(No, we’re not in re-runs here at Panda Bear, MD. I was asked to repost this article by a few of you and even though it is in the catagorized archives, I thought I’d just run it again as a finale to CAM month. Enjoy and I swear I will have a new post up tomorrow. -PB)
Keep an Open Mind
So they asked me a lot, when I was interviewing for medical school, what I thought about complementary and alternative medicine particularly the use of traditional practices as adjuncts to Western Medicine.
I’m all for it. There are a lot of traditional practices I’d like to see become a part of modern medicine. Like snake handling. For my money snake handling has everything you’d ever need in an alternative therapy. You’ve got your snakes representing nature, you’ve got your mystical religious overtones, and you’ve got scads of anecdotal evidence and testimonials in prestigious religious journals attesting to it’s efficacy.
For those of you who don’t know, snake handling has flourished in the folkways of the southern United States for more than a hundred years and is a time-honored method of casting out the demons that cause most sickness, at least those that cannot be ascribed to qi or bad karma. I understand that the NIH offers a fellowship that will equip anyone interested for an expedition to the wilds of Louisiana in which strange and magical land they may sit at the feet of ancient masters of this art and learn the secrets of the serpents.
And don’t forget to try Uncle Skeeter’s Gator-Taffy if your expedition passes through Lafayette.
I also would like to see more faith healing employed in the modern clinic. I’ve personally seen the lame walk, the blind see, and the gaseous find relief all from the “laying on of hands” as the technique is described by the learned shaman who practice it. For those of you who are lacking in cultural competence, the faith healer’s art is practiced in tents or, more lately, air-conditioned football ashrams where a large crowd can direct their good karma (or “prayerful thoughts” as it is often roughly translated) towards the patient. The patient, under the power of both suggestion and an Ayurvedic being named “Jaysus,” has his bad chakra forcefully removed, some would say driven, from his body with a precisely placed blow to the forehead.
The Shaman often yells “Come out!” but this is just showmanship, not unlike the way we yell “stat” in the Emergency Department even though we know that we’ll be lucky to get the labs by next Tuesday.
There is some debate whether faith-healing owes it’s effectiveness to the so-called “placebo effect” rather than any demonstrable physiological process but the debate is ridiculous and anybody who challenges this ancient traditional practice is a close-minded bigot. It’s not like they’re sticking needles into people or something lame like that. We’re talking bona-fide healing here, often before a television audience of millions. It would be highly unlikely that something like this could be faked in front of so many highly intelligent television viewers.
I have also heard of another traditional mind-body therapy for psychiatric problems, this one practiced in the deep hearts of our ancient cities. Basically, the patient dials a talismanic number, usually preceded by the mystical “900” or any other Number of Power and ceremoniously asks to speak with a priestess whose name is usually Yolanda or Mistress Debbie. The priestess then diagnosis all kinds of psychiatric and sexual dysfunctions, often times correctly pointing out that somebody close to you is cheating on somebody else close to you and “he needs to show you love, girlfriend…and you are so not fat…besides, he digs big women.”
Sometimes they throw in the winning lottery numbers.
Anyways, with all of my patients, the “P” in SIG E CAPS is “Psychic Hot-line.” I understand medicaid will reimburse for it. It’s not as if we’re asking them to pay for something ridiculous like a visit to the chiropractor.
Finally, for my money, nothing can compare to the healing powers of a good old-fashioned poultice like the kind my grandma used to make out of chicken droppings and mustard greens. It was the sovereign cure for a variety of ailments from lumbago to dropsy. Through years of experimentation, traditional practitioners have developed a wide spectrum of salves and rubs that are pushing the boundaries of our understanding of medicine. Our so-called “evidence based medicine” has nothing to compare to alternating layers of gumbo clay, sassafras bark, and chicken bile covered with brown paper and tied to the offending limb with common twine. It’s so good it’s almost magical. For fever, pepper is often added as it is a hot spice. For chills, it’s not uncommon to add the musk of a nutria as everybody knows this hardy animal can gnaw it’s way through the ice that forms every fifty years or so on the bayou. Beaver semen will do, I suppose, but there is no good evidence to support its substitution and I wouldn’t have that kind of quackery in my practice.
Besides, there’s no room to stock it as my shelves are crammed with homeopathic remedies.
This post is a classic. During winter break last year I stumbled across your website and found this very article. I immediately went through your archives, bookmarked the page, and have been a faithful reader ever since.
“from the “laying on of hands†as the technique is described by the learned shaman who practice it.”
An alarm bell just went off in Randall’s office.
Seriously, if they offered snake handling at my doctor’s office, I’d be there every day!
Give the people what they want: snakes!
No alarm bells. I enjoy humor as much as anyone else. Have you visited my new site?
Panda Bear,
Better check the hand soap in the ER.
Though I think its pretty clear by our exchanges you have overdosed.
Antibacterial Chemical Disrupts Hormone Activities, Study Finds
“ScienceDaily (Dec. 8, 2007) — A new UC Davis study shows that a common antibacterial chemical added to bath soaps can alter hormonal activity in rats and in human cells in the laboratory–and does so by a previously unreported mechanism.
“…The researchers found two key effects: In human cells in the laboratory, triclocarban increased gene expression that is normally regulated by testosterone. And when male rats were fed triclocarban, testosterone-dependent organs such as the prostate gland grew abnormally large….”
link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071207150713.htm
Â
(I don’t wash my hands. I just wave some burning chinese herbs over them. Besides, even if i did all I’d have to do is dilute the soap so there were no soap molecules in the water and I’ll be all right. -PB)
““…The researchers found two key effects: In human cells in the laboratory, triclocarban increased gene expression that is normally regulated by testosterone. And when male rats were fed triclocarban, testosterone-dependent organs such as the prostate gland grew abnormally large….—
Lesson of the day: DONT EAT SOAP
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(Word. And I confess myself to still be mystified at im1dc’s point and invite him to elaborate as to the significance of carcinogens in hand soap as it applies to a rat model. -PB)
Panda Bear says “(I don’t wash my hands. I just wave some burning chinese herbs over them…”
Merci on MRSA?
After an entire month pontificating about CAM you still can’t separate fact from fiction about actual CAM practices or practitioners and what you believe about CAM practices and practitioners.
Never let it be said that you let substantiated fact interfere with your beliefs when it comes to CAM.
Could this mental tick of yours be related to your sense of smell?
Did you smell a CAM practitioner that offended you? See:
Subliminal Smells Bias Perception About A Person’s Likeability
Link:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071206163437.htm
PB continues “…Besides, even if i did all I’d have to do is dilute the soap so there were no soap molecules in the water and I’ll be all right. -PB)”
Well, maybe you are teachable even if not educable.
I’m sure you read the linked article where Bill “Lasley said. “Our mothers taught us to wash our hands well before the advent of antimicrobial soaps, and that practice alone prevents the spread of disease.”
BlackSails, LOL at “Lesson of the day: DONT EAT SOAP”.
But it’s not quite correct.
To be correct it should read ‘Lesson of the day: If you are a rat don’t eat soap containing triclocarban-containing products’.
PB says “(Word. And I confess myself to still be mystified at im1dc’s point and invite him to elaborate as to the significance of carcinogens in hand soap as it applies to a rat model. -PB)”
Oh please! This is not im1dc against Panda Bear.
This is about science, plain and simple. This is about PB’s version of medicine and 21st Century CAM.
Here are the salient points made in that article: (The boldfaced escaped PB’s notice but not mine)
“The researchers found two key effects: In human cells in the laboratory, triclocarban increased gene expression that is normally regulated by testosterone….Also, the authors said their discovery that triclocarban increased hormone effects was new…Consumers should not take this study as guidance on whether to use triclocarban-containing products…”
The lab rats findings are suggestive of human toxicity.
You do know that rats are used in basic science instead of humans don’t you?
Today brings this tantalizing tidbit to our attention.
I like it.
Complementary Medicine Training Provides Health Professionals With Balance, Not Bias, Survey Suggests
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071204091917.htm
Please note that the absolute rejection of all things CAM is lacking in this small study of 100 subjects over a period of 4 years.
I like the fact that these subjects developed and learned to use their critical thinking skills.
I wish everyone could and would.
Though some folks are not just not up to it, right O’Panda Bear?
He’s poisoning the comments section of your articles, PBear. I’m kind of sick of reading his ill-informed links and pontificating style. I suppose I could just skip them. But it’s killing any reasoned discussion. It’s a little like when I’m trying to talk about politics or some other adult topic when my kids are in the room – I’m constantly having to lower my speech to their terms and explain myself, and they constantly change the subject to other random tangents. I expect it from my kids, they’re kids for goodness sake, but on one of my favorite blogs?
(Well, he certainly is trying to broadcast his ignorance to as wide an audience as possible. I can just picture him absent-mindedly cracking his patient’s backs and going through the motions of misinterpreting thoracic spine films while he thinks how he is so going to show that Panda guy on the internet how wrong he is about CAM.-PB)
Dude,
I just reprinted this on my blog. (It makes me laugh so hard I start crying.) Thanks.
I agree with you that most alternative medicine is bollocks.
Placebo? Always nice to feel like you’re doing something. Traditional home remedies that turn out to work after double-blind studies (see honey for coughs in children aged 1-5)? Lovely things. Snake handling? Totally nuts.
However, I find your implication that the Southern united states is full of inbred hillbillies to be kind of… how shall we say… condescending.
Â
(I am a loyal son of the Great State of Louisiana. -PB)
PB, add this book to your Christmas list:
Overtreated
Subtitled Why too much medicine is making us sicker and poorer
by Shannon Brownlee
Here’s the article from today’s NYTimes recommending it:
No. 1 Book, and It Offers Solutions
link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/business/19leonhardt.html
Some excerpts: “Dr. Wennberg had been chosen to run a new center based at the University of Vermont that would examine medical care in the state…The results turned out to be quite odd….medical practice across the state varied enormously, for all kinds of care… Dr. Wennberg and some colleagues then did a survey…{to} see whether different patterns of illness could explain the variations in medical care. They couldn’t…But here was the stunner: Vermonters who lived in towns with more aggressive care weren’t healthier. They were just getting more health care.
And, ““We spend between one fifth and one third of our health care dollars,†writes Ms. Brownlee,…“on care that does nothing to improve our health.â€
“Worst of all, overtreatment often causes harm, because even the safest procedures bring some risk. One study found that a group of Medicare patients admitted to high-spending hospitals were 2 to 6 percent more likely to die than a group admitted to more conservative hospitals.”
I submit that your stated goal to eliminate all CAM healthcare reimbursement and to take and apply those dollars to provide more medical care is ill advised based on these findings b/c no health benefit would accrue and in fact it would kill people.
(Whoa. My stated goal, if you read my blog, is to spend less on medical care, to stop wasting money on futile and ineffective care, and to get as many people as possible to pay for as much of their own medical care as they possibly can. And I don’t doubt that we waste a lot of money in medicine. I’d put the figure at more like half, not a third. Why this means we need to throw even more good money after bad by giving it to you where 100 percent of it will be wasted still eludes me. -PB)
That’s what the data show.
Further the data show that M.D./medical care should be reduced 20% – 33% b/c it provides no health benefit.
Merry Christmas to you all.
Panda Bear, Impressive medical professionals demand the evidence, all of it, for the safety and effectiveness of Zetia, especially when used with a statin.
They true professionals are the best of the best in medicine, health care, globally.
I hope you someday achieve their level of professional acumen and maturity, i.e., the ability to look at what you do and see the flaws and dangers and then decide to go about correcting them.
Do you have it in you?
Data About Zetia Risks Was Not Fully Revealed
By ALEX BERENSON
Published: December 21, 2007
link 1: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/business/21drug.html?em&ex=1198386000&en=60ce422f06455a35&ei=5087
Alternate link: http://tinyurl.com/2kren7
IMO, this article underscores the basic question regarding today’s health care delivery system: ‘Who do and who can you trust?’
PB says “(Whoa. My stated goal, if you read my blog,…”
I don’t spend time reading blogs written by philistines.
(You certainly spend a lot of time here for someone who’s not reading. -PB)
“…is to spend less on medical care, to stop wasting money on futile and ineffective care, and to get as many people as possible to pay for as much of their own medical care as they possibly can. And I don’t doubt that we waste a lot of money in medicine. I’d put the figure at more like half, not a third….”Once again you are out of your depth and pontificating on things you know not.Leave the ‘estimation of excess’ to the pros.Today medicine represents about 16% of USA GDP. Reducing that to 8% would mean the elimination of much that is necessary as well as most or all that is not.
“…Why this means we need to throw even more good money after bad by giving it to you where 100 percent of it will be wasted still eludes me. -PB)”
Where is the proof (citations, studies, etc.) of your assertions, opinions and statements?
The truth is you don’t have any proof b/c none exists.
All you have is a blog, Rush Limbaugh bombast and the same level of credibility: ZERO.
On CAM you’ve inserted your foot in your mouth again.
The following is a study showing that massage seems to significantly help reduce post surgical pain and reduce pain med use. (Its amazing what a little reading turns up. Try it sometime)
Massage Helps Ease Postoperative Pain
By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: December 17, 2007
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Link: http://www.medpagetoday.com/Surgery/GeneralSurgery/tb/7732
It is not conclusive but it is significant.
I fault the researchers for using PT’s instead of trained CAM practitioners to provide the massage, i.e., some CAM practitioners are better trained, more experienced and have been doing it longer.
The excellent physicians mentioned in the following article are the kind of physicians that make medicine shine so brightly today.
Too bad I can’t in good faith say the same about you.
You will note that they demand proof, data, evidence and reject self serving statements of interested parties.
Data About Zetia Risks Was Not Fully Revealed
By ALEX BERENSON
Published: December 21, 2007
link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/business/21drug.html?em&ex=1198386000&en=60ce422f06455a35&ei=5087
PB comments: (You certainly spend a lot of time here for someone who’s not reading. -PB)
What an ego you have, however, it’s as defective as the premise you base your comment upon.
(…And yet here you are, reading my humble blog, devoting your energies to convincing me and my readers of your point of view and providing us with scads of entertainment in the process. I repeat, while I am gratified that you are keeping my hit counter turning, if my blog bothers you so much why do you keep inflicting it on yourself? -PB)
You have an abyss in your medical education and a chip on your shoulder b/c of it so my periodic meager efforts here are meant to shed light on your ignorance and that of your M.D. readers.
I don’t ask that you or they take my word for anything, as you do, I provide the links that support my statements.
************************************
Here’s yet one more nugget of knowledge from the world of CAM that you would miss without my unappreciated effort to inform.
I hope it someday may help you help a patient that is unfortunate enough to require this intervention.
Honey making a medical comeback
Potent type used as antibiotic amid fears of drug-resistant superbugs
Wed., Dec. 26, 2007
“TRENTON, New Jersey – Amid growing concern over drug-resistant superbugs and non-healing wounds that endanger diabetes patients, nature’s original antibiotic — honey — is making a comeback.
More than 4,000 years after Egyptians began applying honey to wounds, Derma Sciences Inc., a New Jersey company that makes medicated and other advanced wound care products, began selling the first honey-based dressing this fall after it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration….”
skipping…””There’s more evidence, clinical evidence, by far for honey in wound treatment than for any of the pharmaceutical products” for infection, Molan said. However, it won’t work once an infection gets in the blood. “It’s not a miracle.””
link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22398921/
If you don’t like ‘honey for healing’ you can address the FDA and not me.
Â
(Oh yeah, baby. I’m going to start smearing honey on all of my patients. Dude. Ever wonder why you can leave cake, cookies, and many other baked goods out for weeks and, except for tasting stale, eat them with impunity? Thas’ right. Sugar is bactericidal. Big whoop. -PB)
PB says: “(Oh yeah, baby. I’m going to start smearing honey on all of my patients.”
Now who is the quack?
PB also says: “…Dude. Ever wonder why you can leave cake, cookies, and many other baked goods out for weeks and, except for tasting stale, eat them with impunity? Thas’ right. Sugar is bactericidal. Big whoop. -PB)
I knew your medical education had an abyss but it seems your general education does as well.
I thought everyone knew the history of curing meat with sugar or salt to preserve it by preventing or slowing spoilage was established literally centuries before your little donut example.
I contribute to your education only b/c it is remotely conceivable that one day, since you have chosen to specialize in Emergency Medicine, that you may work on (horrors) me or someone I care about.
Although, so far I see nothing that suggests you shall pass your board exams, which gives me hope.
(Oh, snap! -PB)
PB says:(…And yet here you are, reading my humble blog, devoting your energies to convincing me and my readers of your point of view and providing us with scads of entertainment in the process…”
Is that what you think? I’m here to convince YOU and your readers about CAM?
Heavens no.
I’m here to show that you are just another big mouth bloviating fool m.d. ponticating about CAM and chiropractic of which you know nothing and are not schooled in, like your m.d. degree imparts to you a sort of ethical superiority and knowing omnipotence.
It doesn’t. You have to prove what you claim, assert and attest.
In review, you’ve refuted nothing I’ve posted that contradicted your statements, errors, misrepresentations and misunderstanding of CAM.
You don’t have game.
Most damning imo, despite your education in the sciences, you repeatedly resort to the fallacious argument of HASTY GENERALIZATION, i.e., citing a single example but generalizing it to cover an entire group, for example you damn chiropractic and/or CAM for individual patient’s you’ve seen in the ER.
That’s just DUMB. You should know better. But you don’t.
And you think you are making me look foolish? LOL
Are you incapable of imagining how it would look if I turned the tables on you and cited individual medical errors, oversights and mistakes (not to mention frauds) and generalized them to YOU and all M.D.’s?
Is it any wonder your supervising Residency ER physician looks at you with disgust?
He’s as tired of your peacock strutting as I am.
You just don’t get it.
I might look foolish to some of YOUR READERS and heaven knows I sometimes feel foolish for wasting my time on hate filled philistines whose minds cannot be changed or altered with factual evidence of their errors but then you are not the first M.D., Attorney or Illiterate I have had this kind of discussion with.
The most memorable philistine comment I’ve had was from an attorney desperate for my help who told me in all seriousness immediately upon meeting me that “I don’t believe in chiropractic and I never will”.
That sounds a lot like you.
I informed him that chiropractic was not a religion in which one “believes”, its the practice of the science and art of Chiropractic to restore normal functioning by natural means and it either works or not, whether or not you believe.
In health care results matter more than rhetoric. Chiropractic has the results to prove it works and it’s typically less expensive than comparable medical care.
Our two professions for the most part deal with different patient conditions although similar complaints. Medicine for the most part effectively deals with much more serious conditions. People are often broken when you see them. By all means put them back together with every skill and tool you have available.
So you see Panda Bear, Chiropractors don’t need your approbation for their legitimacy although you seem to need CAM and especially chiropractic to belittle to justify what you do daily in the ER.
It’s probably a symptom of that Personality Disorder of yours.
(Once again, thanks for reading my blog and keeping the old hit counter turning. -PB)
Panda Bear says: (Once again, thanks for reading my blog and keeping the old hit counter turning. -PB)
Read and learn about maca, CAM, and the origins of 67% cancer Drugs:
On a Remote Path to Cures
By ANDREW DOWNIE
Published: January 1, 2008
link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/business/worldbusiness/01hunter.html?th&emc=th
Tiny URL link: http://tinyurl.com/2m4nlls
Panda Bear,
Panda Bear, are these patients guinea pigs, victims or a vanguard?
Do you think this excellent article vindicates your pov or mine regarding CAM?
China Offers Unproven Medical Treatments
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN and ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
The Associated Press
Saturday, January 5, 2008; 1:11 PM
link: http://tinyurl.com/2nz3g5
Â
(Guinea pigs and victims. What do you think? As I see it, desperate American and European patients mortage their homes and give the money to Chinese hospitals which, if you read a little, are in a state of crisis and often resort to highly unethical business practices to improve their cash flow. In exchange for impoverishing themselves and their families, the quadraplegic patient gets a tiny amount of movement back, not enough to do anything, in his arm. I have had quadreaplegic patients who have experienced similar “recovery” witout unproven stem cell therapy. Like I have said, the temptation to prey upon the desperate is often too much to resist. On the other hand the Chinese might be on to something and this is their way to conduct clinical trials without the burden of IRB approval. And it’s self financing on the through the contributions of rich, desperate Westerners.
Stem cell research, by the way, is legitimate science and is not, repeat not, CAM in any way shape or form. “Experimental” is not the same as “mystical.” The premise of your question is that stem cell research is equivalent to chiropracty or Reiki which is not, repeat not, the case. Don’t even think it. A theories of how stem cells may cure disease have been elucidated and are open to testing. Chiropracty, homeopathy, and the other snake oils have “shot their bolt,” meaning that their proposed method of action have been examined and discredited. So sorry.
Besides, the gist of the article is that this is a scam and the doctors involved are motivated by profit.-PB)
I knew an auditor for a large corporation. They routinely approved alternative health care for those who were giving them grief about denying it, especially for cancer patients. It was inexpensive and the claimants died quickly.
I really thought that was where you were headed with the snake handling.
BTW, did you see the WSJ article on alternative health care and corporate health plans? Much more informative than the Consumer Reports series.
Anyway, this has been a fun blog to visit.
To: Stephen M (Ethesis) FYI
Go to this site http://nccam.nih.gov/ and click on:
Funding Opportunity: Outcomes, Cost-Effectiveness and the Decision Making Process to Use CAM to submit a paper or that of the “auditor for a large corporation” showing the cost effectiveness of alternative care for those cancer patients he or she told you about.
Here’s a snipit from the webpage soliciting submissions:
“Purpose. The primary purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), is to encourage the submission of high quality observational studies evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches as used in the community, and the decision processes employed by patients and providers in deciding to use CAM.”
Of course, posts repeating unsupported urban myths like “They routinely approved alternative health care for those who were giving them grief about denying it, especially for cancer patients. It was inexpensive and the claimants died quickly” are not likely to be looked upon as legitimate.
My condolences on the tragic loss of your 3 children.
However, do understand that does not provide you with an unassailable platform to defame others or their professions with whom you disagree.
For example, your post does not tell the whole story regarding those patients your auditor friend told you about.
How do I know that you ask? Because you and he did not provide the diagnostic details necessary to make valid judgement.
Such as but not limited to:
Had those patients been told they were terminal?
Had their cancer team given up on them and told them to go home and die or recommend a Hospice for their final days?
Were their life spans extended, shortened or unaffected by the alternative treatments? Standard medical treatment for certain cancers routinely only prolongs life life for a few days, etc.
In other words, the comparison you imply may or may not be valid or reliable scientifically and therefore a unjust criticism.
We just don’t know. Its the job of science to tell us.
The sort of comparison confusion you made is the reason medical professionals and not lay people should draw medical conclusions.
Capirsi?
My query to Panda Bear” “are these patients guinea pigs, victims or a vanguard?”
PB’s reply: “Guinea pigs and victims.”
But PD goes on and reveals he is clearly conflicted — as well as confused — as seen in his statements here: “I have had quadreaplegic patients who have experienced similar “recovery†witout unproven stem cell therapy. Like I have said, the temptation to prey upon the desperate is often too much to resist. On the other hand the Chinese might be on to something and this is their way to conduct clinical trials without the burden of IRB approval. And it’s self financing on the through the contributions of rich, desperate Westerners.
“Stem cell research, by the way, is legitimate science and is not, repeat not, CAM in any way shape or form. “Experimental†is not the same as “mystical.†”
By golly Panda Bear, if Stem Cell therapy is “legitimate” b/c its “experimental” then to be perfectly logically consistent and intellectually honest you have to extend that argument to all of CAM as well since CAM is indeed ungoing rigorous scientific investigation by: http://nccam.nih.gov/
ROTHLMAO
WARNING, Panda Bear you must NOT read this:
Healing Value Of Magnets Demonstrated In Biomedical Engineering Study
“ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2008) — A recent study demonstrates that the use of an acute, localized static magnetic field of moderate strength can result in significant reduction of swelling when applied immediately after an inflammatory injury. Magnets have been touted for their healing properties since ancient Greece. Magnetic therapy is still widely used today as an alternative method for treating a number of conditions, from arthritis to depression, but there hasn’t been scientific proof that magnets can heal.”
link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080103132307.htm
Well, go ahead and read it and rupture something painful.
(im1dc, post your comments without the formatting (bold, italics, etc.) as this is screwing up the formatting of my blog. I know what causes the problem but I don’t have the time to edit the special characters out of your posts. Also, keep it to one link as my automatic spam detector puts comments with more than one link in the spam folder…and as I get about 1000 spam comments a day I don’t have time to review them all so I have stopped trying.)
To: Stephen M (Ethesis)
By pointing out the logic and reasoning errors in your post I realized that most here will think/assume I therefore advocate that cancer patients ought to give up on cancer care in the USA to cross the border to receive unproven treatments.
That is not the case.
My idea of switching cancer care is going from Sloan Kettering to the Cleveland Clinic or vice versa. I trust medical providers.
Yet my mind is open to possibilities outside the standard medical paradigm.