complementary medicine, though, can, simply and readily, by randomised
controlled trials. Check out the work of Professor Edzard Ernst, the
world's first professor of complementary medicine, who spent his
career devising scientific investigations of this stuff and to his
amazement and initial horror found that in almost every form of
"treatment" there is no effect at all, or just an effect
indistinguishable from placebo.

CAM is a scam. There's nothing to it. A chat with a sympathetic ear
does just as much good.

-- 
Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508